We stayed at the Panviman for 4 beautiful nights in April 2008 at the end of our honeymoon. The Thong Nai Pan Noi beach is just gorgeous- perfect in fact. Crescent shape, soft sand, clear and warm water. Exactly what you think of when you think paradise. The Panviman sits up on the hill overlooking the beach and is superb. The accommodation is spread across the hill and tucked among trees. The pool is beautiful, with a cascade waterfall effect over the edge of the hill, overlooking the ocean. The food is good, breakfast is a huge spread (is a somewhat weird combo, with asparagus soup and other funny offerings, i guess they are trying to cover all bases. Try the banana pancakes though, yum!).

The Panviman has lounge chairs down on the beach, and also a bar/ cafe which serves good food. We hired a kayak from the hotel down on the beach and paddled round to the next beach, which was good fun and good exercise (and then we didn't feel guilty lying around on the beach the rest of the day!).

The village behind the beach is worth checking out- you can get your clothes cleaned for 1/4 of the price the resort will charge, and you can get supplies. There is also a nice restaurant (called Again and Again) which serves excellent Thai food. We also had 2 great meals at the BanPanburi restaurant on the beach, the best food we ate and great cocktails.

The hotel has a shuttle bus to the port/ ferry area every day at 10. When we arrived from Koh Samui we luckily met two travellers who had arranged a pick up from the hotel - I would reccommend organising this if you can (we hadn't as we booked at the last minute).

The only downside was that the room we got, room 106, while a nice room, didn't have much of a view and also had a resident gecko living in the roof which made a racket all night, very bizarre! The Panviman is expensive by Australian standards but we got a great deal on Wotif (25% less than normal prices) and still cheap by Western standards- we paid approx $140 AUD per night.

I hope we get to go back again one day...

After spending some time in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui I can honestly say that Koh Phangan and the Panwiman Resort left me with my most positive impression of Thai hotels and service.

The resort is tucked away in the island, in the north east corner. I expected that we would be confined to eating in the pricey hotel restaurants but to my surprise there were nice bars and restaurants with good food at a good price dotted along the beach beside the hotel.

The breakfast buffet is good and served in a circular room with a panoramic view over the ocean.

The resort is like a little "Flintstone village" - little stone roofed villas tucked away into the hills. The standard rooms we heard were good but it's worth spending a little more to stay in a Deluxe Cottage. It can be a bit of a walk to your room as the resort is spread out so you can stop by the reception and hitch a ride with a golf cart.

The swimming pool is lovely and never got crowded even though the hotel was full during our stay. If you want to grab a lounger on the beach, you need to be early as they are snapped up early in the morning.

Service was better than experienced in many of the other Thai hotels. There are supposedly giant monitor lizards in the neighborhood but we didn't see any during our stay.

Stayed at the Panviman for the first 4 nights of our honeymoon. The hotel was great and we had a fantastic time there. It's located right between the two beaches but only has direct access to Thong Nai Pan Noi - have to walk the road to get to Yai.

Service is excellent. This is definately a higher end hotel on the island. Great views (particularly from the breakfast restaurant), food was terrific (maybe pricey) and the pool is lovely. They provide lounge chairs and towels on the beach which is a plus.

We definately enjoyed Ko Phangan and the Panviman.

Only tip is that if you take the public ferry from Ko Samui - the ride to the resort should only cost about B500-700. It's a 45 minute ride across a very bumpy dirt road (we thought it was fun). The songthaews will try to charge much more if they think they can! Not sure if the resort can arrange for transport. Worth inquiring about with them though.

What an amazing place, pure paradise basically sums it up.
The resort is out of this world, beautifully done up and the rooms were spectacular. We booked a deluxe cottage and requested a sea view, we were not disappointed. The rooms were stunning and had the most amazing view. We had a bath on our balcony which we made good use of!

The staff are so friendly and will do anything to help you whatever your request. The food at the resort is a little bit costly and to be honest not that great but if you walk for a few minutes down to the beach there are a few bars and restaurants there which are cheaper and the food is fab! We ate at the Beach Bar pretty much every day, they also have a happy hour from 5pm - 7pm and 10pm - 12am where all cocktails are about £1.50.

There is not alot to do at the resort, we stayed for 5 days which was perfect and we will definately be going back to the resort next year.

Ok now for the less positive parts; the drive to the resort is awful, it takes 45 mins and you are literally driving up a mountain which has no proper roads, it was not great but it is worth it when you do get up to Panviman. If you can afford it what i would suggest is to book the hotels speedboat which is a fairly new service. One way from Samui direct to the resort costs £100, it takes about 45 mins door to door and cuts out that drive and also the sea ferry which only goes twice a day i believe. Also at the pier (cant remember the name!) there is a new speedboat service which leaves every hour on the hour and costs about £7.50 per person but only takes 10 mins to get from Samui to Koh Phangan, again this would be worth booking instead of the ferry which although only takes 30 mins goes only a few times each day.

This hotel might not be great for those who find it hard to walk very far, it is on a mountain and there are pretty steep steps to get to and from the beach, also all accommodation is on a mountain to expect steep paths! Certainly kept us fit!

I hope you find this review helpful :o)