I know the problem every visitor to Koh Samui has. The island is small enough that you feel you should know it in a day, and big enough that you won't. The good beach is the one nobody mentioned. The best southern Thai food is in a place with no website. And the information online is a mix of old blog posts, ads pretending to be advice and maps with pins in the sea. Samui Love is a warm, multilingual guide to Koh Samui for a week on the island or a whole season. It's live.
The problem with island information
Small places get badly served by big travel sites. The listings that rise to the top are the ones that pay or the ones that have been there longest, not necessarily the ones worth your afternoon.
And visitors come for very different lengths of time. Someone here for a week needs a shortlist. Someone here for a season needs to know where to get things done, where locals eat and what's on this weekend.
What's in the guide
| Section | What you'll find |
|---|---|
| Beaches | Where to swim and where to just look |
| Restaurants | Places to eat including real southern Thai food |
| Places to explore | Top places and hidden gems on a map |
| Tours | Tours from local operators |
| Events | What's on around the island |
| Local businesses | Services and shops in one directory |
Local guides, not listicles
Alongside the directory, there are local guides for the things people actually ask about. Ang Thong Marine Park. The best beaches. A short itinerary for people who want a plan. Where to find real southern Thai food, which is a question that deserves better answers than it usually gets.
The guide uses real photos. That sounds like a low bar. Go look at how many island guides use the same stock image of a palm tree.
If the photo could be any island, the advice probably could be too.
— why the guide uses real photos
How I'd use it for a first week
- Read the best beaches guide and pick a base.
- Open the map and save a few top places and hidden gems.
- Book a tour from a local operator for a day out.
- Check events for the weekend.
- Use the southern Thai food guide more than once.
Why multilingual from the start
Koh Samui's visitors and long-stay residents come from all over, and a lot of them would rather not read island tips in a language they barely use. A multilingual guide is far easier to build in than to bolt on later, and it means a family planning a holiday and a remote worker planning a season can both read it comfortably.
What an account adds
You don't need an account to read the guide. If you create one, you can save places, use them offline and receive local deals. Offline matters more than it sounds: island signal has opinions, and a saved list you can't open on a boat is not much of a list.
There's also an AI trip assistant to help plan. It's a helper on top of the guide, not a replacement for it.
Save before you go. Save the places you care about while you have a good connection. Your saved list works offline, which is exactly when you'll need it.
What's honestly still in progress
Samui Love is live on the web. The portfolio describes it as web and mobile in active development, and I'm not going to promise mobile apps in this article. Treat the website as the product today.
Active development also means sections fill in unevenly. Some areas and categories are richer than others, and a guide to a living island is never really finished. Places open, close and change, and keeping up is ongoing work.
- Web: live
- Mobile: in active development
- Coverage: uneven and growing
Getting more out of a Koh Samui trip
- Pick your base by beach and not by hotel photos
- Plan a day on the water
- Eat where the menu isn't written for tourists
- Check what's on before the weekend
- Save places for offline use
Note: How it's built. In general terms: a multilingual content site with a structured directory of places, tours, events and businesses, a map on top, and accounts for saved places, offline use and deals. The AI assistant sits on top of the guide's own content.
Have a look
Samui Love is at samuilove.com. My other projects are on spicanet.net/products.
Samui Love: samuilove.com. Originally published on spicanet.dev.
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