Over-water bungalows?

Travel Info
Are these worth the extra lot of money to stay in these instead of hotel rooms?

I know they have them in Thailand, Maldives and pacific.
Anywhere you could recommend from experience please?

Travel Tips

Hi Laplandfan..... I've stayed in the Water Bungalows in the Maldives and I would say that they were worth every extra penny. Nothing beats having the fish as your neighbours!

We were able to just walk down the wooden stairs straight into the sea and swim with the fishies! In the early evening we would watch schools of dolphins swim past.

Sitting on the balcony in the evening and hearing the gentle lap of the water is so soothing. Also they tend to be a little more luxurious. Ours had a mahoosive four poster bed and loads of space.

It's your own personal little house on the sea!
Others

I was on Phuket and Phi Phi islands and did not see these there, but I stayed in oine for my honeymoon in Tahiti. (Moorea and Bora Bora)
It was quite an expensive upgrade but worth every penny...

Word of warning, wherever you choose to stay in an overwater bungalow: confirm that the swim area off of the balcony is a no-motor area. Some of the cheaper over-water bungalows that I researched had speed boats and such going right by the front of them. Dangerous and noisy, to say the least. No-motor sometimes means no-wake, which allows motor boats to go right by your balcony, but with their engines cut.. you also do not want this. More upscale hotels will only allow outrigger canoes.. ours delivered breakfast by outrigger, right toi our balcony!
The only one I know of is Bang Boa Sea Hut in Koh Chang http://www.bangbaokohchang.com/.... It's a nice little resort near a fishing village but you can't swim in the sea there you got to go further on.

You can check this site out for other accomodation options
http://www.escapethailand.com/

cheers.
If you're going to Thailand then I would recommend you go to a town called Kanchanaburi. There are lots of raft bungalows there on the River Kwai which is what the famous 'Bridge on the river Kwai' book was based on.

Most of the places to stay are on one stretch of road... there are lots of travellers there and the atmosphere's great. I stayed there for a couple of nights before moving about a 15 minute walk to a secluded little place called bamboo house. It was so idyllic... I just spent the whole day relaxing on my raft with my feet in the water. My raft was really basic (just a mattress on the floor) and only cost 100 baht which is about 3 dollars but there are some more luxurious ones with bathrooms and air conditioners. The only bad thing was that during the weekends karaoke boats would go up and down the river and were pretty noisy so if you do go, then go an a weekday.

If you're looking for a raft on the sea then I saw a few when I went to Koh Tao but didn't stay on them so can't tell you what they were like.

Check the following site for places to stay:

www.travelfish.org

I found it a great help while I was out there.

Hope you have a great time wherever you end up going... wish I were you!