Again, very differing views on this hotel which had me a bit worried, but after a weeks stay, I found Bayview to be excellent, but I can understand if the elderly travellers dont quite like it, but Phi Phi island is more for the younger people anyway. For peace and quiet, stay in one of the resorts at Long Beach, which is away from Bayview and main Tonsai town where the action is.
The Bayview resort has several cabins looking towards the beach and the ocean. There's jungle behind the cabin's so of course there's going to be bugs right? I dont understand how you can not expect a few bugs in your room when 80% of the island is still jungle.
I'm a very jumpy person who is scared of bugs, but I have to say I didnt have to worry too much. As long as you keep the balcony's bug window closed, you'll be ok. A few cute, super little green lizards, which are *everywhere* in Thailand, ran around our room's ceiling, but they are there to eat the bugs and scamper away as soon as you turn on the lights. The only thing we had to do was to keep the bathroom door closed since the ventilation in the bathroom is basically done via few tiles with holes in them, so during night if you leave the light on, you'll get some mosquito's etc in there, but nothing major, I had no problems going to the bath room late at night.
The bath room is big, or rather the shower area is huge, but besides that there's only the sink, so there's very little space for your overnight bags etc. I had to keep mine in the living room.
The bungalow was quite sparse, but spacious, had plenty of luggage space and the large balcony had a killer view to the ocean. There's a table, chairs and two sunbeds on the balcony and it's just great to chill out there and look at the ocean and the boat taxi's ferrying back worth Tonsai and Long Beach. The beds are very good and the cot we got wasn't half bad either. The tv was old school, but during the week we never even turned it on.
The bungalows are quite close to each other, but far enough apart to offer privacy.
Now, the service at the hotel was...interesting. You have to understand that the locals and staff hardly speak any english, so it can get a bit difficult, but I had no problems organizing my transport away from the hotel upon departure, settling the bill or anything. Any sightseeing trip you want to attend, the hotel can organize it.
The room service worked okay too and is very cheap. If you order western food like a burger or steak, it's far from special, but when you order more local food like chicken and steamed rice, or fish, the food gets a lot tastier. The room service was quick though I was never sure if I was supposed to tip or not. The food was always shrink wrapped to prevent any bugs etc dropping in to the food during transport.
At the lobby there's a massage parlor and for 400 baht you could get an superb one hour massage. What I did have a problem with was that the staff was a bit weird...like I had sunburn and was I settling myself on the bed, the masseuse invited the other ones to look at my burns and they all giggled, which I didn't appreciate. Nor that photos were taken of my friend while he was getting massaged, though he was let known this was happening. I'm pretty sure in a western hotel that would have resulted in a talk with the manager about, but in one way the nice thing about Phi Phi is that it's still quite isolated and it's just...not so corporate, thank goodness. The massage area is right next to the lobby too, so not too private.
The pool area is basic and quite small, but offered free scuba diving lessons! There's also a massage parlor at the pool and a small restaurant, but almost everyone is at the beach. There's a nice beach area right in front of the main lobby, with crystal clear waters, plenty of lounge chairs and the bar and the restaurant are right behind you. A bit further away there's a small beach area which is much more private. Also, a bit of a walk via the jungle on a well worn path, you can get to Long Beach, which is a long strech of a beautiful beach, but there's far more people here since there's a few big resorts there. I recommend taking the boat taxi which cost only 100 baht instead of the jungle route, which was a bit to steep in some parts to my liking.
When you get to the islands pier, Tonsai, there's a free long tail boat to take you to the Bayview which is at the end of the beach, so it's perfect because it's got privacy and the hotel's restaurant closes around 10pm, so it gets quiet. You can hear the music from the bars on the beach which are about a 150 metres from the hotel, but the noise wasn't bad at all, but we had the furthest cabin.
All in all, I'd say if you want to stay in relatively remote, but comfortable location with most of the amenities of a good western hotel and a superb beach, Bayview is an excellent choice. The bars and restaurants are just a short walking distance away and you walk on the beach if you want. I absolutely recommend this place for more experienced tourists and especially couples, it's a romantic place.
There's also wifi access, which worked okay and was cheap.
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