Last year I stayed at Soneva Jani, Thailand, and I fell in Love with the place. This time I returned to Thailand and decided to stay at Soneva Kiri, with the expectation that the stay would be wonderful as before; Soneva Kiri did not disappoint.
Soneva Kiri is located on Koh Kood Island, around 1 hour flight from Bangkok. To my surprise the resort has it’s own air strip! Upon arrival I was greeted with rain, however this only made the nature friendly resort appear more vibrant and beautiful.
Soneva Kiri resort is very eco-friendly; the theme of the resort is to seamlessly blend style and comfort with locally sourced materials through ecologically sustainable development. I really loved features such as pool surrounding my bedroom, or using my personal driving buggy to travel between places. You may also experience the whole resort on barefoot without getting your feet dirty once. .
Not only my eyes and heart were in love with this resort, but my stomach also! The restaurants in Sovena Kiri not only serve the best dishes but also provide memorable and unique experiences. My favorite meal was the high tea at TreePod, where I was dined at a nest-like table and the dishes were served by a waiter on a zip line.
Other great restaurants you can find in this resort such as The View; where your dishes are prepared by a Michelin Starred Chef. Also try Benz; the specialized Thai traditional food restaurant. Another option is So Chilled, a casual and relaxed restaurant where you can have your tea snacks and sandwiches.
One of the most important reasons why I love Sovena Kiri so much is that the resort is dedicated to recycling and reusing materials. For instance, the old filtered cooking oil can be reused as machine fuel. Remaining food and organic matters are collected to be recycled as fertilizer, which is used as organic fertilizer for the vegetables we have in the restaurants. This takes a great effort and marks Soneva Kiri out as a resort that cares deeply about its environmental impact. .
And of course, all of these amazing aspect would be no where without the caring, warm and kind staff of Sovena Kiri. The resort provided a personal butler; who took great care of us during our time here. I never felt watched or surveilled, the staff were always discreet, friendly and helpful.
Over all, my stay was like a fairytale come true. The beautiful nature, the professional staff, the wonderful services, they all made my time well spent and made me felt like being embraced in the loving arms of Mother Nature. I can’t wait to come back here again with my friends and family to enjoy this wonderful experience again, together.

This was our second visit to Soneva Kiri. The previous one being seven years ago when the resort was quite new. I must say that we enjoyed our stay even more this time despite being the rainy season. It helped that we were very lucky with the weather and that we got a huge upgrade. It only rained once during our week at Kiri so that was fortunately not an issue this time.

We were very fortunate to be upgraded to villa 31, a huge five-bedroom villa, with lots of outdoor space and a beautiful view. The kids loved the waterslide. Huge pool, upstairs terrace with fantastic dining area where you could watch the stars after dinner. Walk in wine-cellar. Lots and lots of daybeds and places to just hang out and read a nice book.

Some other reviewers have noted that the resort is starting to wear a bit. However, I would not agree that this was a problem. I think the general design could give that impression of you were comparing to more regular five-star resorts. In this case Kiri is all built out of sustainable natural materials that ages with weather over time. I think that our villa was in great shape and was well maintained if you are ok with the fact that wood changes naturally when exposed to rain and sun. Maintenance was going on in many surrounding villas so it’s obvious that they are doing upkeep continuously. You just have to come here with the right expectations. Don’t expect Dubai. This is more of a Robinson cruise experience. Although it comes with huge villas and six-star service.

One of the things that I appreciate with Soneva is that they try as much as possible to preserve the natural environment surrounding the resort. Here you really feel that you are in the jungle and close to nature.

The north beach was absolutely great. Even better than the now closed south beach. The only disadvantage is that you have to get there by boat and that it was closed many of the days because of high waves that made it difficult to transport guests and supplies there. The new restaurant at North beach was excellent with a limited but very good menu and fantastic service.

As many other reviewers have said I agree that service is excellent at Kiri. Genuine friendliness and a lovely team all the way from housekeeping to management.
Our Friday Ms. Jom was very good and proactive. Fantastic chefs that willingly offered to cook us anything we liked. Absolutely nothing was too much trouble. Very good food in general and exceptional breakfasts.

One highlight was when we booked the Cinema Paradiso for a private viewing with dinner and drinks. A memorable experience indeed.

GM Antony, a very pleasant and kind person, was always there making sure that we had a good time and interested in hearing our feedback.

In summary Soneva Kiri is now better than ever and I can recommend visiting in the low season when rates are considerably more favourable.

We visited Soneva Kiri in early June and although it was the beginning of the rain season in Thailand, we had exception weather with just a few drops of rain. Obviously, any weather fluctuation has nothing to do with the resort, but I wanted to mention that we got great weather even in the green season :)
The transportation to Soneva was catered via the hotel plane, on the Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi)-Mai Si (the hotel’s “airport” island) route and everything went as expected, fast and smoothly. The airport is 5 minutes away with the speed boat from the property the resort is built on and at check in you are welcomed by your own buggy and your own Mr/Mrs. Friday (personal butler).
The buggy is yours for the entire stay, while you only see Mr. Friday in the morning and night, or even less, by a phone call in case of need. We were lodged in a villa on the beach with sea view that was extremely spacious (had several outdoor relaxing spaces, 2 showers, an outdoor bathtub, dressing, interior relaxing spaces and much more). We were surprised to see that everything is so well thought out that you feel like they are at least 3 steps ahead of yours :)
Nothing is placed at rand, everything is extremely discreet, every light has a purpose, every scent is meant to enchant you (by the way, you can choose your room and bathroom fragrance before your arrival as well as the type of pillow you want to sleep on, what movies you want to watch, what music you want in your villa, your dietary restrictions and what activities you want to pre-book).
The places you can eat are very different, from The View restaurant, where you get dishes prepared by a Michelin chef all the way to the Benz, where you can taste traditional Thai food, carefully chosen by the chef with the same name. There’s also So Chilled, a more relaxed restaurant where you can even order sandwiches, and TreePod (the restaurant in the tree) where you can have breakfast, lunch and the so-called “high tea” served by a waiter that brings your food on a zip line.
They even have a room full of chocolate which you can taste at your discretion next to homemade ice cream. Or the cheese and bread room, all you can eat as well :) And if that wasn’t enough, they even have an observatory, a giant playground, and an outdoor cinema.
What’s more important and the thing that placed Soneva Kiri on the map of the most beautiful hotels we ever stayed at is the sustainability and the care they have for the environment. Congratulations for understanding that you can’t take without giving something back, for understanding that plastic is a real danger for the environment, for teaching the young ones the importance of everything that is nature. For understanding that the experience is what is left when all else is gone and that luxury means, above all: time, intimacy and care for everything surrounding you. Looking forward to our next visit :)