Boyfriend and I had only a week in Thailand and were looking for some beautiful beach time without having to juggle an in-country flight. Koh Samet was close enough to get to in only a two hour drive, yet provided the much needed beach experience. The beach itself that the resort is situated on, and the rooms and facilities, are beautiful and well-maintained. Unfortunately, while the resort makes regular clean-up sweeps of the beach, there is a lot of trash in the water and washing onto the beach, either from the proximity to cities or from the fishing vessels that surround the resort. I was disappointed by the beach pollution. The service was truly five stars, from everyone we encountered--nice smiles, friendly service, they took care of absolutely everything. It was a very international grouping at the resort--we were the only Americans, but there were several European countries represented as well as lots of Japanese tourists. Resort prices are clearly for westerners--WAY above Thailand averages. You're paying full international resort prices, for example: 90 minute Thai massage at paradee was 2400 bhat, in Bangkok it was 450 bhat. Bring your own sunscreen--at the resort a three ounce tube was 950 bhat, which is over 30 dollars. They have you captive, and they know it! We didn't even use the spa because it was so much more costly than it would have been, and we were really there for beach time,...Boyfriend and I had only a week in Thailand and were looking for some beautiful beach time without having to juggle an in-country flight. Koh Samet was close enough to get to in only a two hour drive, yet provided the much needed beach experience.

The beach itself that the resort is situated on, and the rooms and facilities, are beautiful and well-maintained. Unfortunately, while the resort makes regular clean-up sweeps of the beach, there is a lot of trash in the water and washing onto the beach, either from the proximity to cities or from the fishing vessels that surround the resort. I was disappointed by the beach pollution.

The service was truly five stars, from everyone we encountered--nice smiles, friendly service, they took care of absolutely everything. It was a very international grouping at the resort--we were the only Americans, but there were several European countries represented as well as lots of Japanese tourists. Resort prices are clearly for westerners--WAY above Thailand averages. You're paying full international resort prices, for example: 90 minute Thai massage at paradee was 2400 bhat, in Bangkok it was 450 bhat. Bring your own sunscreen--at the resort a three ounce tube was 950 bhat, which is over 30 dollars. They have you captive, and they know it!

We didn't even use the spa because it was so much more costly than it would have been, and we were really there for beach time, so we focused on that. It did appear beautiful, but wasn't what drew us there. The beach and pool were ample entertainment for two days, and kayaks and snorkel sets are available at no charge.

The food was pricey by Thai standards, but not as outrageous as the above, and the Thai food was quite good. I only had the western stuff at breakfast, and they definitely did better at asian foods, their Thai and Chinese were very tasty. The breakfast buffet was not as large or varied, or quite as good, as at the moderately priced hotel we stayed at in Bangkok.

We had a garden villa with pool, and this was a great choice--villas on the beach are right in front of the beach where everyone swims, and lack privacy. The garden room was very private. We never even used our private pool, just hung on the beach and at the main pool.

Warnings: there are many mosquitoes at night, dinner on the beach sounds attractive but gets expensive really fast, and the signature drink is absolutely bad--creme de menthe and citrus?

We could have spent less money for the same elements had we gone to areas like Phuket or Koh Samui, but we paid more for convenience. I would recommend Paradee if that's what you need, but if you have more time, there are better value options elsewhere in Thailand that will likely be more pristine. Still, we enjoyed our stay very much.More