From the very start this holiday felt doomed. We prepaid a transfer from Krabi airport with the hotel (US50 for 5 people) and the driver was indeed waiting for us however he did not bring the van to the undercover driveway at the airport exit, despite the fact it was raining, rather, without helping us, took off into the car park and we followed along, no help, no brolly, no instructions. The driver took off at a rate of knots and drove way too fast in the rain around the narrow and winding roads to the jetty. At the jetty, we were told to go straight ahead. Again, it was raining, no brolly and no help with all our luggage. I saw other people being ferried in a golf buggy but was told that we could not use it as it was private. Ok… so we trapse down the jetty (about 150m) in the rain and a man approached us and motioned for us to sit. So we told him which hotel we wanted to go to and we sat, and sat and waited. While we sat there, we saw about 8 local men just sitting at the jetty, waiting for who knows what, and talking. After about 10 minutes we hear a whistle from one of the men and he motioned for us to come over. We took our bags back out into the rain and dragged them and...From the very start this holiday felt doomed. We prepaid a transfer from Krabi airport with the hotel (US50 for 5 people) and the driver was indeed waiting for us however he did not bring the van to the undercover driveway at the airport exit, despite the fact it was raining, rather, without helping us, took off into the car park and we followed along, no help, no brolly, no instructions. The driver took off at a rate of knots and drove way too fast in the rain around the narrow and winding roads to the jetty. At the jetty, we were told to go straight ahead. Again, it was raining, no brolly and no help with all our luggage. I saw other people being ferried in a golf buggy but was told that we could not use it as it was private. Ok… so we trapse down the jetty (about 150m) in the rain and a man approached us and motioned for us to sit. So we told him which hotel we wanted to go to and we sat, and sat and waited. While we sat there, we saw about 8 local men just sitting at the jetty, waiting for who knows what, and talking. After about 10 minutes we hear a whistle from one of the men and he motioned for us to come over. We took our bags back out into the rain and dragged them and our very wet selves, onto a rickety looking long tail boat. The boat took us to Railay Bay and when it stopped, about 200 m off shore, the driver motioned for us to go to shore. My children got out first and we handed bags to them (no help from the boat driver except he ended up carrying one bag above his head when it was clear I could not do this as the water was waste high and I am not a tall person). No care was taken in getting us out of the boat, the water was high, the waves were high and we were not on solid footing (shoes off by this point, clothes saturated) and to add insult to injury it was still raining! After walking to the shore on a very slippery very dangerous walk way (with NIL visibility to see if we were on the path or about to fall off into the deep water either side) the driver simply took off. I mean, took off. We tried to follow and keep up but lost sight of him and had to ask directions three times to our hotel. We were dumped on the east side and walked about 5-10 mins to the west side to our hotel. OUr horror was that when we got to the other side there were about 6 staff standing around, trolleys and brolleys available and NONE of them had come to assist. We felt like we had intruded on a party and and were unwelcome guests at the check in counter. The boat driver stood around for a while but trust me, there was not going to be a tip for him (nor the van driver). Check in was long, we were frustrated because everything had been pre paid (insisted upon by our booking person other wise I doubt we would have stayed) and we really didn't feel in the slightest bit like we were valued or cared about guests. Our rooms were average, in need of updating, just shabby. Unfortunately the bad weather conditioned and we spent the following day in doors (no gym or games room or activities at the hotel for inclement weather). The breakfast was disgraceful, same every day, with flies and ants on the food. The food was cheap and very nasty. Go to the walking street and eat the roti if you can't face the breakfast day after day. The restaurants along the beach were nice and we did have some nice seafood.
Be warned, all the shops are there to rip you off, eg on the main land at 7/11 you will pay 10B for a can of coke, at the resorts is B25-40B, icecreams and snacks are double, if you can, take some with you (fridge in room).
The only thing I can offer this hotel is that when our daughter got sick they arranged for someone from the night staff to bring medication for her over from that night when they started work. It was kindly done and delivered to our room.
There is a tour desk but negotiate because prices vary widly depending who is on duty.
Overall, we would not stay at this hotel again as there are much nicer, friendlier places to stay in Thailand.More