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Reviewed January 20, 2009

Before I write this review I would like to give you my background so you can put into perspective where my review is coming from. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and my parents are both from Thailand. So that make me Thai American and I have eaten Thai food ever since I was little. Also, Los Angeles has a great selection of ethnic food and there is great Thai food in Thai Town in Hollywood. When I read other reviews and people said that the food at Pimalai was horrible I took their word for it but I forgot to look where they were from because that has a lot to do with what types of flavors people are used to and like. Hopefully this makes my review more useful.

Review: One Bedroom Beach Villa (Honeymoon)
Transfer:
We landed at the airport and a Pimalai representative greets us and takes us to our van. The van was very nice and clean and we had it all to ourselves (just lucky). The van drove us 45 min to Pimalai's private dock where we got on their nice transfer boat for a 45 min boat ride to the resort. The boat ride was awesome and we sat on the top to see all the views. The one negative about the boat ride was that the seats on top are not padded so your butt and back might be a little sore afterwards but well worth the views.
Room:
We stayed in a one bedroom beach villa which was worth every single dollar. The views were breathtaking, literally breathtaking. We stayed in room 602 which I highly recommend because it is private and you are very close to the restaurants and pool. I believe that room 601 is the first of the pool villas so the closer room number you can get to 601 the closer you will be to the reception/restaurant/pool. We rarely used the golf carts to go to the lower resort but if you are lazy or cant walk up and down steep steps I highly recommend you use the carts. The room itself was great we had two separate buildings to ourselves which was gated off for privacy. The pool in the villas is small but its nice to just swim around and take in the views.
Restaurants:
We ate at Sevens Seas and I had the steak and was very dissapointed. I forget what my wife had but it wasnt that good either. Other than Seven Seas all the other restaurants and room service was excellent. We ordered room service twice with a mixture of Thai and American food and it was very good. We ate at Spice and Rice and really enjoyed the food there. Our favorite restaurant was Rak Talay Beach Bar. The food there was awesome and the view was amazing. I recommend the buffet at dinner. You order a main seafood by the kilo and it comes with the buffet. I had a whole deep fried fish which was very delicious and my wife had BBQ huge shrimps and they were very good as well. Overall the food at Pimalai was very good but expensive if you compare it to other Thai places. I always compared it to restaurants in the states or if I was in Hawaii and the prices were on par or better than those places so the price never bothered us. You have to realize that you are at a 5 star resort on an Island. The prices are going to be more expensive. Realize that going in and you won't complain about the price. We ate at Same Same but Different because everyone recommends this place but we found that the food at Pimalai was a lot better so we only ate there once.
Activities:
We went Scuba diving which was awesome and I highly recommend it. We also rented a car for the day and drove around the whole island. I don't recommend going to the Mae Kow Cave, it was a big waste of time and money. It is a dark, hot cave with nothing to see inside. We also went to old town which was a very small town with not much to see. If you are looking for an island with a lot of things to do I do not recommend this island. We knew this going in and we wanted to just relax, eat, and hang out so it was perfect for us.
Summary:
Overall we loved this place and highly recommend it to people that want a nice resort to hang out.

Date of stay: December 2008
  • Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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3  Thank LA_JayJay
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed January 5, 2009

This resort is a basically a mix of two properties, one built approx 20 years ago near the coast and a newer block of villas and reception/restaurant/pool area on the hillside. The newer villa properties are truly very lovely but are almost totally inaccessible on foot, one needs a golf cart to be transported up practically vertical slopes to the villas from the beach and restaurant areas and walking down to the resort facilities is quite hazardous.

Housekeeping is not quite as good as it could be when taking into account how expensive these villa properties are.

The staff are quite charming but the resort itself requires a one hour car drive plus one hour boat drive to reach same and once in the resort there is virtually nothing outside. As there are so many beautiful resorts in this part of the world, we do not think this resort was worth all the effort.

To sum up, it is really quite a basic resort when in comparison whith other 'five star resorts' in the Far East, the quality of the food being really only quite average too with little choice of food outside the resort apart from couple of chinese eateries nearby on the beach.

Date of stay: December 2008
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
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4  Thank Marsha123
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
A Tripadvisor Member
San Luis Obispo, California
35
Reviewed January 3, 2009

We got lucky! Recent Bangkok airport closure allowed us to book this superior resort for low season rate! We utilized Latestays.com to reserve a wonderful room at half the going rate.
The resort is first class with two "endless" pools. The staff throughout is courteous and respectful in the traditional Thai manner. Excellent food, decadent beach lounges, and beautiful Koh Lanta private bay highlight this resort. Less expensive dining and massage options are a short walk down this delightful beach.

Date of stay: December 2008
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
    • Value
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    • Check-in / front desk
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    • Cleanliness
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    • Business service (e.g., internet access)
1  Thank A Tripadvisor Member
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed January 2, 2009

We spent a week at Pimalai this past December. We are extensive travellers and know Thailand well. The Pimalai's infrastructure is great, but the staff are clearly not upto par for a hotel of this category (too junior, not flexible, not really interested, much worse than what we have seen elsewhere in Thailand). The quality of the food is lousy, with the exception of the Seven Seas Restaurant. Don't even think of booking any extras with this hotel (sightseeing trips, taxis, whatever), the prices are frankly outrageous. Basically, the hotel uses existing travel companies on the island and simply doubles the price of any trip you book through them (for the same price as the hotel charges for two people going on a snorkeling trip, we rented the whole boat from exactly the same company as the hotel proposed to us). We were overall disappointed and got the feeling that this is a poorly run hotel, more interested in making a quick profit than in providing real service and good quality. In short, the Pimalai is just not worth the money. For the discerning and quality-conscious traveller, there are much better addresses in Koh Lanta and in Thailand than this hotel.

Date of stay: December 2008
  • Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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    • Cleanliness
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7  Thank Luli57
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed December 27, 2008

I find it hard to imagine anything that could beat this, certainly on beautiful Lanta and possibly in Thailand.

I really could rabble on all day about this place, I have a smile on my face now just thinking abouth Lanta and the Pimalai.. simply put just go there... you will not regret it!

Date of stay: June 2008
1  Thank RichardWebster
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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