Railay Village Resort & Spa

West Railay Beach is genuinely one of the most beautiful spots in Thailand — and that’s what brings people here. Unfortunately the resort itself didn’t live up to expectations. Service: Mostly absent during our stay. One staff member who helped with luggage was a standout — appreciated that. Food: Breakfast is $10 and felt overpriced for what was offered. There are better options nearby. Cleanliness: Stained sheets and a bathtub we weren’t comfortable using. Needs attention. Alcohol: Dry resort — no beer, wine, or cocktails on property. Worth knowing before you book. AC: Powers off when you leave the room, so you return to a warm room each time. Wi-Fi: Unreliable during our stay. Don’t plan on it working consistently. Overall: The property feels dated and could use a real refresh. The location is world-class — the resort just hasn’t kept pace with it. Listed as four stars — we’d respectfully disagree with that rating. Would recommend Railay Beach — just do more research on where to stay.

Firstly, let’s get the negative reviews out of the way. If we had trusted what was written on the TripAdvisor platform we would have given this resort a very wide berth. Fortunately and from some experience and reading carefully what was said, a pattern started to form and we dismissed the majority of the ‘so called claims’ and we were proved right. Firstly, unless you have some sort of transport arranged, then my first piece of advice would be to arrange an airport transfer between KRABI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT and Railay. There are various options which reflect the price difference, but as the old saying goes ‘you get what you pay for.’ I emailed the resort direct a few months prior to arrival and set up their service. Basically there is someone waiting at the airport arrivals with our name on it and dressed in the Railay Village Resort uniform, they took us to a private mini bus with driver for the 30 minute transfer to the pier where another employee greeted us and took us by golf buggy for about a kilometre to the boat jetty at Ao Num Mao, there the ‘long tail boat’ takes you to Railay East Jetty where another employee is waiting to greet and transfer your luggage to Railay West Beach where the resort is situated. There are other operators charging a lot less but they drop you on Railay West Beach, where there is no jetty and you will have to wade through the sea and transport your own luggage to the front office of the resort. All of Railay is only accessible by boat, as there are no roads in or out of this isolated and protected peninsula. Now the resort: We had a spa bath villa (1022) and loved our entire time in it. A very comfortable bed, excellent air con, tv, walk in shower and large bathroom, plus with amazing views of the limestone cliffs, all kept spotless by our room attendant Lee, on her days off, Tar did an excellent job. Both kept us supplied with fresh towels in the villa and extra beach towels. Plus made some amazing towel displays. Thank you ladies. The grounds are maintained by a work force who interact with the guests and spotlighting the local wildlife. At this point I should mention the troop of monkeys that roam around. Given half a chance they will steel anything, so best advice is to keep your Villa door locked and windows closed. The resort has two pools, a spa, which we visited 3 times while we were their, a restaurant and information centre situated in the main check in area/office. We could have gone out to the various restaurants situated in ‘Walking Street’, but with the sound and views of the sea and sunsets within the grounds of the resort, we had all our evening meals in the resort and every night had something different. The food and staff were both fantastic. Breakfast is set up here and the choice and quality offered was amazing. If any guest left hungry it was their fault not the resorts. Please note the Railay Village Resort does not have an alcohol license, but are more than happy for guests to bring in their own drinks from nearby bars . The resort is managed by the GM ‘White’, who has built a fantastic team around her. Name check time. We totally understand this resort and all the staff who work here and enjoyed their company and hopefully I made them laugh with my bad Thai pronounced words, thank you to the following Mam, trainees Mai and Sha, Fana, Kid, Sophia, Honey, Hunnie, Yuri, Rainy, Kam, Chef Meen, Far, Bow, Sat, Prasit, Mind, Bee Mai, Fan, Beau, Abdulla, (the first person we meet), and to anyone else I have missed out, honestly I didn’t mean too as ALL of the staff made a lasting impression on us. Can’t say what the double story deluxe rooms were like, as we didn’t go into them, but they are located at the far end of the resort near the Spa. Attached to back up my account of this truly wonderful resort are pictures and if anyone thinks about a stay here I can honestly recommend it. If you engage with the staff, they will reward you with a very special experience. As you can probably tell, we were totally looked after in all departments and made to feel very special indeed and we truly appreciated what was done for us. We would have no hesitation in returning in a heart beat. Thank You Railay you touched our souls and for that we truly thank you.

Amazing hotel. Yes the rooms are very dark wood and a little dated. But of all our Thailand locations, this was the best, on a 4 hotel trip. The jungle location, with monkeys, crickets and frogs, the noises, especially at night are magical. Considering we out out of season and the size of the hotel the breakfast was very reasonable. Pick the right transfer though. Luckily we picked the ''to jetty'' transfer. A friend had previously stayed here and warned me you arrive by boat onto the beach and get wet on arrival.