This resort was fantastic, exactly what we were hoping for when we booked a long haul, tropical beach villa destination in Thailand.
The Anda Lanta is a well presented, small resort right on the edge of a breath-taking rain forest. There are not many resorts where within 50 meters of the reception you can feed elephants pineapple or if you time it right, catch the monkeys getting a quick drink on the roadside and feed them bananas!
Travelling from the UK:
Be prepared for an extreme journey, with around 13-14 hours flights on two planes followed by a 2-3 hour (depending how lucky you are with the ferrys!) from Krabbi Airport to the resort. Anda Lanta is very, very remote, if your looking for night life look elsewhere because most nights at Anda, the place is dead around the bar area after 9.30pm!
Also, if your booking your flights separately, don't get the return flight to early! as your can't get a ferry off the island till 6.00am in the morning (leaving Anda at 5.30am) so you may struggle to get to the airport before 8.00am.
The Resort:
Set out in the natural surroundings of the rain forest, this place is literally wild! if your squimish about creepy crawleys then be advised, your gonna freak out at night here! if its not the frogs or hermit crabs or spiders or lizards that you regularly stumble across, then you may be lucky enough to have you path blocked in the dead of night by the local snakes (not that common, but we came across 3 over two weeks, with one easily measuring 1.5 meters long!)
The pool is for families, the beach is for couples, nough said!
The restaurant is run fantastically by an army of waiting staff and cooks, I have never seen so many staff on hand in my life for the amount of people staying there. The menu and food at the restaurant is prepared beatifully, and although slightly overpriced in comparison to the other two beach bars in our bay, the quality of the food would win hands down every time!
(whilst we are talking about the other bars, try out the one next to Anda lanta (jellyfish lights - you'll see) at your own peril!! Sat there at 7pm, served first drink at 7.25pm, served main course at 8,45pm (yes main course as they forgot our starters!!!) never ever got the second drink we ordered at 8.00pm) food deserves no stars as cold and tasteless, and the only time I had a bad stomach the whole time we were there.....simple sorry from the owner as he presented me with the bill (including trying to charge us for all the stuff they forgot to serve us!!) you wouldn't believe service could be that poor......and this appeared to be replicated at every table they had there!) The far restaurant on the beach however, offered really good value and a nice alternative to the resort restaurant.
Trips:
We went to Phi Phi Island which was beautiful and well worth seeing, slightly spoiled by the SpeedTubs!! I mean speedboat you go in!! 28 people stuck in a tub, unable to see outside for 45 minutes whilst hurtling across the sea to each island you visit! not a nice experience but unfortunately the speedboat trips are all you get offered in the resort.
My recommendation though would be to go outside the resort, 2 minutes walk from reception, right at the road 100m. Book the '4 Islands Tour' by longboat. Its half the price of the speedboat and you get to see everything! its amazingly laid back, we had 10 people on out longboat, although you can get upto 16 on one. the 4 islands are absolutely beautiful, and the emerald cave is 'a vision you'll never forget!'
The elephant trek and water fall is well worth doing, nobody could not fall in love with the elephants! We rode on 'May' who was a 14 year old that was such a fantastic character! she trumped on request (from the front that is!!) she bowed for pineapples and even posed for cameras!!! if it hasn't rained for a while, don't expect much of a waterfall!!
Getting around:
Taxi's from the resort are expensive, but there again they are from outside the resort too...petrol is only just less than the UK over there at around 90 pence a litre, if the litre bottle they sold it in were full!!!
but the mopeds are easy to handle, I managed to convince my wife (we're both over 40) to go on them and she loved it, the roads are safe, although sometimes bumpy. You can hire a moped for £7.00 a day and they take no more than £4.00 in gasoline to fill up. We travelled all over the island in one day for £10.00. At our own pace (very slow!!!!! with wife on back!!!) great value for money!
All in all an amazing holiday! we would recommend the Anda Lanta to anyone! great memories forever!!!
Thanks to all the staff for making it a dream holiday!