Fisherman's Village, Bophut

A few hundred metres of old Chinese shophouses on the Bophut seafront, now restaurants, bars and shops. It is a public street. There is no ticket and no opening time, and you pay for what you order.

The closest thing to evidence we have, and what it is actually measuring. Our own Bophut hotel listings show something consistent: Riviera Beach Hotel and Hansar, both inside the Village, score 9.7 on location, the highest figure we have recorded anywhere on Samui. Jade cottages, a few minutes inland off Bophut Soi 1, scores 8.4.

Be clear about what that does and does not prove. Those are guests rating their hotels, not rating the street. What they demonstrate is that being able to walk out of your door into somewhere with restaurants is worth more than a point of location score to the people paying for it, which is a real finding about Bophut even if it is not a review of the Village itself.

The practical read: Friday is the walking street, when the road closes and market stalls fill it. That is the busiest and the best night, and the wrong one if you wanted a calm dinner.

Compared to Chaweng this is smaller, older and considerably less loud. Compared to the rest of the north coast it is the only place with any evening to speak of.