Chaba Cabana Reviews

The Chaba Cabana is a really nice, medium sized hotel situated at the north end of Chaweng Beach.

Staff were very attentive and helpful, with permanent smiles on their faces.

Accomodation was spacious, clean and comfortable although the aboriginal/inca/native american inspired decor scheme is a little incongruous at times! Thai decor would have been nicer I think! The only tiny gripes we had about the standard of accomodation were that the beds were firm to say the least, the bathrooms whilst well equipped could have done with the shower stalls deep cleaning as there was a little black mold beginning to appear and finally there was only one wardrobe available in our room, a chest of drawers would have been handy. These really are minor problems though and didn't detract from the quality of our stay.

We were on a BandB basis, the breakfasts were good by far east standards with a comprehensive buffet available between 6.30 and 10.30.

The hotel grounds are very nicely laid out tropical gardens surrounding a smallish pool. There's a swim up bar, poolside bar/snack bar and a restaurant. There are very comfortable loungers (although not enough to go round if the hotel were full)and also loungers available on the beach. Talking of which, the hotel is literally right on the beach. And the nicest part of Chaweng beach it is too!

One faily big problem though for anyone visiting in the very near future:

The hotel was upgrading its waste water system, which meant a digger and contruction crew working away in the garden just behind the pool. The hotel was apologetic about it and to be honest we just blocked out the noise after a while and hardly noticed them. It wasn't as if there was a jack hammer going all the time and they did try and limit work to a couple of hours a day. Hopefully by the time you read this it should be finished anyway.

All in all, we thouroughly enjoyed our stay. We've travelled extensively in Thailand and the Far East over the last 10 years or so and would rate Ko Samui as being one of the better resorts and the Chaba Cabana as being one of the better Hotels we've stayed in. (For the best try the Thavorn Beach Village in Phuket or the Grand Bali Beach, Sanur, Bali).
I would grade the Chaba Cabana at 3 star, but good value for money.

Enough people have described the resort of Chaweng on these pages, so I won't bore you with any big descriptions. However, a couple of recommendations:

Chili's Restaurant on the main Chaweng Beach road, same side as McDonalds, about halfway down the main road. Excellent local seafood, Thai food and steaks. We tried a few places but kept going back to Chili's as you just couldn't beat the quality and the prices (Filet steak for £2.50!).

Tropical Murphy's Irish Bar- Quiz night on a Tuesday is good for a laugh. As is Wednesday night in the Islander Bar.

Poppies restaurant- Fantastic food by any international standards in a truly beautiful setting. Anyone who has been to the Poppies restaurants on Bali will not be disappointed by the layout and atmosphere here. However, the food is on another level compared to Bali with prices to match sadly. Still, 2 5 Star Courses with Coffee and Brandy afterwards came to £30 - we'd spend that in our local Indian on a Friday, so go on - treat yourselves!