Tempting Thailand

Debbie Dent on 27 March 2019
It was back to Thailand for our March holiday this year, but wanting to try a different area, we decided on Khao Lak, staying at The Sarojin hotel, which is a 1.5 hour drive north from Phuket airport.

The history of the hotel is written in a book that is provided in each room for guests to be able to read at their leisure. It’s an interesting story about an English couple who had an ambition to build and open a hotel and their struggles to do so, with the tsunami hitting and devastating parts of the hotel in 2004, just as they were within days of opening. Fortunately, most of the staff were at home that day as it was Boxing Day.

We stayed in a Garden Residence room for most of our stay but were kindly upgraded to a recently renovated Spa Suite for our last night and what a wow factor that room has! All the rooms are large with a big individual bathtub for couples and two showers. The Spa Suites also have an outdoor jacuzzi and are more luxurious.

The hotel itself is geared towards couples, not accepting children under the age of 10. It has 56 rooms, lovely gardens, a large lily pond and a peaceful pool area, where we never had any trouble finding sunbeds in the shade. If you prefer the beach to the pool, you won’t be disappointed. There are more sunbeds there and it’s a beautiful beach which stretches for miles, so if you want to stretch your legs it’s ideal.

It’s in a quiet location, some 20 minutes’ drive from Khao Lak itself but that’s a plus for me, and there were enough places to eat along the beach, at very reasonable prices, to keep us well fed for the two weeks. A meal for two of us with a drink each was coming to around £15, which was a lot cheaper than eating in the hotel. The restaurants in the hotel were good though and if you don’t fancy walking on the sand then they are an option. Breakfast was included in the hotel price and was excellent. You can choose from an extensive menu and can eat it at any time throughout the day, up until 6pm.

If you’re going to a beach restaurant, you need to keep an eye on the tides because one night when the tide was coming in, we had to come back from a restaurant at a much quicker walk than we normally would have, and had to time our little spurts around jutting out branches, to when the waves had gone out!

The hotel provides a shuttle bus, at certain times at a cost of 100 Baht per person each way (approx. £2.50) into Khao Lak and Bang Niang. The latter has a market selling mainly tourist items such as swimwear and flip flops of which I managed to avail them of a few. There are also more restaurants to choose from if you want a change of scenery.

You can book excursions, which are mainly by boat and include visiting other islands and there are complimentary bikes at the hotel. We cycled one morning to a nearby waterfall, which we had to ourselves until we were ready to leave, when a tour group arrived, so we timed that well!

We had a fantastic relaxing holiday, at a lovely hotel with friendly staff and perfect weather. What more could you want?

If you would like any more information about the hotel or area, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.