Pimalai Resort & Spa

We stayed at Pimalai for 20 days, which is probably considerably longer than the average guest, so I feel we had enough time to experience the resort beyond the first impressions. I am not going to spend too much time describing the almost unreal beauty of the property, the vegetation, the beach and the views, because plenty has already been written about that and, frankly, the photographs speak for themselves. Pimalai is in an extraordinary setting. Some parts of the resort are showing their age, although everything is very well maintained. The one practical criticism I do have concerns the room doors. They close incredibly loudly if guests simply let them fall shut, and unfortunately not every traveller is diplomatic enough to consider the people staying around them. During our 20 days, I think we had exactly one neighbouring guest who consistently closed the door normally rather than allowing it to slam. Pimalai very kindly offered to move us to another room when we mentioned the disturbance, which we genuinely appreciated. However, once we started noticing the same doors slamming in other areas as well, we decided there was little point in moving. Perhaps this is simply something that could be addressed during future renovations. But this brings me to the reason why, in my opinion, Pimalai is so difficult to beat ;the people. I realise Pimalai probably hears this constantly, but it deserves to be said again. Luxury can be bought.. Beautiful hotels are everywhere. But you cannot simply purchase the atmosphere created by a genuinely exceptional team.. I have travelled extensively and stayed in many five star hotels around the world. Quite often, the five stars start disappearing very quickly in my mind as soon as you actually have to interact with the service.. At Pimalai, this wasn't the case..From the gardeners to reception, from the buggy drivers to housekeeping and the restaurant staff, people smiled, greeted us warmly and made us feel welcome. After 20 days you also start recognising people, having conversations and seeing personalities rather than uniform.. and that became one of my favourite parts of staying here. I would particularly like to mention some whose names I managed to remember. Finna, who welcomed us so warmly from the beginning and immediately made us feel at ease. Ben at reception, who was always extremely precise, professional and reliable. Whenever something needed arranging or clarifying, you felt that it was in capable hands.. Snook, who was incredibly sweet and patient with our daughter. There was a kindness and wisdom in the way he interacted with her.. Odd deserves a mention as well. Whenever he arrived in the buggy, his enthusiasm towards our daughter made her smile (and us as well). Those little interactions might seem insignificant during a working day, but for a child they become part of the holiday she remembers. Lie consistently provided excellent service and was another example of the professionalism we experienced throughout the resort. I unfortunately did not manage to remember the name of the lovely lady with the beautiful eyes who helped us on our final day and arranged another room for us. She was exceptionally kind, gracious and helpful, and it was a lovely final example of Pimalai's hospitality before we left.. A very special mention has to go to Palm at Rak Talay. During our first week especially, I had quite a lot of contact with Palm. What an exceptionally charming, kind young man.. He was attentive without hovering, professional without ever becoming formal or distant, and always seemed to understand exactly when something was needed.. He simply does his job extremely well. My husband liked him enormously too, and Palm quickly became one of our favourite people at the resort. The natural warmth about him is felt. You either have that quality or you do not. Palm has it. People like him are rare, and Pimalai should be very proud to have him representing the resort. The same goes for Khoi at the pool bar. Such a sweet, sympathetic and, above all, (incredibly) respectful young man. He sometimes seemed almost a little shy, so I will say this directly to him if he ever reads this; do not underestimate yourself. You have tremendous potential. Good hospitality is not about constantly talking or performing for guests , sometimes it is simply about making people feel comfortable, being observant, respectful and sincere. Khoi has that naturally. His quiet kindness and impeccable manners were noticed and very much appreciated. I have yet to see this in Europe. Then there is the kids club. This genuinely changed the experience of our holiday. Fah was absolutely wonderful with our daughter. She practically had a holiday of her own. She woke up excited to go to the kids club. She created beautiful things, played, spent time with the team and even went swimming with Fah. She came back every day with something to tell us.. Over those weeks, our daughter started looking at her almost like an older sister. When you trust someone enough that your child happily disappears off for hours and comes back glowing, you are being given something extremely valuable ; peace of mind. It also meant that my husband and I unexpectedly had a great deal of time together as a couple, knowing that our daughter was not merely being supervised somewhere, she was genuinely having the time of her life. Fah gave her attention, affection and memories that came home with us.. The photographs and things they made together are now hanging above our daughter's bed at home. The incredibly sweet handwritten note they wrote for us is something we have kept as well. It was such a lovely gesture ! So Fah, thank you, sincerely, for everything you gave our daughter during those weeks. Children remember the people who make them feel important, she will always remember you! The same gratitude goes to Valen and Nadear, who were also part of making the Kids Club such a happy and safe little world for her. Thank you for your patience, creativity and kindness ! And finally, there is Meen. It is difficult to write this part without becoming sentimental, because Meen probably made one of the biggest personal impression on us during our stay. I spent many hours talking with him around the pool during those weeks. He is full of energy, incredibly open and always appears with that enormous, radiant smile of his. He was wonderful with our daughter as well, his character is what stays with .e. He is remarkably genuine. He has an innocence and purity of character that is becoming increasingly rare to encounter.. No performance, no carefully rehearsed "hotel personality". He was simply , Meen; enthusiastic, empathic, funny, open-hearted and completely sincere. I genuinely enjoyed all those hours we spent talking. About ordinary things.. Thailand.. life.. our families.. completely random subjects. It did not really matter. After spending almost a month somewhere, certain people become connected to your memory of a place. When I think back to that pool, I know I will remember his smile and his energy just as clearly as I remember the view. Meen, if you ever read this ; you warmed our hearts more than you probably realise. I hope life is extraordinarily kind to you and that all the good things you deserve eventually find their way to you. Keep your enthusiasm, keep that enormous smile, and above all, keep that genuine goodness in you. Never change. We will remember you for a very long time. The cooking class; There is one experience where I do think Pimalai could improve considerably, First of all, our chef was an absolutely lvely woman, so none of this criticism concerns her personally. She was warm, friendly and made the experience enjoyable. However, I do think the cooking class itself is rather overrated, particularly when compared with the way it is presented on Pimalai's website. The promotional photographs and description create the expectation of an elaborate, authentic Thai cooking experience in which you really learn the techniques and secrets behind Thai cuisine. The reality was much simpler; a fairly plain cooking station and a lot of ingredients that had already been prepared and cut, which we then essentially cut a little more before cooking them. For a resort of Pimalai's calibre, I expected more depth. For example, learning to make a Thai curry completely from scratch , including preparing the curry paste ourselves, understanding the ingredients, grinding the spices and learning why particular flavours are balanced in a certain way would have made this a genuinely memorable culinary workshop. That, to me, would fit the promise of learning the secrets of authentic Thai cooking much better. As it currently stands, it is still a fun holiday activity and we enjoyed ourselves, but there are cooking schools elsewhere where, for considerably less money, you are much more involved in the actual cooking process. That is particularly unfortunate because we deliberately chose to do the class at Pimalai rather than elsewhere because of the setting and because we expected the Pimalai standard to translate into an exceptional version of the experience. So, enjoyable, lovely chef, but the experience itself does not quite live up to either the marketing or the price. Food Because we stayed for 20 days, our perspective on breakfast is probably different from that of someone staying four or five nights. For a normal length stay, the breakfast selection is certainly more than adequate and the quality of the ingredients is very good. After almost three weeks it inevitably became somewhat repetitive, so perhaps a little more rotation would be welcome for long stay guests. The overall quality of the food is unquestionably high. Dinner is harder to judge objectively because taste is extremely subjective. What one person finds extraordinary, another can find merely pleasant. Personally, however, considering Pimalai holds two Michelin Keys, I found some of the evening food less impressive in terms of flavour than I expected. This was particularly true during the pasta evenings. The pizzas were also disappointing to us, and interestingly the guests at the table next to us seemed to have a similar reaction. Of course, over 20 days at any resort you are inevitably going to encounter dishes you love and dishes you would not order again, so I would not make too much of this. Where I have almost nothing critical to say is the restaurant service. It was outstanding. The staff were attentive, gracious and extraordinarily consistent. Requests were remembered, tables were handled efficiently.. there was warmth and personality in the service. Maintaining that level for a few days is one thing but experiencing it consistently over almost three weeks is far more impressive. And that really brings me back to where I started.. Pimalai is beautiful. Spectacularly so. There are things I would improve. The doors need attention. The cooking class deserves a serious upgrade if it is going to be marketed and priced as a premium culinary experience. Some of the food did not quite reach the level I personally expected. But none of those things define my memory of Pimalai.. The people do.. Buildings age.. Views can be photographed. What cannot easily be replicated is a team that makes guests genuinely sad to leave (and they did) You learn to know faces, personalities and voices. Our daughter had her own little world there. We had people we looked forward to seeing in the morning. That is something I have very rarely experienced, including in some of the most expensive hotels I have visited. Pimalai's greatest luxury is its people.. Take good care of them. They are what makes this place so difficult to beat. With a team like this, you can make any place top tier ..

This was our first time in this hotel. Some mixed feelings and things to be improved, but overall a great resort. I recommend booking the pool villas rather than the suites, particularly for families. GREAT THINGS: - Beauty of the entire resort, perfectly designed and maintained. - The extraordinary service of its staff, professional and caring, particularly with our son Nico :) - Quality and diversity of the breakfast. - The accommodation (villa with pool). - Very correct prices for their restaurants, particularly in comparison with other 5* resorts, they don't search to screw you. - Great quality of the food, particularly for dinners. TO BE IMPROVED: - Some more attention to details needed, e.g. a little something (fruit, small biscuits etc) every night, particularly for long stays (as of 4-5 nights) - If I were the management, I would avoid giving old villas to clients for long stays, even if they are new. We were given the villa 901, which was from the 90s... We asked for a change and the new villa was just great! :) Particular thanks to the breakfast team serving us every morning of the week at the Seven Seas restaurant, all very attentive and caring with our son Nico! :) Looking forward to our Summer stay in 2027! :) Oscar, Stefan, and Nico

We spent 4 night here in a deluxe double. What a beautiful relaxing resort. The room was perfectly big enough for us, it said garden view but we had a sea view which was an unexpected bonus. The resort itself is built into a hilly rainforest. The grounds are beautifully kept and plenty of wildlife to see. The beach is stunning, the restaurants served high quality food, the staff were amazing. We preferred the hilltop pool, as it was bigger and the views were stunning, also the banyan tree cafe next to the hilltop pool was the best for lunch. I was worried coming in July the weather would be bad , we did have some rain but mainly the weather was good. If you walk along the beach to the right about 10 minutes there was a great beach bar called the Why Not bar. We went here most afternoons for cocktails , a lovely bar, very reasonable prices and great drinks. We didn’t eat but the menu looked good. Also a few minutes from here is the small village with a 7/11, a few restaurants and massage places. If you have mobility issues this resort may not suit you as it is hilly, even though you can get a buggy most places there are still unavoidable steps . A very lovely relaxing stay…would go back in a heartbeat x

Thank you once again for an incredible stay at Pimalai, our second visit and this time we stayed in a Hillside Villa with pool. I really do run out of superlatives for this hotel, I don't think there are many places in the world that get it so right! Our welcome was so warm and the bed was beautifully decorated when we arrived, huge thanks to Khun Poon. The villa took our breath away, fantastic space with everything you could possibly need. Every member of staff is a credit to you, was lovely to see Khun Fern at the Heritage bar again. We spent a day on the beach and were looked after impeccably. The app for the buggies up and down works very well, no issues at all. Breakfast is world class and our evening meal one night was fantastic. We are already dreaming about our next visit and hoping to stay longer than the 2 nights this year.

We stayed recently and the private pool villa was amazing, as were all of the people and service in general. I would 100% go back! The only mark down was the Spice and Rice restaurant was closed, out of season so i can understand why, but we wanted real Thai food and we found the remaining 2 restaurants to be very western or general in nature. I wish they had more Thai food on than they did and i also would recommend doing more Thai Fusion food for the Seven Seas (Western) restaurant as the only people who go to Thailand to eat Western food are devoid of any taste :-) The Spa was also closed being refurbished but they had converted one of the family villas and we loved being beaten up in our Thai massage and being spoilt in the other treatments. Price wise - everything is overpriced... but we went half board so didn't feel it too much, but the drinks were as expensive as going to London which i found odd. These are actually minor points to be honest, the staff, service, location, quality of food and quality of the villa itself was exceptional!