Garrya Tongsai Bay Samui Review

Reception is at the top of the hill, an open pavilion behind a pond of water lilies, and from there the whole resort lies below you: villas half hidden in the trees, the main pool, the sand and the bay. Cars stop at the top. Electric buggies carry guests up and down the slope, and the garden has been left to grow, since the resort removes a tree only when it becomes unsafe. The villas sit in shade among old trees rather than in a cleared terrace, which is the part of the founder's idea that a newer resort could not easily copy. The MICHELIN Guide gave the resort one Key in its 2026 selection.

Our villa was in the front row of the hillside, and at Tongsai Bay the row matters more than the square metres. Nothing stands between the pool and the water except the treetops and, far below, the beach. The bay faces east, so the sun comes up straight in front of the terrace, and with the headland on one side and the hill on the other there is no other building in the view. At 189 square metres, the Wellbeing Seafront Pool Villa is one of the largest one-bedroom villas here, and most of its life happens outdoors: the private pool, a covered terrace with a table for meals, a curtained daybed, and the resort's signature bathtub, set in the open under the terrace roof. The "wellbeing" in the name is a Spring Wall in a corner of the bedroom, a wall-mounted Pilates frame with springs and bars, with foam rollers and mats beside it. Only this category has one. The villa did everything we asked of it, and above all it was private: on the terrace or in the pool, it felt entirely ours, which on a hillside of villas is not something to take for granted. The front row is where the money should go. The Tongsai Seaview Pool Villa, at 180 square metres, is close to ours in size but sits in the second row without the exercise corner, and the Grand Seafront Pool Villa, at 141, is the most compact of the pool villas.

Only non-motorised water sports are allowed on the bay, and that, more than the size of the resort, is what keeps it quiet. Kayaks, paddleboards, Hobie cats and snorkelling gear are free from 9 am to 6 pm. We took out a kayak and a paddleboard and swam in the sea, which on a cove with no jet skis and no boat traffic is the obvious way to spend a day. We found it a better beach than SALA's on Chaweng. The best we have swum from on Samui is still Chaweng Noi, in front of Vana Belle, but Tongsai Bay is the more private of the two. The main pool, 50 metres of free-form freshwater, runs almost onto the sand, with the Exercise Room behind it and Fish Tales, the beach restaurant, under a large tree at the edge of the beach. Halfway up the hill, the Half Moon Pool is kept for guests aged 14 and over. 8LEMENTS SPA offers Thai massage and aromatherapy, and its private onsen can be booked before or after a treatment.

Rhoy Rhoy!, the Thai restaurant, sits near reception around an open courtyard with the sea in view, and it serves breakfast and dinner. For dinner we had Chef Eak's Thai tasting menu, which the resort describes as dishes drawn from Thailand's regional cooking, and the kitchen handled that range with real confidence. It is a proper reason to eat in rather than drive into Chaweng. Breakfast is served in the same courtyard, and it was consistently well done. The bakery is the resort's own, there is a fresh juice bar, and what we remember best is the fruit: a member of the team stands at a table cutting tropical fruit to order.

Many Samui resorts have a view of the sea; very few have a cove to themselves, and that is what we would book Tongsai Bay for. A front-row villa with its own pool, above a bay where the only traffic is a kayak or a paddleboard, is a different holiday from Chaweng, although Chaweng is a short drive south when you want it and the airport is 6.6 kilometres away. Anyone who wants to walk out of the gate to restaurants and bars should stay elsewhere. For privacy on the water, it is the resort we would choose on this side of the island.