Panviman resort was everything we could have hoped for and more. We spent 7 nights there in May and were left feeling totally depressed at the thought of leaving this amazing place.
The train from bangkok to Suratthani and then boat trip to the island was an amazing way of arriving at the island and after a bumpy taxi ride, we were welcomed so warmly by the resort staff with a cool towel and cold drink. Perfect. We upgraded our room to a deluxe cottage which was the most amazing hotel room i have ever had. Lovely carved bed infront of three walls of floor to ceiling glass, looking over the bay of Thong Nai Pan. An amazing place to watch the lightening at night. The bath tub on the roof was left unused but mainly because my partner wasnt too sure of the bats which would keep us company at night! Plus, the internal bathroom was beautifully furnished and more than luxury!
The pool at the resort is beautiful and always well maintained with excellent staff. The sun moves behing the hotel at about 1500 in May time but a short walk down to the beautiful private beach made it easy to find the last rays of the day. All in all, the most amazing situation to be able to sit and relax and do nothing.
The food at the resort is very nice and extremely reasonable, if a little lacking in choice. The menu for both eatinf places is the same all day long which was a little disappointing. However, i would strongly recommend making the walk down to the beach to sit at any of the eating places down there. The food was wonderful traditional thai food ( as well as western) with a great cocktail menu and friendly staff. Eating Pad Thai, looking at the stars with the occasional lantern drifting sky wards will remain the most magical memory of the entire trip.
It is true that comapred to some 5* hotels, this one may appear a little rustic. However, this is its beauty. The island itself is a relativgly untouched paradise and the Panviman respects this perfectly. The rooms however, even the standard ones, are beautiful and well deserving of a 5 star rating in my opinion.
When leaving, the hotel were very helpful in organising their new speed boat to take us to Koh samui aiport for something like 80 pounds in total. Out flight was the last one out of the aiport so were very keen to stay at the resort for as long as possible. The hotel orgnanised the boat for us from the beach at 1900 so we had the most amazing sunset boat ride, speeding along the waves......a brilliant way of leaving paradise if funds allow.

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.