If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (THB5,679.55), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Along a small stretch of Koh Samui’s Bophut Beach, you’ll spot Cielo Samui Boutique & Spa peering out from towering tropical verdure. And the further in you venture, the more scenic this hideout becomes Suites are set few and far between jungle-swathed walkways; inside, walls are coolly lime-washed, accented with local handicrafts and gardens are graced with lofty palm trees. Wellness is encouraged wherever you wander, the spa and yoga studio are especially supportive, but if all those leisurely lunches and poolside siestas give you an unexpected boost, you can paddleboard and kayak along Cielo’s beachy border.
Between 8am and 11am; check-in is from 2pm until midnight.
Prices
Double rooms from £134.94 (THB6,248), including tax at 10 per cent.
More details
Rates include an à la carte breakfast and daily yoga and pilates classes.
Also
Suites on the ground floor and the restaurant are all accessible for wheelchair-users.
At the hotel
Private beach onsite, free-to-use paddleboards and kayaks, free yoga and pilates classes, boutique, charged laundry service, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: sound-system, air-conditioning, minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, and bespoke bath products. All suites and villas, except the Suite Standards, also have private swimming pools.
Our favourite rooms
All rooms have sun-soaked outdoor spaces, but for the full works we’d recommend going for a villa, which have spacious private pools, traditional interiors and grand beamed ceilings, or Suite Duplex. If you’re travelling with little Smiths, the Suite Family or one of the villas will suit you best.
Poolside
If you tire of your own pool, there’s another by the restaurant, steps from the beach, shaded by coconut trees and flanked with sunloungers.
Spa
Hidden in swathes of botanics, the spa follows the same calming style as the rest of the hotel. In its four treatment rooms, traditional Thai massages and facials use locally-sourced oils from the moringa plant, useful for its healing and anti-inflammatory effects. Just across the path, there’s a gym with a yoga and pilates studio.
Packing tips
Blend into your background with a wardrobe of landscape-inspired hues (vivid greens, sandy taupe…).
Also
All of the items in the boutique have been hand-woven by female artisans and personally picked by the owner.
Children
Welcome; there’s no kids’ club and parents are asked to keep little Smiths quiet by the pool, but babysitting can be arranged for THB250 an hour and the kitchen team will happily adapt meals for little ones.
Sustainability efforts
All ingredients used at Cielo are sourced from local suppliers and they’re currently working on minimising single-use plastic.
When all tables are oceanside, the world is your oyster.
Dress Code
Keep things casual with a cool kaftan.
Hotel restaurant
Helmed by head chef Francois Vargas, Koh Co Beach serves seafood-focused fare (seared sashimi, tuna tataki, deep-fried calamari, gyros and octopus salads) in a world of rattan, steps from the sand – there’s also live music on Sundays. Just beyond the cactus garden and behind the pool, there’s a laidback bar with a mosaic-tiled oven where wood-fired pizzas are paddled in and out of.
Hotel bar
You’ll find the bar under Koh Co’s hand-woven hanging pendants, where negronis, aperols and piña coladas take centre stage; there’s also a relaxed drinking spot by the pool for post-dip tipples.
Last orders
Breakfast is from 8am to 10.30am; lunch starts at noon and flows into dinner, which ends at 9.30pm. The bar stops serving at 11pm.
Cielo Samui Boutique Hotel & Spa sits along Koh Samui’s northern coastline in Bophut.
Planes
Most international flights require a layover in Bangkok; from there, it’s another one-hour flight to Koh Samui. Once you’re on the island, Cielo is a 15-minute drive away.
Automobiles
If you planning on seeing Samui’s sights, you’ll need a set of wheels. Take your pick – there are plenty of rental booths at the airport or the hotel can arrange a hire car.
Worth getting out of bed for
If you’re here to flop and drop, Cielo Samui has you covered with plenty of beach to bathe on and a spa that de-knots for days. But when you’re ready to wander further afield, boat tours make daily trips out to neighbouring Koh Tao and Koh Phangan, or you can off-road your way round with Jeep and quad biking tours. The Samui Elephant Sanctuary is on your doorstep and the bright Big Buddha Temple is a 10-minute drive away. If you prefer to stay sand-dusted, Silver Beach and Coral Cove Beach make for scenic stops in Lamai.
Local restaurants
When you’re five minutes from the island’s oldest village, it’s only polite to stop by. So head to Gusto Italiano, where handmade ravioli and wood-fired pizzas are served by the beach. Or, if it’s local fare you’re after, Supattra serves traditional Thai dishes just a little further along the coast.
Local bars
Take drinks beachside at Coco Tam’s, an alfresco bar along Bophut Beach where sunsets make for idyllic digestifs.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this healing hotel in Thailand and unpacked their boutique buys and market finds, a full account of their beachfront break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Cielo Samui Boutique Hotel & Spa in Koh Samui…
Well-loved for its silky white-sand beaches and scenic sunsets, Koh Samui is far from undiscovered territory in Thailand. But Cielo Samui Boutique Hotel & Spa has secured a secluded spot along Bophut Beach that’s just a little less crowded with content-craving tourists than the rest of the shoreline. And its a haven on the inside too… Each of the minimally designed suites is nestled under lush verdure, interiors are low-key using natural materials to keep cool and calm on sultry days (your private pool will help with that, too). The yoga studio is steps from Cielo’s seafood-serving restaurant and the beach is merely seconds away; and, if after all that, you’re still tense, traditional Thai treatments will massage any remaining knots away at the spa. It’s well set for some of Koh Samui’s must-do day trips too: board a private boat and set sail for neighbouring Koh Tao Pun or saunter down to Bophut’s Samui Elephant Sanctuary for afternoons feeding their famed residents.
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