   This has to be the best bargain on Samui. Taken over and refurbished by Tom Farrell and his wife in 1999, the resort has already secured rave reviews in both the Swedish (Expressen 13/Feb/00) and German press. It is also very popular with the airline crews. Which is especially good news if you like the company of blondes and airline staff! But it also means that this hotel is almost always busy - really! This web-site author (that's me, Mark Austin) visited Rocky Resort in the "depths" of the off-peak season, when every other hotel seemed to be between 20% and 70% occupancy, this hotel was full!    The quality clearly comes from Tom's commitment and investment. All of the rooms are basically the same, although some are larger than others (ironically, the Seaview rooms with the largest floor-space & balconies, are also the ones with the best views - so make sure you use us to make your reservation - explanation on main page!). The rooms are spotless and have extremely good, clean, modern bathrooms with good hot water shower flow. The air conditioned rooms have the latest units installed and do not need to run anywhere near at maximum. The windows have insect screens over them and the balconies are just about perfect, being large and made of wood / bamboo.   This quality also extends to the restaurant, which is exceptionally reasonably priced. Fresh fish every day, including some of the best Red Snapper you can hope to taste. A good tip here is to take one of the two tables Tom has put on the granite outcrop (onto which the restaurant is built) with a candle lantern (romance and cool sea breezes, an absolutely wonderful combination). Or even have your food on your balcony, they are definitely worth spending some serious amounts of time on, especially if you have one of the ones with the best views!   Talking / thinking of the sea / beaches, the beach around Rocky resort is almost perfect. There are little sandy bays sheltered by granite outcrops, plus some rocky areas that produce hours of exploration time for any lucky child who stays here. If you look at the top left picture on this page, you will see what looks like a rock formation / channel running out to sea. Well, that is what it is. Tom had this boat channel made and marked it with the rocks they cleared. What he didn't realise he would do by this is create an area suitable for children to go swimming, and for everybody to go snorkelling. That's right, the formation and protection this created has attracted quite a large number of colourful fish and makes for very interesting, yet especially safe snorkelling. And if you like snorkelling, Tom and his staff can arrange a trip for you to the nearby islands such as Koh Mat Daeng, with arguably the very best snorkelling in the area.   |
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