This is a lovely resort looking on to the beach, just outside the very busy tourist town of Khao Lak. We stayed here for six nights recently, but even though it was the peak holiday season, it never felt too crowded, as there was plenty of space to spread out.

The hotel can arrange for a pickup service from Phuket airport; the journey took about 80 minutes. The reception staff, were, like all the other staff, nothing less than than charming, and instantly made us feel at home.

Our spotlessly clean room was on the ground floor, with its own deck, which could be reached from the gardens. There was plenty of storage, and the spaciousness could be further enhanced by folding back one wall of the bathroom to merge it into the bedroom, if desired, The well designed bathroom included a tasteful jacuzzi bath.

Breakfasts were very good, with a wide selection of Eastern & Western dishes. We also ate at Sassi's a couple of times: the food was very good , and prices competitive. I can't say the same of the Mellow Bean, which served up a weird sandwich and Caesar salad.

In fact, you are spoilt for choice when it comes to food. Taking a few steps along the beach or down the road outside the hotel will bring you to dozens of reasonably priced restaurants serving delicious Thai or Western food. There are also numerous bespoke tailors, money changers, massage parlours, and travel agencies attempting to sell day trips to the Similan Islands (don't bother - on my dive boat I was chatting to a man whose wife had ended up on a smallish island beach with 700 other sun-seekers). If you get bored with the local eateries, Khao Lak is just a 5-minute taxi ride away.

My only criticism of the Ramada is its tsunami evacuation procedure. Although there are clear signs at the bottom of stairs indicating the tsunami evacuation points, I have severe doubts about whether they'd be used. At about 12:15am one night, the alarms went off, and all the guests ran into the corridor. A trio of security guards, dressed like soldiers in a banana republic, ran around like headless chickens. No-one told us anything, so we just stood around. Our neighbours rang reception, who said they didn't know anything either. Finally, the alarms stopped, and we returned to our rooms (I had to ask one of the giggling guards: 'OK?'). Not a thing was said the next day, and we were leaving anyway, so didn't pursue it. We later found out that there had been a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Sumatra.

I really enjoyed my stay at the Ramada, and would have given it a perfect score, if not for the confusion described above.

We stayed in Ramada Khao Lak from 5th January 2012 to 13th January 2012

Ramada is actually a boutique hotel & is really nice, not too big, very well located on Bang Niang beach.

Deluxe Oasis rooms are nice & spacious, well decorated, with all you can expect. Bathroom is really nice as well.

Breakfast is good, though not the best we have ever had, still good. And not only for german people as we had read on the

Internet !!

Staff is really helpful & very smiling. I have to mention Toh & the beach staff who did a great job, always trying to help &

making sure you dont need anything.

Beach is really nice (nicest spot on Bang Niang beach actually), as the pool. Sunbeds are always available.

Outside the hotels, many restaurants in Bang Niang to have diner or lunch. We do recommend
* Green Pepper, in Bang Niang Village. Great Thai food and nice restaurant
* Inder's Chullah (Indian restaurant on your right on road when you walk out of Ramada). Great food !
* Chong Fah's restaurant : nice restaurant with good Thai food with a view on the beach
* Sawasdee :in Bang Niang Village. Good Thai food
* Mali seafood : in Bang Niang Village, good Indian & thai food
* My Friend : beach restaurant (walk on the left when you are on the hotel's beach). Nice & slow ;)
* Tonson's : closest beach restaurant on the left of the hotel. Not as good as we had read on the Internet. My Friend was better.

In the hotel, the excursion desk did a great job with our Similan D2/1N excursion. Seastar, which took care of us fro 2 days, did

a fantastic job. They are really open do changes if you do not want to snorkel but prefer staying on the beach at the end of the

afternoon when all tourists & speedboats leave. The food they do provide on the island is good and there was plenty of it

(atucally too much for us two).

Hotel is 5min in taxi from Khao Lak City, which costs 150 THB per way. Try to negociate 100THB per way if you are more than 2 in

the taxi.

One of us two did also some diving with Big Blue Diving in Khao Lak, which is a nice diving club !

Overall, we have a great stay, close to perfection !
We will come back at Ramada, should we stay in Khao Lak again, 100% certain !

Thank you Ramada for the great holidays.

A couple in their early 30s !

Had a great time there! Great location, walking distance to shopping, massages and motorbike rentals. Happy hour by the pool is great with great deals on food, too! Some entertainment for the hildren at the poll was a nice touch(thai box). Our room had some kind of drain that we could not understand, shower water went towards t font door, called engineer and they just added bath towels on the floor!!! Bed desing, floor was lined that way!!! Some kind of sewer smell from time to time when you walk outside towards the rooms and by the breakfast area.

Unfortunately our stay at the Ramada was too short and we wished we would have had another one or two days. The rooms are very nice and big and have a nice balcony. The food in the hotel, as well as at the beach was very nice and the generous hotel compound was just great. The best and most outstanding was simply the great and friendly service of the staff,