SENSIVE HILL VILLAS

It brings new meaning to the word weird....how do you book, it’s not a hotel, there’s no restaurant, it’s a selection of apartments? These Rooms are adequate, worn out, spacious, lots of stairs. Industrious on site cleaners and maintenance, but management are eternally absent and seem to be competing with each other about who gets the cash deposits and fees required. They seem to make it up as you go along. It’s cheap, two swimming pools, both adequate, again tired but ok. It’s cheap enough to tempt me back but there’s so many minuses I’m uncertain I’d do it. I have family nearby so finding a good alternative may be a challenge.

The arrival, I emailed and confirmed a pick up van on our arrival. 2.5 Hrs later, no news we took a taxi. No biggie we spoke with the manager (oh yeah the front desk is not always open so if you need something you'll need to walk around to find the staff ). The place is nice and quiet that is a great point but it is hard to find, so our cab driver took a long time to find the place as well as at the tour pick up vans (30 min late). Is near the KATHU waterfalls entrance road, going north 500 mts to the left there is a small café and 2 roads going up hill, take the one that says private road. If you are traveling here is a map how to get there from the airport: http://goo.gl/maps/ZUpD7 The beds are rock hard, since is just a 15 cm matters on top of a wooden plank, lets put it this way, sleeping in the carpet floor in your office would be softer. So if you need a rest this might spoil your holiday BIG time. On the bright side, the staff did try to help make the bed a bit softer with extra bed mattress, they are very nice people even their english is not that good, but try to make things good for the guests. Being high season and all we decided to stay in the hotel, since we were looking to have a quiet holiday even that it was over the new year. Our last day our flight left at 10pm, we were allowed to keep the room and car until 6pm we finished touring the island, take a shower and have a driver drop us at 7.30 to the airport. Sensive Hill is worth a try, but be warned: the beds are a rock. Other stuff we found out: The breakfast is nice, very homely like cuisine. Room service has a 10% fee. The driver rate for one way trip is B700. Car rental is available, but no gps. They rent us a Toyota Corolla for B1500 per day, and since the air-con didn't work we got a discount, so it was also ok. The pool closes at 7pm, is clean and there is a bar in the poolside. Great breeze and view. Can sleep with windows open, just put a mosquito repellant. Kathu waterfalls is less than 15min drive north. Nearest 7-11 is a good 20-30 min walk away. After 7.30 pm there is a night market, food ok but a bit iffy. English not widely spoken there. Near Khatu Shooting range so in the day you can hear the gun shots, not loud at all, but sounds as wood being chopped. Not disturbing. Formerly known as the Photographer's house so there are pictures all over the place. Mostly of women portraits around the hotel and rooms. If the management purchased better mattresses, definitively would make it a great resort.

This obviously once quite stylish small hotel is a little off the beaten track and suited me as it was a family visit and relatives lived nearby. It's seven miles from Patong, lively, boozy, Blackpool-meets-Southend and then some, not my cup of tea but I imagine could be fun especially the Bangla Rd full of risqué and sports bars. Anyway Sensive is sprawling lots of stairs and stairways with two pools, one of which is quite big the other smaller but ok. It's low season and quiet, not many guests, lots of very separate rooms, some seem very large...suite like.there's no restaurant available, but it might be it's because it's low season. It was very reasonably priced on Hotels.com @£24 a night. The place is just a bit tired, the staff I met immensely friendly and very,very helpful. You'll need a hire car or taxis 'cos it's a schlepp to go anywhere. Loads of restaurants within 10 miles from the exotic to the inexpensive, all good in their own way. Room wise, a very hard double bed, brilliant for me with a bad back, but might not suit everyone. Some toiletries and fluffy white towels, with large pool towels also on offer. Cleaning of the room was faultless, the room's air con was fine, but it's worth learning in advance it's functioning. Wet-room style bathroom, fine a bit worn. It's all tiled and hard wood flooring again great for the climate. You get your money's worth but you'll need to be a bit self sufficient. There's a large fridge and bottled water provided, no tea nor coffee making facility and no restaraunt on site makes needs in that department unfulfilled. I'll be back 'cos of family commitments and I'd happily use it again but I know to get a hire car . If you don't like loads of steps and stairs you might struggle.