Pimalai Resort & Spa

I’m sitting here with my new wife, looking over the stunning bay for a bittersweet final breakfast before we leave for a new locale. This is the second trip we’ve made to Pimalai... We loved the first so much that we decided to bring forty of our favourite people back here to celebrate our marriage with us! More than a few will be coming back here to make new memories of their own. This place... It’s a wonderful experience. The location is superb, the view from the seven seas is stunning. Beautiful jungle envelops the back and sides and the bay with its glance towards the back of Phi Phi Don through the Oriental roofs marking the hilltops is something to behold. The second stay has been no less captivating than the first. It’s been markedly better! The restaurants are fantastic. Breakfast is well appointed and caters for a variety of cultural leanings and we found ourselves up and out of bed early every day to tuck into it. Happy hour at the seven seas for sunset was a highlight. The kids swam for hours by the beach pool and we were looked after at every turn by the beautiful staff. Our experience was a little different in that we also got married here. Mirko and his team were extremely helpful. Every guest felt like a vip, the cocktails and the food were as we hoped of course but there were so many little things that every guest experienced that made us feel as though management could see the world through our eyes and cater for what we might need or want and deliver it without us having to ask. I actually don’t want to divulge too much about the service we received here because it would spoil the surprise! The general manager Franck is a regular at breakfast and he stops by every table to keep tabs on how everyone is going. It’s a very welcome sight. The staff new all our names by heart and high fives the kids in the morning and shared a warm hug with us when some of our family left. The grounds are simply beautiful. We’ve had beautiful sunshine here for many of the days but also some pretty epic storms on others.... there is an army of staff who attend to the grounds keeping them meticulous despite some of the aftermath of heavy winds. Koh Lanta itself is a beautiful little island. Old town is worth a trip. We hired scooters and trekked around the island. Got massages and took day trips from Saladin pier, checked out some of the National Park to the south. We’ve visited the cave on the way to old town which was an experience all it’s own! We’ve had a beautiful resort experience and a beautiful time in local conditions all in the same place. Phi phi is close... a little closer than it is to Phuket by boat it seemed to us. We booked everything we needed trip wise either from the hotel or from a little travel agent located up the beach behind Why Not Bar (which we also became regulars at!) Really and truly, this is a special place. We’ll be back. Our friends will be back. Thank you for making one of the most special weeks of our lives all the more perfect!

I don't think it get's much better. Unfortunately I think Thailand can occasionally catch a bad wrap for the tourist hoards of Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands - but Ko Lanta is not the case. The island is a bit "out there" in order to access the hotel, but that is part of the adventure. You won't see lady boys running around or streets of brothels - what'll you see is a small fishing villages and smiling locals abound. Pimalai is the quintessential island resort, isolated and pure natural beauty. From the beach to the hotel grounds everything is pristine. The food is exceptional. We ate a different type of curry every night and had no complaints. The breakfast was also delicious on so many levels. Book the Ko Ha sunset trip. It was such a great experience. The snorkeling is excellent and when our boat pulled up, the last of the boats were gone and it was our own snorkeling oasis. Drinking a beer with new friends while watching the sunset on the boat ride back, is about the best way to cap off a good trip. Oh yeah, go to the spa and get a massage. You wont regret it

When arriving from Krabi (instead of being directly in Lanta), the journey to the Pimalai is already taking you into another world… The hotel arranges a private speed boat to take you from their private pier to the hotel and the boat travels through the east coast of Ko Lanta. The journey is beautiful, you pass by a number of small islands and that puts you in a true peaceful holiday type of mindset! The hotel itself is located on the south side of Ko Lanta and is nested on the hill overlooking the ocean, straight in front of the sunset. From a location point of view, I would say that it is ideal if you are looking to relax and enjoy peace and serenity. All in all, Lanta is not a very big island and you can easily drive to Lanta main town with a motorbike (although be careful as the roads have a number of potholes that can be tricky at night or when it pours). If you are looking to eat/drink outside the hotel, there is a small village at the end of the beach with some food and drink options that should suit the most. We stayed in a pool villa on the high side of the resort. The villa was really really nice with a large plunge pool overlooking the ocean. The view was a true beauty. The outdoor space was super nice, with a flat lie bed underneath some wooden hut so you could stay there during the hottest hours. The villas are actually the villas, as you have 2 houses on each side of the pool, so if you are looking to stay there with 2 kids, it is kind of perfect – for a couple it’s kind of useless. The room was nicely decorated, mostly wood. The blackspot is the bathroom which is very outdated and would deserve a full renovation. Breakfast was exactly what you can expect, top breakfast with everything you can dream of. I made a separate review of the main restaurant, Seven Seas, which were such a great discovery, with top notch food and top notch service! We used quite extensively the spa of the hotel which is located close to the beach. The spa menu was great and the design of the spa area was very nice, with lots of flowers, water and small houses where you have your treatments. Although we enjoyed our spa treatments, we were a bit disappointed because not all therapists were equally good and we had the impression that some therapists were kind of “junior�, which is fine, as long as you are informed, which was not the case. Compared to some other hotels nested on hills (such as FS Samui), the transportation at the Pimalai is a bit more cumbersome as you go from one area to the other with cars while FS uses golf cars, which are more pleasant. But the Pimalai is in an area that is steeper, so maybe this explains that. Also, the finishing details are a bit less manicured than at FS Samui, but Pimalai remains a top spot!! All the staff was very friendly and always nice, and this point is always a huge plus during any stay in such paradisiac location! All in all, we had a very good experience at the Pimalai, but it was one notch below some other top luxury hotels in Thailand. We would certainly recommend it to anyone looking to spend some time in Lanta.

We have visited Krabi before, but this was our first trip to Ko Lanta. Initially, we struggled to choose between Layana and Pimalai, after viewing the pictures we decided to give Pimalai a go. However, our excitement turned into disappointment. Transfer: This was the best part of the whole resort experience - a comfortable 2-hrs journey. Cold drinks were served. We had heavy rain on our return trip to Krabi, but it was still considerably smooth. Pre-arrangement: The trip was to celebrate both of our birthdays together. A week in advance, I contacted the resort for info of decorations & pre-order my partner favorite birthday cake. The reservation team gave me the contact of F&B for the cake order, who never responded to the several emails that I had sent for the whole week. On the day of our arrival, I followed up with the reservation team instead and found out that the F&B person was actually out-of-office the whole time. Then another F&B Secretary staff suggested a complimentary javanais cake for my partner instead. However, we just had the same cake at the beach restaurant on 1st night for my birthday, which was secretly arranged by my partner with the F&B Secretary for my birthday dinner. Who would want to have the same birthday cake in 2 days, I agreed to pay for a custom-cake which F&B offered. At the end, we were not sure if the pastry chef was limited by resources or time, but the cake was not good in term of taste or texture. We only had a few bites. Delay in check-in: The official check-in time was 2 pm, and we arrived exactly at 2 pm. However, we were informed by the Front Desk that our room was not ready until 2:30 pm. We wondered why the room was not ready because the resort wasn't looking "busy" at this low season. Anyhow, one of the staff took us to the beach bar for a smoothie while waiting for the room. Nice sea view, but it was sunny and hot at the bar. We were already dried out and got very tired after flight+boat+car journey. After 30 mins+ waiting, I went up myself to check with the Front Desk again and found that the room had been ready, but no one came down to inform us. Room: We stayed in the deluxe room on the 2nd floor. The Andaman Sea view was fantastic! Saw 2 little geckos in our room (one was hidden in my bag). Surely, gecko was unavoidable and understandable. I took them away and released them just outside our room. Overall, the room was clean, comfortable and renovated. Spa: hugely let-down by one grumpy receptionist We visited the Spa for information on our arrival day. The first impression was the Spa receptionist being average - not so friendly according to Thai's standard. On my partner's birthday, since it was highly recommended by the Reservation Team for her birthday, we gave it a try, as we thought we didn't have to deal with the Spa receptionist much. We picked the 90mins Pimalai Signature massage. As brochure stated minimum 30mins prior to treatment was required to re-confirm and explain our scheduled treatments, and massage time would be shortened if we were late. We arrived 20mins ahead of schedule, it turned out that we went straight to the massage room after choosing the massage oil without expected briefing. Nevertheless, our massage times were still cut short by around 10 mins. It was no big deal because I believed my therapist had gotten tired already, as I could feel her hands were shaking a little. At the end we both finished a bit earlier, my partner commented her therapist was skilled, polite and smiley even though there was a bit cut-short. After the massage, there was a downpour and we were guided to a little garden to relax. We chilled and enjoyed the tea for quite a while before heading back to check-out at the reception. After signing the bill, we requested to borrow an umbrella. We didn't have one as the weather was nice and shiny when we came to the Spa. To our surprise, our simple request was frowned on by receptionist, she said all the umbrellas were belonged to the other guests and asked us to walk back to our room in the heavy rain. Obviously, our request must be troublesome for her. It was not just drizzling at that time because the rain had gotten heavier within minutes. When I asked if she could get us a buggy instead, all of a sudden she was able to provide us an umbrella (but with a saddened face) while we waiting outside. I never understood why there was no umbrella to be loaned out from the Spa, we weren't sure if the other guest who witnessed our whole conversation lent us her umbrella. Once we got back to our room, we immediately took another umbrella to walk back to the front desk and asked them to deliver the umbrella back to the Spa receptionist urgently, just in case she was indeed being the "running out" of umbrellas trouble. But the receptionist's attitude was a problem, it degraded the Spa quality standard, and also made us feel so unwelcoming. Especially it was part of the arrangement for my partner's birthday. Absolutely ruined the moment. Never would I recommend to spend money on this kind of service again. Restaurants: We tried 3 restaurants for breakfast, dinner, happy hours and supper/ desserts. We loved Rak Talay the most. The staff in this restaurant were very attentive. The little set up of the Cabaña for dinner was marvelous. It was our favorite spot for Happy Hours too. The food was good, but not outstanding. We opted to spend both of our birthday nights at this beach restaurant because of the pleasant ambiance. I ordered an ice-cream for my wife to make up the disappointment to her birthday cake, the charge of the scoop was waived by F&B. Breakfast: We had breakfast at both Seven Seas & Spice N Rice. Both restaurants offered almost the same food for breakfast. We concluded that the service at Seven Seas was so much better in term of service. Staff would try their best to serve you in Seven Seas, such as asking the simple question: if we would want another drink. Whereas the staff in Spice N Rice even spotted me to struggle with the dirty chair, they would just stand aside and watch you move and exchange the wooden chair all by yourself (In this 5-star resort). Other Spice N Rice staff just stayed together for a chit-chat rather than attend to the guests' needs. Such as delivering ordered dishes. We avoided visiting Spice N Rice for the so-called authentic organic Thai food for the reasons above. The Spice N Rice was particularly empty when we visited in the early morning, we did manage to get a nice beach view table. First-aid: I accidentally got an injury in my room. Since my head was bleeding, my partner was worried and called the front desk to help with disinfection. The front desk staff also brought me extra disinfectant, cotton, tapes, etc. Lost-and-found: My wife left a new hair ornament inside the pocket of the bathrobe. When we came back from Happy Hour, the bathrobes have been changed out, we called the front desk and hope to get it back, however, there was no follow-up call and feedback received after reporting. Location: The Bakantiang Beach was remote but not totally isolated. 7-11, bars, and restaurants are all within walking distance. Last year, we stayed at one of the hotels near Tubkaek beach in Krabi, which was absolutely nothing nearby. At the Tubkaek beach, we took 1.5hrs ride round-trip between the town and the hotel each night. Beach walk: The Bakantiang Beach was yellow-flagged. We managed to swim once before gotten rainy in the last 2 days. Unlike the pools, no one would serve iced water on the beach, as mentioned by the other reviewers. We did enjoy walking along the beach with a torch provided at night to discover hermit crabs and small ghost crabs. Nature walk: We joined their nature walk which was introduced in their leaflet. We were surprised to be the only two in the tour. It was a basic walk around in the hotel. The guided was one of their staff called Apple. She told us the instructor was on emergency leave. Apple was kind, interactive and tried her best to introduce the various plants/ crops in the resort to us. Activities on rainy days: Only one island excursion to Ko Ngai was available during low season, however, there were not enough people to sign up (minimum 6), so we didn't do it. Besides, it turned out to be rainy days. We borrowed a movie player, but the selections were dated. We ended up using it to play the oldies concerts. Suggest hotel to update the movie selections, as the resort really has nothing much to do on rainy days. Most of the beach or pool chairs were folded up on rainy days. Hotel Service: I would say most of the staff were friendly. But as a high ranking 5-star hotel, people would expect a bit more human touch. Arriving on birthday, I understand that extra gesture such as flower petal or towel decorations on the bed was up to the hotel and definitely not a must/ guarantee but at least a simple blessing "happy birthday" from one of the staff during check-in would definitely have been heart-warming. And at least "how was your stay?/ hope you have had a good time with us" during check-out was simply lacking. Staff did manage to just show us the bill and focused mostly on settling our payment only. Even staff may be rushing for completing their morning check-out tasks, but the greetings would have just spared them a second. Those simple welcoming, gesture, and hospitality are the very basic things from any 4 to 5-star hotel, but this resort fails to do so. Yes, we were not the guests who stay at one of the upper hillside level villas, or perhaps just lots of coincidences so we simply didn't receive the same high level of service as other described or experienced. Those made the whole experience on special occasions a little disappointing.

Where to start when talking about Pimalai? The fantastic location and beach? The different pools? The outstanding breakfast buffet? The friendly staff? The great massages? The unique view from the villas? The huge rooms? The speed boat transfer from and to Krabi airport? Everything was just outstanding. Yes Pimalai does not come cheap, but it is worth every cent of it. You just can not find another place like this one. Resort is at walking distance (along the beach) to Lanta town where you can find a few bars & restaurants. It was an unforgettable experience.