Thanks - Koh Lanta is awesome !

Folks,

Me and my wife just returned back from an awesome trip to Thailand (Koh Lanta and Bangkok).

Wanted to thank the people in this forum for patiently responding to my queries and their suggestions.

I dont have a blog on my travel yet; shall post it here once it is ready.

Our AirAsia flight landed bang-on-time in Krabi, but our journey from Krabi to Koh Lanta took 4+ hrs, thanks to the traffic at the car ferry. We reached Lanta, just in time to watch the sunset from our resort.

Folks, if you have an option, just take the boat ferry between Krabi and Lanta. No second thoughts.

We stayed at the Casuarina (on long beach), toured with Lanta longtail to the eastern islands (thanks to emjay reet), took a day trip to phi-phi and spent a day exploring the island on bike.

Capt.Sun and Susanna (lanta longtail) were fabulous and we had one of our best trips to the eastern island (talabeng and bu-bu) with Capt.Sun.

We went to Sayang beach resort to have dinner, had a makeshift table setup for us on the sands, waited one hour (no exaggerations) for the food to be served, and in the end had one of the best Indian foods. This place serves some awesome indian dishes.

In short, our trip was just awesome. We never felt like leaving the place.

~Ambulimaama.

Thanks - Koh Lanta is awesome !

Hi,

Thanks for your report, it sounds like you had a great time. What did you think of the Casuarina?

We are staying there in May in a Seafront Bungalow

and would like to know what you think.

I know it will be very quiet when we are there but

its nice to get other%26#39;s opinions.

Thanks Lindy.

Thanks - Koh Lanta is awesome !

Glad to hear you had an amazing time, and that you loved your day tour with Lanta Long Tail (Sun and Susanna) as much as what we did. A trip with them cannot be beaten! Much more personal and fun than the bigger tour boats!

Reet xx

Lindy,

We enjoyed every bit of our stay at the Casuarina. Personally i found the service here to be very good.

Are you referring to the beach-front villa ? The rooms are good. However the small trees infront of the villas hamper the view of the beach from the rooms.

We were not the relax-on-beach-bed-all-day types. However if you plan to do that, you should know that the guests staying here towel-reserve these beds early morning. So you have to be quick enough to get yours.

Since you are going in May, which I believe is the start of the low season, you might be able to just walk-in and get the rooms.

If you need any specific information let me know.

PS : After reading the various reviews of the resort and after having been there personally, I concluded that service level expectations vary significantly between the people. Just be conscious of this factor whenever you read any reviews.

~Ambulimaama.

Agreed Reet. We had a lot of fun trying to kayak for the first time. We just drifted away from the boat and finally Sun had to pull us with a rope. Sun ended up kayaking us separately around Talabeng :)

Thanks for your reply Ambulimaama, it%26#39;s nice to have recent first hand knowledge about a place.

I was refering to the Beachfront Villa, we have already booked and would not have changed our minds but it is good that you enjoyed the hotel.

We have been to Thailand many times before ,but never to Koh Lanta , so it%26#39;s more exciting trying new places.

Thanks Again,

Lindy.

Hi Ambulimama,Glad to hear you enjoyed Casaurina Resort,we have booked a beachfront bungalow in October,we believe out of the 4 only 2 face directly out to sea,is that correct,we can%26#39;t seem to get it across in an email that we want to request one of those 2.Hopefully in Oct the car ferry will not be so full.Looking forward to your travel blog for all the good places to eat.

Cheers Goldie

Goldie,

Casuarina has only 2 beachfront villas (lantacasuarina.com/bungalow_beachfront.htm). You can check with them directly (info@lantacasuarina.com). Both of these beachfront villas are adjacent to each other and face the beach directly.

The rest of the villas are called seaview villas (www.lantacasuarina.com/bungalow_seaview.htm).

One of the seaview villas ( i vaguely remember the room # 2103 ) is very close to the beach, facing the beach diagonally.

I dont think it is possible to request any specific room. You can expect a standard ';Based on availability'; response.

I%26#39;ve tried to give a map of the Casuarina. Hope this gets displayed properly in the post.

~Ambulimaama.

DS - Deluxe Sea View

SV - Sea View Villa

BFV - Beach Front Villa

BBF - Buffet Breakfast area

BFD - Beach front dining

BB - Beach beds

PPLL - Pool

GGNN - Garden

MP - Massage Parlor.

DS DS DS DS DS DS

SV BBF

GGGGGNNNNNNN

SV

SV

SV

SV

PPPPPPLLLLL

SV SV

BFV BFV

MP

BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BB BFD

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yickes. The map didnt come up properly.

Hi Ambulimama,Thankyou for your prompt reply,the information about the beachfront villa%26#39;s helped a lot.We had a look at the resort on Google Earth which was good,but of couse you don%26#39;t know what the buildings are.Your map if it had worked would have been good,it was nice of you to try though.We are going to book with Lanta Longtail,the reviews from all are great.

About putting the towels on seats around the pool,and going away,there are some great tips on the Phuket Forum that l will be using in future.

Cheers Goldie

Hi, Just had another look at your Map,and on going to Google Earth will be able to work it out,so thanks again.

Cheers Goldie