If you want to experience the country's dynamic nightlife, you should look for somewhere else such as Phuket. However, if you like to experience a completely relaxed atmosphere surrounded by nature, than I don’t think there's a better place than Soneva Kiri. The resort is absolutely huge with plenty to explore, and you certainly won't get bored with all the activities, even during low season. We really appreciated the personal buggy to drive around. South beach is, along with Amanpulo beach, one of the few beach in SE Asia that is on the same level as the Maldives, especially during low tide. It’s in a total different league compared to other famous islands in Thailand. We were lucky enough to get 2.5 days out of 4 of sunshine during our stay in rainy season. Not a single negative thing to say about the hotel’s staffs. From our butler, Kim, to the restaurant and South Beach staffs (unfortunately i don’t know their names), all of them were super friendly without being overly ‘’intrusive’’, just Thai hospitality at its finest. The food here is also spectacular, the fine dining restaurants serve incredibly fresh and flavourful dishes, on par with Michelin-starred restaurants. For budget option you also have the all-day restaurant at the main area, or South Beach for lunch, where you can get more casual style, yet delicious food for about the same price as a cafe in Paris or London. Breakfast is certainly the best one we’ve ever had, and we loved the Asian street buffet as well! There's nothing bad about our stay that I have to point out. Perhaps the only minor glitch is the outdated weekly program in the Soneva app. You can find a summary of the weekly program such as activities, themed dinners etc. in the SK application, but the hotel keep changing the schedule (probably due to weather). In our case, we had a location change and a schedule change. Luckily our butler did give us the correct information. Please update the weekly program section regularly, otherwise it could become misleading… All in all, this is a fantastic resort and I can’t wait to return in the not too distant future (hopefully!). IMPORTANT NOTE: The hotel provides charter flights from BKK airport and it’s the fastest way to get there. While I have absolutely no doubt that the flight is perfectly safe, the fact that it’s a small aircraft (Cessna 208B) makes it more sensitive to turbulence / wind shears. If you are an aviation geek like me or you don’t mind, it will be a pleasant flight with magnificent views. However if you have occasional airsickness issues even when flying on commercial jets, which was the case for one of us, I’d highly suggest you to take the ferries instead.…
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.