Hilton Deathmatch: Conrad Rangali vs. Hilton Bora Bora vs. Conrad Koh Samui

11 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Hilton

Tags

Bora Bora, Conrad Koh Samui, Conrad Rangali, Hilton Bora Bora, Koh Samui, Maldives, Selfish Year, Selfish Years

Mrs. Selfish and I recently completed a stay at the Conrad Rangali in the Maldives, back in November of last year. In the miles & points world, this was considered one of the most desirable Hilton properties in the world, up there with the Conrad Koh Samui and Hilton Bora Bora.

Somehow we managed to stay at all three properties last year, so I thought I’d do a comparison post explaining their relative strengths and weaknesses.

While Mrs. Selfish and I like traveling in luxury, we’re actually tremendous cheapskates – so I’ll be rating each of the properties by what you get for your hard spent cash. Not necessarily who is the best, but who gives you the most bang for your buck.

Editor’s Note: If you’re deciding between the three properties it’s a decent read (or if you like pretty pictures of tropical locales), otherwise it is a loooong post.

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Diving in Thailand at Richelieu Rock and Koh Tao

22 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Thailand

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Asia, Diving, Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Richelieu Rock, Scuba Diving, Selfish Years, Thailand

Scuba diving is a very time-consuming hobby. After spending so much time and resources getting scuba certified, you want to go diving as much as possible. You start planning destinations and vacations around scuba sites. Moreover, scuba diving is an expensive hobby. It typically involves a boat, a boat, a crew, a guide, and lots of scuba equipment. It all adds up to lots of time and money to scuba dive. However, as cliché as it may sound, it is a whole another world under the water. It can be amazingly peaceful and beautiful under the water.

Mr. Selfish and I planned part of Thailand itinerary around the scuba sites in Thailand, in particular Richelieu Rock. Richelieu Rock is usually rated as one of the top diving sites in the world. In truth, Richelieu Rock was the most beautiful place I’ve ever dived. There were tons of schools of fish and the most luxurious purple coral. We even saw the elusive yellow seahorse, the difficult to find sea whip pipefish, and the more common Moray eel.

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The Delicious but Expensive Food at the Conrad Koh Samui

21 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Food & Drinks, Thailand

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Asia, Conrad, Conrad Koh Samui, Food & Drinks, Hilton, Koh Samui, Selfish Years, Thailand

Mr. Selfish and I truly enjoyed our stay at the beautiful Conrad Koh Samui. The only downsides were: (1) the location and (2) the food.

As to location, the Conrad Koh Samui is quite far from the airport and pretty much everything else on the island. Mr. Selfish already went over how we hired Mr. Samui Samui to solve the issue of transportation. However, the location also made it very expensive and inconvenient to leave the property. As a result, other than a diving trip that we took, we stayed on property, which meant that we had to eat on property.

The food was tasty but man, was it expensive! Luckily, I am a Gold Hilton Honors member so we had free breakfast at Zest. We typically ate breakfast as late as possible to make it into a brunch and then had an early dinner. The breakfast spread was quite impressive. You could order an egg selection from the menu, including eggs benedict, English breakfast, etc., and then still eat from the buffet.

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Beyond the Infinity Pools of the Conrad Koh Samui

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Thailand, Travel Hacking

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Conrad, Conrad Koh Samui, Hilton, Infinity Pool, Koh Samui, Mr. Samui Samui, Selfish Years, Thailand, Travel Hacking

After a week of roughing it at the Sanctuary, Mrs. Selfish and I packed our bags and left Koh Phangan, heading for its sister island, Koh Samui. While planning the Thailand portion of our trip, I scheduled us for 4 nights at the Conrad Koh Samui.

Why?

Three words: Private infinity pool.

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Getting To and From the Sanctuary

16 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Thailand

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Asia, Haad Rin Town, Koh Pha Ngan, Koh Phangan, Koh Samui, Selfish Years, Thailand, The Sanctuary

Yesterday, I posted about how great the yoga holiday at the Sanctuary was. However, I had quite a bit of trepidation about actually getting to the Sanctuary.

Our flight to Koh Samui landed rather late in the evening, and February is known for rough waves at Koh Phangan, which is the island where the Sanctuary is based. I wasn’t sure that we were going to find affordable transportation to the Sanctuary. I also found the directions on the Sanctuary’s website to be missing critical information, such as pricing and photos.

So, I’ve decided to break it down here in this post. Here’s a map of where we needed to go:

First, we landed at the Koh Samui airport. Second, we had to take a car taxi from the airport to Big Buddha Pier (red dot). Third, we had to take the ferry from Big Buddha Pier to Haad Rin on Koh Phangan (green dot). Fourth, we had to take either a car taxi or a longboat taxi from Haad Rin to the Sanctuary (home symbol). Due to the multiple modes of transportation we needed to take, I was sure that we would be scammed along the way.

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