tfong007

Here goes my first trip report.

Only one type of Taxi from the airport to the hotel and it costs 600 THB no negotiation. The ride is about 50km and takes a little under an hour. On arrival was greeted by some garlands as well as a nice welcome juice and towel. At check in was given ammenity card with choice of 500pts, 200 bar coupon, which is not enough to pay for a single alcoholic cocktail, or a incense burner from the spa. The staff were very friendly at check-in.

The hotel is still not fully completed and the place was quite empty. None of the suites are completed so as a plat I was upgraded to a club room. Also found a nice fruit basket in the room. The rooms are okay size with a deck that faces into a marsh. Can get a small glimpse of the ocean but nothing much. The room has a seperate shower and tub. Overall it was okay, nothing special.

The pool in the resort is not very large at all. I am wondering whether they still plan to build another pool beneath the existing pool. The beach is further down from the pool and is very rocky. Its defintely not a place where you would swim. Its quite muddy and full of dead coral.

There are several resteraunts at the resort and are very pricey by Thai standards. A main course running about 300-350 baht. Next door to the hotel on the right if you are heading to the beach are a resteraunt about 100M and then another resort about 250M away. The small resteraunt 100M away is about 1/4 the price of Sheraton but the food is nothing fancy. The resort resteraunt called Andaman Resort is about 250M away and the price of food is about 1/2 price and is not bad. They have a full western and Thai menu.

The spa here is complete but I never went cause the prices are western prices and what I find to be quite unreasonable. The hotel has a new gym and a great tennis court. There is no charge for the tennis court and you can rent a nice racket for 100Baht. There are practice balls there that are free for use. They have an aquatic center that can arrange diving. Only thing that turned me off is that if you want to borrow the snorkelling equipment its 100 baht per hour. The resort is in the middle of nowhere and if you want to go to Ao Nang the closest main beach you have to take a shuttle for 200 roundtrip per person or a private hotel car. The hotel has a desk that can book all your day excursisions for you. If you are a non-Thai I would recommend you use their service because you will not get ripped off and will not have problems with transfer to and from your activity.

I went Kayaking and it was worth it. Spent the day paddling through tiny caves and mangroves. Only down side is that it took 1/2 hour to get to Ao Nang and then another 1 hour by car from Ao Nang to the paddle site.

The hotel has a marsh setting and is PACKED with mosquito's. So please bring lots of insect repellent and after bite cream.

Thats it for now. Hope it was helpful.