I stayed in the hotel in September, and as a Travel Agent, will try to give you a good all round view.

The Anantara Hotel is lovely, we really enjoyed in. The service was fantastic, all the staff no matter what department were lovely, friendly and happy.

We upgraded to the Lagoon Room, which was amazing. A double bath, walk in shower, and a lovely balcony area. When we stayed, the Lagoon rooms had their own pool, which was lovely and quiet. There was no bar there, and it was very very hot, so the main pool area was better as it was a little closer to the beach.

The beach area is very limited, so the sunbeds are within the grounds of the hotel, and on the edge of the beach at a higher level. The advantage is the beach sellers cannot pester you. The sea was warm if a little murky at times.

The breakfast at the hotel was lovely, the omelettes fantastic, as is the fresh fruit.

There is nothing outside the hotel directly. The hotel offer a shuttle service down into Hua Hin. There is not a lot in Hua Hin, lots of back streets, with tacky shops and restaurants. We did not go down that much, as we felt there was not much to do. The nightmarket was very small, and something and nothing really.

The hotel have lovely restaurants, and quite often have set menu specials. Lunches are great, if a little expensive by Thai standards, but not by British standards.

You can do the floating market from Hua Hin, it is a little closer to do it from Hua Hin rather than Bangkok. This is worth doing. There really is not much cultural sites around Hua Hin area.

Would I return to the hotel - yes I would, but look to get a deal on lunches/dinners. As we enjoyed the hotel so much, we went to Anantara in Koh Samui.

If you want more info, then feel free to contact me.

We stayed for 10 nights at the Anantara and came away with mixed feelings on our holiday. If you are looking for a tropical paradise location then Hua Hin is not for you, whilst the hotel is very beautiful the town and beach are not.

The good points on the hotel:
The staff are extremely freindly, gardens and pool area are beautiful and the rooms are very clean indeed. We had a few dinners as the hotel and can reccommend the Italian restaurant for both quality of food and service.

The bad points
We upgraded to a seaview room and whilst the balcony, view and size of the room was good it was a bit dated and could do with an update esp the bathroom. Food and drink in the resort was always to a high standard but very expensive.

During our stay we had a look at the Lagoon rooms and I would say if you can afford it or can get a good deal I would definatley upgrade to these rooms as they are totally different to the old rooms and more in line with what I would expect from a 5* hotel, even though the hotel was extremley quiet we could not get a good upgrade deal.

The Anantara Hua Hin is NOT comparable to a Four Seasons, or Ritz Carlton, or a Sheraton; not even close. It aspires to the big league, but unfortunately falls short largely due to disappointing service.

Firstly on the positives. The hotel is reasonably pretty, with well grown-out gardens, wood carvings and furniture, and so forth. Also, the food is good. Unfortunately, these are about the only good things I can say about it.

In terms of areas for improvement, the hotel needs to focus on a lot of things. On our second day there, it was very hot during lunchtime, so we were seeking somewhere indoors or in the shade to eat, but got rejected by both restaurants. The Italian restaurant was hosting a group lunch for a large corporate's employees, while the Thai restaurant was hosting a tour group and wouldn't let us sit in the shaded area even though there were empty tables. And we were fully paying guests! I guess this is another takeaway: this isn't really a romantic place you'd go to, as they do bring in tourists by the busloads.

Secondly, we reserved a car "limousine" to bring us from Hua Hin to Bangkok airport to catch a relatively early flight; we went up to the front desk to make this reservation the day before our departure. On the morning we were supposed to leave, our car didn't arrive at the appointed time of 6.30am. Fifteen minutes passed, so we went to ask the front desk what was taking the car so long. The three men at the desk said "Sorry late, five more minutes", several times. Their body language (nervous, not looking us in the eye, speaking to each other in Thai) betrayed them however; we eventually found out that the reservation had not been sent to the car transportation firm the day before. The front desk lied, and didn't even have the courtesy to aplogise to us. This to me is utterly unacceptable.

I will not stay at an Anantara ever again.

We booked the Anantara online only three days before we arrived in Thailand. It had been recommended by a friend so we decided to give it a try.

Initially we were shown to Room 500, and I name this only because in my opinion Room 500 is far from their best room, and the hotel was far from fully booked when we arrived. Anyway, we asked to see what else was available and were shown to Room 724 which is a suite. So impressed were we that we took it on the spot.

It is not easy to find superlatives enough for the buildings, grounds, gardens and pools of Anantara. It is a truly stunning place to spend two weeks where the friendly staff and a team of gardeners work from the early hoursmaking sure you are well looked after and keeping the whole place tidy (and that includes cleaning debris off the beach). We absloutely loved it.

Here are a couple of points to watch out for - and then decide for yourself what you think of them. The concierge sold us (at breathtaking speed) a "meal-ticket" arrangement that in fact works out quite well, but at the time felt as though we were being conned into something. All the onsite restaurant/cafe/bar arrangements are good - excellent, but be aware that some of the theme evenings can be undersubscribed and a bit lifeless. Furthermore the breakfast set-up by the beach could do with refreshing more often. The only real gripe we had was with the fruit juice(!) Believe it or not in a place of this quality, they serve some kind of syrupy nectar juice instead of fresh juice, which in my opinion is a crime. We demanded fresh orange juice every day and we got it (or at least mandarin juice), I suggest you do the same as it can't be that hard for them to get the real thing in.

Other recommendations - if you're there for massage, go down to the beach, turn left 50 metres and clamber up to the lady with the blue sign, she and her team are true healers! Having been smitten by Anantara we plan to try some of the others in the chain and will definitely return to Hua Hin.