I booked this hotel/holiday a bit late in the day and used trip advisor to save time. I soon spotted the 2008 travellers’ choice awards and started looking down the top 100 best luxury hotels. The #1 ranked hotel (in Costa Rica) is about 5 miles from the beach so I started looking at the Layana Resort and Spa which is ranked #2. I didn’t need to read much more as it sounded so idyllic. I checked availability, booked the flights then confirmed the hotel.

We arrived at Krabi airport and were met immediately by one of their pleasant members of staff who was standing alongside the driver of the hotel vehicle that was sent for us. After a relaxing journey to Koh Lanta Yai we arrived at the hotel lobby for a very quick and painless check-in with fruit, tea and refresher towels, whilst our luggage was sent to the room.

As the resort was so reasonably priced we had booked a beach suite, which turned out to be a good choice. You can also opt for an ocean deluxe suite which are a bit more spacious, but are set a little further back from the ocean and don’t have quite as good a view (still a very good view though!). The prices for bed and breakfast for two people were about £62/£127/£160 for garden pavilion/beach suite/ocean deluxe suite.

We were driven by golf buggy to the room, which was a work of art. With a super king bed, it was very tastefully decorated and the bathroom had his and hers basins, a nicely bath sunken into a marble surround matching the marble tiling throughout the bathroom. There was also an indoor shower which also led through to a privately enclosed outdoor shower area. Outside the front door of the room we had our own private terrace area where we could sit down and relax looking out over the ocean. The beach was 10m away and the sea 20-30m depending on the tide.

There was such a wide choice for breakfast which included cereals, several types of fruit juice, fruit platters, croissants, pain au chocolat, Danish pastries, yoghurts, dried fruits, nuts, salads, cold meats/cheeses, pancakes, full English/American or the local Thai fried rice/noodle options. Lunch and dinner in the hotel’s tides restaurant was fabulous too and there was a good choice with a daily variation on the menu which made it more enjoyable and diverse. The fresh fish basket on a Thursday, the Saturday sizzle and the Sunday taster menu were our favourites. We loved the food at Layana so much that we undertook a Thai cookery class one lunchtime, learning how to make a papaya salad, tiger prawn soup and red/yellow curry. As with every single area of the hotel the staff were very friendly and the attentiveness was second to none. e.g. one evening I phoned housekeeping for an iron/board and about two minutes later they turned up with two smiling friendly members of the Layana staff (laundry services are also available by the way), or if you need to leave the dining table for a short period there was always someone there when you came back in to push your chair in for you. Talk about pampered!!!

The day after we arrived we went to the spa for the complimentary Royal Thai Massage we had found in the welcome pack in the room. It was fantastic and we ended up in the spa on many occasions for various other massages, wraps, scrubs, facials and the 4hr Romancing Layana treatment package. Each treatment was followed with a relaxing fresh fruit platter, green tea and refresher towel. Again, the staff could not have been better as their attention to detail, graciousness and warmth was amazing. Another plus was that there was such a wide range of treatments on the spa menu.

The hotel pool was another great feature and I believe it has just received an award. If you are in the pool and are facing in the direction of the ocean there is an illusion of the water looking continuous. The pool attendant is meticulous and constantly brings fresh iced water and skewers of fresh fruit. The bar staff come to take orders and later on in the day lovely citrus smelling mosquito repellent is sprayed onto you by staff, just in case. We found out that the hotel has a fortnightly bug treatment carried out on the grounds, but better safe than sorry.

One evening we went on the Layana Sundowner Cruise. We had a 6-7min drive to Saladan then boarded one of the hotel boats and had an amazing trip through the mangroves with tasty Thai canapés and drinks. Bob and Margie, the hotel owners, were perfect hosts (Bob makes you feel so at ease with his funny anecdotes) and we managed to see a lot of the wildlife up close and have some very nice photographic mementos. The hotel also has a tour desk situated near the lounge where you can book other various excursions which are well worth looking at. We ended up having a fantastic day out elephant trekking, visiting the old town and sea gypsy village, lunch at the panoramic viewpoint restaurant, walking through the rainforest up to a waterfall and visiting the National Park at the southern most tip of the island.

We also hired a hotel motorbike for 24hrs (very reasonable at under £5 [300 baht]) and spent time doing our own exploring. We ended up having lunch at a lovely local Thai restaurant called ‘Same Same But Different’ and enjoyed it so much that we went there by taxi later on in the holiday for dinner. We ate out two other nights at the Langham Hotel and the Pimalai Hotel. The menu at the Langham disappointedly turned out to be a choice of 75% European and 25% Thai food. Not at all feeling homesick and our ‘when in Rome’ philosophy regarding food made the taxi journey seem a waste of time as the Thai food at the Layana was far superior. The menu at the Pimalai’s seven seas restaurant was even more limited for Thai cuisine so I begrudgingly went European to avoid a repeat of the Langham and had a wonderful combination of a scallops starter and veal main course. My girlfriend opted for just a Thai main course which was a very greasy chicken/lemongrass experience so I shared mine. The assiet of desserts partly made up for her chicken though.

At the end of our holiday, we unfortunately we had to leave the hotel and were wonderfully waved off by about 6 or 7 of Layana’s delightful staff. The hotel vehicle was met at Krabi airport by another of the Layana team and he guided us very smartly through the checking in process.

I just want to say a very big thank you to Bob and Margie for their astounding hotel and many thanks also to their remarkable staff. The attention to detail is incredible and at the same time is seemingly so effortless. I have never had such a relaxing holiday and that is what we exactly set out to do.

Kind regards,

Simon