We were at the Cliff & River in early January for two nights for part of our honeymoon. We enjoyed our stay, especially the pool and the restaurant! We had one of the huts on the top ridge -- the A/C worked great, the bed was comfy, and they gave us a bag of rambutans as a honeymoon welcome. There seemed to be some confusion upon check-in...as if they didn't have our reservation, even though we confirmed twice via email and even showed them the email. But whatever was happening at the desk did not reflect on our stay as they took us straight to a room. As others have pointed out, there are LOTS of stairs and steep paths, so you want to be sure on your feet if you stay here.

The pool was my absolute favorite of the whole trip. Not only is the setting absolutely STUNNING, but it was lined with pebbles, had adorable elephant fountains, and was the perfect temperature. The pool is no lap pool, and it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but after having to fight for sunbeds at our previous beach resort, I found this quiet resort to be a slice of heaven.

One of the things that struck us about Cliff & River is that it wasn't just a farang resort. In fact, it appeared that there were more Thai visitors than farang. We loved this. It seemed to bode well for the quality of the place, which was confirmed at dinner. Let me just say....you don't go for the service but the food was absolutely outstanding Thai food. The best we had on the whole trip. The breakfast wasn't much but dinner was super and I seriously wish we'd had more than two meals there.

We booked two outings with Cliff and River. The first was inner tubing down the river. It had rained heavily the night before so unfortunately the clear river we had seen the day before was now a muddy fiesta. But what we lost in picturesqueness, we gained in solitude; we had the river all to ourselves. The last time I inner tubed was on the Delaware River and I remember it for all the drunk college kids screaming and laughing all around me. This was the total opposite. Our guide pointed out a great rope swing which my husband enjoyed as well as a snake in a tree, but to be honest, I was kinda keeping my eye out for river snakes. I have no idea if there were any but i couldn't get it out of my head that there might be. But is was a gentle, peaceful 2 hours or so, watching and listening to the jungle go by.

There was some confusion over the second outing we booked, an overnight on Chiew Laan Lake in a floating river hut. The front desk mixed up our dates. Not entirely their fault, but a sign of there not being a fully proficient English speaker on board. We got to reception, they wondered what we wanted, there was a flurry of phone calls and they booked us onto another trip. No problems. Well...except for the place we ended up. Haha. I had done some research into this particular activity and knew that the quality of raft houses varied. We ended up at one of the most written about, the Our Jungle House outfit with the Ton Tuey raft houses. That overnight requires a review all on its own....let's just say it was the most memorable part of our trip with it's rugged beauty and remoteness, seriously rustic digs, two king cobra sightings (one where people were swimming!), and other amazing animal sightings. LOVED our guide. Don't need to go again.

Upon returning to the Cliff & River after our overnight, they offered to let us use their showers, a super nice gesture, and had our taxi waiting for our trip to Phuket. It was rather expensive (we were quoted much less by Boss, Cheaper than Hotel) but it was a very comfortable, safe ride -- which is saying something if you've been on that road from Khao Lak to Phuket!! -- as well as being almost two hours. So well worth the money we paid.

All in all, Cliff & River feels like a real find. Something special that would have been hard to find anywhere else and I would stay there again in a heartbeat!!