My wife and I have visited Thailand every year for over 20 years and we have tried many different hotels in the Hua Hin area - high price and low price. This time we tried the Putahracsa Hua Hin and we were extremely happy with that decision.

For us (60+) the location, a little off from the busy center, was ideal. Walking distance (there is a hotel transportation if you want to use that) from the center but nice and quiet around the hotel. The design of the hotel is modern, clean and open. The rooms were big and very nice and equipped with everything you need with very comfortable beds. We tried one night in the Ocean villas and that was very special.

Pool areas clean and spacious and close to the rooms - something I appreciate.

The restaurant provided excellent food and service with all meals.

The professional and friendly service we got at this hotel will never be forgotten. I recommend Putahracsa strongly.

Gustaf von Blixen, Sweden

I love Thailand, the Thai people and I love staying at the Putahracsa hotel whenever I am in Hua Hin. I happend to be the first guest in one of the Sansky Villas and I was very happy to have returned December 2007 and again in January 2008.

I am not going to explain the entire hotel's infrastructure. The hotel's website does that very nicely. Please have a look at [--]. I also enclosed some pictures that I took in January 2008. They show the Sansky villas and the pool in front of them.

I love to stay in the Sansky villas. The villas are a bit separated from the rest of the hotel and share their own pool. The villa's interior is equipped with tastefully selected furniture. Among it, a huge twin bed, that belongs to the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in. Cleanliness is a fact and not a promise.

In front of the villa you can chill out on a nice and big bed, and there is another one located on top of the villa. There is plenty of room to hang out and relax. For those who can't be without internet connection like me, the hotel offers WLAN free of charge. It's not bad to hang out in your bathing suit while checking your emails, isn't it!

I was very happy to see most of the staff still working there since my first stay in fall 2006. Some of them became friends and I am still in contact with them.I never felt like just being a guest.A little chat there and there - it's just the Thai way! The staff is always very friendly and very helpful. And so is the hotel's general manager Mr Richard Mehr. The staff at Putahracsa is a great and very motivated team.

The hotel is like an oasis close to the center of Hua Hin. It takes a 10 minutes walk to get to the center, or you can use the hotel's courtesy tuk-tuk to bring you there. The hotel is surrounded by a wall that protects your privacy. Inside, the entire hotel area is like a beautiful tropical garden, and you forget very easily that you are in the middle of Hua Hin!

The Putahracsa also provides a restaurant called "Nahb Talay". It's a 50 meters walk outside the main hotel area. The food is excellent and not expensive. Hua Hin offers a huge selection of restaurants. But if you are into Thai fusion food, Thai food with European elements, I would not miss it for the world!

I hope to be back at the Putahracsa again very soon!

This hotel consists of two parts separated by a road. This review concerns the "villa" part of the hotel near the beach.

We stayed at an "Oceanbed Pool Villa". By definition a villa is a free-standing house. What we got was the ground floor of a small rowhouse with an upper storey that held another guest room. The immediate concern was the construction site right next to the house (see Photo 1). Thai workers works 7 days per week, so the fact that we were there on a weekend gave no reprise from the noise which was penetrating. The construction work has been going on for a long time (see the review by ckerr, London, of January 2007) and will obviously be going on for some time still. As the private pool and jacuzzi faced to that side, a peaceful swim or soak were impossible. Several houses face this side of the compound, so beware.

While the hotel compound with the "villas" is next to the sea, there really isn't any beach (see Photo 2). Even at low tide only a narrow strip of sand can be seen. Guests who like to lie on the sand have to go elsewhere or use the sandbox that is provided on the hotel grounds,

The room was large enough, with a kingsize bed. The bed is designed in such a way that it is surrounded by a ledge and has a space behind the headboard (see Photo 3). That means that the light switches on the wall next to the bed cannot be reached without getting out of bed.

The cockroach is not on the picture. There was a big cockroach on the bed when we came back to the room on our first night. It quickly scrambled to its hideaway as cockroaches do. I'm by no means squeamish - I have shared a hotel room with cockroaches before. A tropical country like Thailand is home to big cockroaches and they can be expected if you live on the ground floor. I don't expect them in a five star hotel, though. We received a written apology from the manager with a small present of incense - perhaps to smoke out the cockroach.

The air conditioning is aimed directly at the bed. For us this led to feeling alternately cold (when the air conditoning was cooling) and hot (when it was not). The choice of pillows provided didn't help. They all seemed to be synthetic and made us feel sweaty and uncomfortable.

A Bose music stand with an iPod Nano was provided and of course you can connect your own. The Bose system had occasional dropout problems. The volume control in the bathroom had only two settings: off and too loud. The widescreen LCD TV was adequate. Cable TV was provided with a reasonable choice of channels. The DVD player was connected to the LCD by the standard video output and consequently the picture quality was bad. The remote control units for both the TV and DVD player were unresponsive.

There was free wireless Internet, not very fast but usable. If you bring your laptop, be prepared to put it on your lap. There was no table in the room. There was one on the patio, but the glare from the sunlight made it next to impossible to use the laptop as the patio faced to the south. There was only a flimsy sun screen provided which didn't serve its purpose. All passers-by will also see you. Yes, the patio was facing the common grounds with guests and staff walking by all the time.

The private pool and jacuzzi are not really private. It is easy to step up to the patio and walk behind the house to the pool area. The jacuzzi only had three water jets, no air bubbles as you might expect. The waterjet control was temperamental. There was no rack to hang bathing suits for drying.

The bathroom was large, with shower only. The hot water at the sink didn't work.

The breakfast was included in our deal, but it usually isn't. The seaside restaurant serves only à-la-carte breakfast. The breakfast buffet at the main hotel restaurant across the road was good, with a fine choice of mainly western type items.

Amazingly wonderful experience from start to finish. After receiving confirmation of our room, we received an email from our villa host requesting welcoming information, i.e. welcome drink, welcome fruit, and types of flowers for the Jacuzzi, what type of pillows and the kind of music we preferred. Arriving at the lobby the day of check-in was quick and painless. Great ambiance with relaxing music throughout the lobby and resort that made for a peaceful atmosphere. We were led to our rooms immediately. The typical information was asked but every thing was done in 1 minute while our favorite music was playing in our entire villa on our personal Bose music system. Our room was beautiful. We chose the Oceanside Villa with Outdoor Jacuzzi. It had a great view of the ocean and awesome balcony with comfortable lounge sofa and sun bathing area. Not to mention the large private Jacuzzi on the other patio and free wi-fi in every unit. It was the simple touch of a little souvenir that were left on the night stand as we returned to our room from dinner and having our room turned down for the night made it a very special resort. The themes to the every room were well thought out. Every detail and finishing touches made the experience worthwhile, enjoyable and for a definite return on our next visit.