Beluga Boutique Hotel

Beluga Boutique Hotel is memorable and distinctive -- two adjectives that don't always apply in hotel-packed Koh Samui. The minute one walks down the bamboo fenced pedestrian passage, the whitewashed Santorini-looking villa comes into view, then the swimming pool, then the pink loungers, and wind-sculpted giant rocks that frame the sea and white sand beach. With the restaurant and lobby set under giant white tents, the place resembles a Moroccan caravanserai, and you half expect a few camels to come trotting down the beach at any moment. The lobby consists of elongated pink cushioned rattan sofas, is open-air, and is a fine place to eat the artisanal gelato that's served instead of a welcome drink here. In the evening, the hotel is lit with pink and blue mood, and dining tables are set up on the rocks, with candlelit lanterns all around. This is a true boutique-lovers hotel, and it attracts romance seekers and honeymooners. With that in mind, children are not allowed. 

The hotel has an ideal location that blends a bit of everything into one place. It's located at the very southern tip of Lamai Beach, so it's quieter than staying smack in the middle of town. The hotel can be found down a private pathway off the road to Hin Ta Hin Yai (the Grandfather and Grandmother Rocks -- provocatively shaped boulders that have become a major tourist draw in Samui). The shore directly in front of the resort is characterized in part by many of the same striking boulder formations (though this makes swimming right next to the resort a bit challenging). It’s also an excellent spot for photographers who want perfect sunrise shots. 

To walk into central Lamai takes around 20 minutes, or a five- to 10-minute drive. There are plenty of restaurant and bar choices just up the road from the hotel for those who want to eat out. One of Samui’s most esteemed seafood eateries, a local Thai restaurant called Sabieng Lay, is a 10-minute walk from the resort. Party-hard Chaweng is a 25-minute drive up the road, and the Samui Airport is a good half-hour by car from here. 

There are 14 rooms at the Beluga Boutique Hotel, with little variation from one category to the next from a style perspective (though higher-category rooms do, expectedly, have nicer features). All rooms are bright and cheerful, with white tiled floors and modern Thai decor. Golden Buddha or serpent statues adorn the desks along with designer lamps and remote controlled mood lighting. Simple, IKEA-style furniture in light hues keeps things looking sharp, if not exactly chic, and there's little in the way of wall art aside from striped accent walls (which are either bold or done in neutral shades). Large sliding glass doors and windows allow plenty of natural light into the rooms and provide views of the resort outside and the sea in the distance in many rooms.

Modern amenities include iPod docks, empty mini-fridges, electric hot water kettles for making tea and coffee, safes, bathrobe and slipper sets, and free Wi-Fi. The fancier Front Seaview rooms include high-end Geneva iPod docks and speaker systems, 48-inch flat-screen TV, and Cremesso espresso machines, plus they have a stylish armchair lounger looking out to sea and a cafe-table set-up on the balcony. These rooms have direct views of the rocks and sea -- in fact, the sunrise can be viewed directly from bed. 

Ground Floor rooms have bathrooms that are built around the area's massive boulders -- it's certainly one of the few hotel's we've seen to offer this design feature. Otherwise, bathrooms are sharp and modern, with either glazed stucco or polished black granite walls. Vessel sinks, modern fixtures, bright mosaic tilework, and high-tech rainfall showerheads all put them a step above many competing hotels.

As a tiny property with just 14 rooms, the hotel doesn't have many facilities, but the ones it does offer are excellent. The pool is a magnesium and potassium chloride mineral pool, big enough to swim a few laps. The chemicals are easier on the skin, and the pool sits in the main courtyard right next to the bar and restaurant. The resort has stylish white sun loungers with pink cushions set up here, as well as on the sandy manmade terrace built above the small beach. When the tide is out, the resort also sets up loungers right in the cove next to the water as well, and one can bring cushions up onto the rocks to sunbathe and enjoy the views as well. Still, the water directly in front of the hotel isn't the best for swimming, though just beyond the rocks is more ideal for a dip.

The Beluga restaurant is touted as one of Samui's best. The restaurant is set under a large white tent and has golden-hued tables and chairs made from coconut shells and pieces of reclaimed wood. Decor is ornate and casual at the same time. There's also outdoor seating next to the pool. The food here is both haute Thai and European cuisine and in the evening it's a romantic spot to have a meal. A breakfast buffet is included in the room rates and certain a la carte items are offered to supplement it. Adjacent to the restaurant is the bar and a billiard table -- in striking pink, of course.

It's a bit surprising given all of this hotel's other bells and whistles that there's no spa or fitness area here, though the hotel has a rooftop set of cabanas where massage treatments can be arranged. The hotel doesn't have its own parking, but guests are allowed to use one of the tourist parking areas for the Hin Ta Hin Yai rocks that is just above the resort. Wi-Fi is free throughout the resort.