We spent a weekend in the Vimarn with our two sons. It's a good alternative for those who want to escape the rush of Bangkok for a weekend. We took the taxiboat(2000 bath for the boat, prepare for a 'shower when it rains...) on fridayafternoon as we were too late for hotel shuttle-boat.
The weather was very bad, rough sea and rainy. The entrance lobby of the hotel is nice and well kept. Disappointment when receiving our rooms, 802 and 803. Very old and dark. Old wooden terrace, even blankets were old and in rough cotton. As we passed many modern cottages on our way to our rooms we were surprised to see ours. As it was raining very hard we didn't do more prospection (...) that evening and 'accept' this lodging. A very noisy airconditioning and another unpleasant story changed our opinion about this type of rooms and the next morning we went to reception to complain. We were very surpised when we were told that modern cottages were the same classification of ours. I must admit that I had no problems to obtain new rooms.Apparently reception is aware of this 'discrimination' in roomtype. The new obtained rooms were great. Compare it with a tuktuk and a limousine. What a difference. Honestly such a difference for the same price is not permitted. We spoiled one night of the two. So be aware when booking. Avoid 801,802, 803. The 6.. and 7.. are new rooms for sure. Mention the new cottages when booking.
Pizzas in the italian restaurant are excellent (wood oven). The Thai restaurant (Buzz) is also very good. Breakfast as far as choice of bread a bit poor. Where was the dark(er)bread ?
Price of wine is indeed, as I read in other reviews, very expensive.
As the rain on sunday was very heavy we had to take an open jeep to the harbour. Fortunately you get raincapes but ..... Shame on Koh Samet. On the road to the harbour we crossed dirty, very dirty villages where all the garbage seemed to be dumped. Depressing to look at. Is this a national reserve ??????
They need months to clean everything. Perhaps it's better in the direction of hotel Paradise, otherwise don't leave the hotel.....

We will go back for a short break but will avoid old rooms. If I understood well they intend to renew all of them after rainy season.

We drove about 2,5 hours from Bangkok. Of course try to avoid rush hour when leaving the city...

Really enjoyed stay here -- spacious and elegant cottages set in beautifully tended ground on the beach. Patab and his team extremely attentive. Really recommend Buzz restaurant -- food was fresh, elegant and nicely presented.

We booked a two day stay with Le Vimarn in a package at 18400 baht throught the Bangkok sales office. They recommended this one over the other properties that they own because of the location and that it is "five star." (which was probably not true and more like 3.5). There were many little things we did not like about the place including how the rooms are old and run down, but the little things did not bother us much.
The major let down was on our last day when we decided to stay a little longer and take the last boat out at 3 pm. We asked to check out later than noon so we could have time to spend in the ocean and shower. The receptionist firmly denied saying there are guests. She offered a shower room instead checking in the next day. In the morning of the check out day we asked them to come get our already packed bags to move to this "shower" room. They denied saying they would leave our bags outside until we needed to go take a shower. When we came back from lunch around 1 pm our bags were right in the front of the property easily seen and not guarded. We were a bit taken aback but we proceeded to get the shower room which was a much older and smaller version of our room. We did not mind but when we tried to turn the ac on it did not work. We asked the staff and they said verbatim "the shower room is used for shower so air conditioning cannot be used by guests." That really ruined our whole experience at the hotel. It really made us feel like we were not welcome and we were using their shower for free. After all we spent more than 20k at this hotel. To receive this type of treatment was just unthinkable.
I asked to speak to the GM and was denied saying the GM is in a meeting. I hope this message reaches the GM so something can be done to change the terrible service. I have never seen a hotel that makes guests feel like they are unwanted and a burden.
However, to be fair the spa staff was exceptional in both technique (traditional Thai) and service. They even gave good restaurant recommendations (something we asked the front desk and the list they gave us was everything owned by the same owner as the hotel). In addition, there was a decent spread for breakfast and the restaurant staff were decent as well.

We definitely will not be coming back again to be treated like this.