Villa Champak

Villa Champak sits right on the sand at Mae Nam, on Koh Samui’s quiet north coast, in a small private estate of beachfront homes. A gate at the bottom of the lawn opens straight onto the beach, where the water is usually calm and shallow enough for children to paddle, and the view runs across the bay towards Koh Phangan. It is the kind of place where the day starts with a swim in the sea and ends with the sky turning pink over the water.

The villa is built around its pool. Pavilions in a classic Thai style, with steep roofs and deep verandas, wrap around a fourteen-metre pool lined with coconut palms, and an open sala at the seaward end frames the water like a picture. One side holds the living room, kitchen and an indoor dining room; the other holds the bedrooms, each opening onto the pool deck through sliding doors. Out on the veranda, a long alfresco table and a barbecue look straight out to sea, and a strip of soft lawn runs along the beachfront for barefoot games.

Five bedrooms sleep up to twelve, with king beds, twin rooms and one room that has both a king and two singles, which makes life easy for families with children. Interiors are crisp and modern, in black and white with warm timber floors and bold feature walls, and every room has its own bathroom. Breakfast is included each morning, a team of housekeepers, a gardener and security look after the villa, and airport transfers are part of the stay. For smaller groups, Villa Champak can also be booked with three or four bedrooms.