Looking for a romantic get away for me and my gf I booked a beach bungalow for 2 nights including breakfast via agoda.com for a good rate at this family owned and -run resort. Took Lelawadee speedboat from the Laem Ngob pier to the Ao Kao pier. Upon arrival found that there were no (songtaew) taxi's available and the pier otherwise was deserted too as it is low season and not many tourists come to the island. How to get to the resort? Going any further was as good as impossible because the rainfall (monsoon time!) had created a thick, slick mud pool right at the pier entrance. Unfortunately I did not have a phone number of the Ao Kao resort: the agoda booking only mentioned their address. (Maybe a tip to have a contact number included on the booking confirmation. Or have the resort name and number listed at the pier?) Anyway, since this is a review of Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort I don't want to spend too many words on the transportation troubles we had. We made it to the resort (by songtaew) after about 45 minutes. No biggie.
We arrived at the resort which seemed pretty deserted. We were greeted by a friendly lady at the main building, where also the restaurant is located. We were given the "Talay Dao 4" bungalow, which indeed was a beachfront bungalow, with a nice view. (Although our ocean view was a bit muddled because we had the Ao Kao golf cart parked right in front of our bungalow. Not a big deal to us though.) They were also building a new bungalow next to ours, about 15 meters away, but no disturbing sounds were made while we were there.
The interior of the bungalow was spacious. A large bed, with a mosquito net present overhead the bed. A (squicky) rotating fan on the ceiling above the bed and an arconditioning unit in one corner of the bungalow, luckily not blowing it's air over the bed. A tv and dvd player (they have a huge collection of dvd's available at the resort, although I wonder why one would want to watch dvds while staying at this beautiful place), a large wardrobe, desk, large fridge. A large veranda with table and 2 chairs. Nice, large, separate bathroom, with toilet, washbasin and shower with hot water. Plenty of lighting and ac wall outlets. Wifi present.
We rented a motorbike at the resort so we could explore the island. Due to the rain many dirt roads were inaccesible and we therefore could not visit many of the other beaches.
The resort has a nice layout with a nice beach, although it is not just sand. A lot of vulcanic rock too which is very visible during low tide. But there are plenty good swimming areas too. Unfortunately here also a lot of plastic that washes ashore on the beach. A global problem :-(
The overall impression of the resort is very good. It was quiet and romantic. I do fear though that during high season it can be pretty noisy in front of the ocean view bungalows as they have a trampoline set up for kids as well as a beach volleyball court. The beach I found a bit disappointing, not only because of the rocks, but also because it was not clean, but that is probably due to the low season and the fact that it rained a lot as well, so nobody bothered to look after the beach. Guests that visit during high season (Nov - Feb) can give feedback about the cleanliness of the beaches then.
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