You may of recently noticed some changes at Charm Beach, the resort which is run by Phanganist’s friend Ann and is popular with tourists and locals alike!
Fret not! Charm Beach is still the same but with a new fresh injection from Goodtime Backpackers who are well established on Koh Tao already.
Leo Beer took Phanganist down to meet with Ann and Tim from Goodtime to find out more…
We meet Tim first who is super friendly and nice! He tells us a bit about the history of Goodtime Backpackers and how this has all began…
‘Goodtime has been on Koh Tao for nine years already, we started in 2008. We have two speedboats and a large boat on Koh Tao and established rock climbing on there. We do adventure activities like rock climbing, diving, watersports etc. We then made a cafe and then a hostel and have been very happy on Koh Tao.
My friend Ben wanted to come over and live here so we thought this would be a good time to expand but without building something from scratch there was nothing on Koh Tao so we came and had a look around Koh Phangan and had a meeting with Ann and instantly hit it off!’
So Ann, what made you decide to have Goodtime Backpackers at Charm Beach?
Charm needed some new injection of life and energy and I had been looking for a long time but found nothing suitable.
There’s been different investors around all with different ideas of what to do with Charm beach, like turn it into a yoga retreat or detox center or rebuild it to a luxury resort, none of it was never a vision for me though.I met the guys from Goodtime through a friend and it was love at first sight ha-ha! To be clear this is just a business relationship and Tim is happily married!
What’s the plan?
The plan is to take a bit of Charm Beach and a bit of Goodtime from Koh Tao and transform it here. It’s not so easy with rock climbing on Phangan but we’ll bring the speedboat for hire and bring all of the adventure stuff here.
It’s a nice environment and it’s not going to be all about super healthy or not all about super party either but a nice balance with everyone involved.
The first thing to be transformed is the accommodation, there are still double room bungalows, four of which are on the beach but they now have dorms as well! It is a great mix of accommodation for all budgets and tastes.
Goodtime has made a good reputation for themselves on Koh Tao so now they want to do the same here and they have chosen wisely to go in for the beach backpacker niche.
‘We want to be thinking outside of the box by being on the beach. It will still have the vibe of Charm Beach but done differently and better, still the chilled out nice Koh Phangan vibe’.
The beach bar will be turned into the adventure centre but they will still have warm up parties and they hope to have some sunset chill out lounge events as before.
Most people sit in the restaurant to drink and socialise so they are in the process of building another bar right next to the pool so people are not split up so much, it’s going to be good!
‘We want to get the whole beach alive, to get this beach alive as well! You can already see some days we have girls all along it and people playing volleyball. When everyone is there then they all feed off each other!’
So there you have it guys, Ann is still here and we are all very happy about that but expect something new and fresh from Charm Beach’s new partners at Goodtime Backpackers who are bringing an interesting aspect to the already wonderful Charm Beach.
There is already dorm room accommodation and there will soon be many more exciting new activities to get stuck into there and after meeting Tim we have faith that this evolution will be a good one!
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