Jamahkiri Spa & Resort

I had a really lovely visit to Jamahkiri resort. The villa we stayed in was really nice with its own plunge pool and view of the endless sea. Inside was spotless clean but showed a little wear from being by the sea. As others have said, there are lots and lots of stairs, no elevators, and the entire resort is perched on the side of a hill like a billygoat. I would stay here with the intention of spending all of my time at the resort. It's just so difficult to get from your room to just about anywhere (even if you stay within the resort) that you will tire yourself out with all of the up and down. I visited with a girlfriend who loves to work out, so it was perfect for her and I was there for the diving and snorkeling. We ordered room service and I ate at the buffet breakfast each morning (it was not included in our room but was worth the 500 baht with western and eastern food, british breakfast items, and champagne. There is a shuttle to Mae Haad pier and all the craziness that is down there, but it only runs 3 times a day. Otherwise taxis are surprisingly expensive out there, but useful when you need them. The hotel is kind of out of the way. Everything was lovely until checkout. Even though my AMEX travel reservation showed a check out at noon, they insisted it was always 11am. It was already 10am when I learned this and I was in the lobby talking with them (at the top of the hill far away from my villa). I asked for late check out the woman was stern but was able to give us until 11:30am. Why then, was a man pounding on our door at 11:10am being aggressive and insisting on standing at the door until we both left or handed over our keys??? He could see that we were clearly almost out the door. I mean bags were at the front door. I didn't understand why there was a sudden and incredibly rude shift in service right as we were trying to leave. I still don't understand what happened. When I finally completed the long uphill walk to reception to find out why that had happened, the women at the reception had no explanation and didn't understand what I was talking about. One even admonished me for carrying my own bag up the hill, "they have a team for that" but she wasn't getting yelled at by that team member, we were. It was a truly confusing end to what had been a really lovely trip. After realizing that I wasn't going to get any clarity that day, I just left it alone and left.

This is a wonderful place to stay. Relaxed and comfortable with attractive rooms. It is attractively settled into a hill over the water. Easy walk to the water. It overlooks Shark Bay which has blue and green jewel colored water. The staff is friendly and helpful. You don't have to snorkel or scuba dive but if you do this is the place to be. Be sure to go into town. It is a short and inexpensive taxi ride. Two restaurants in town which I suggest are French Market and Whitening. Go to Whitening at sunset. It is right on the beach.

I do not recommend this hotel. The location is beautiful and the view is spectacular — but that’s about it. There are many serious issues. The air conditioning simply does not work properly. It is unbearable at night; you need to take a cold shower just to feel some relief. The unit is very weak and takes hours to cool the room, if it cools at all. The internet is extremely slow and inconsistent, making it unreliable. For the price they charge, this is unacceptable. The quality of the shampoo and soap is very poor, the towels feel like those from a budget hotel, and the taxi to the hotel costs 500 baht each way. Overall, it is overpriced and does not deliver the level of comfort and quality expected for this category.