Baan Ploy Sea

What a great hotel. The location is idylic. The room was clean. The private beach was lovely and they had a fire show every night. The restaurant on site was the best on the island. The pool was nice. There is a motorbike rental shop conveniently right next door. The tour services offered are reasonably priced and not marked up just because they are offered by the hotel. My only complaint is that there are lots of dogs barking all night.

I stayed at a quiet mini resort, which was great for peace and quiet. The best part was the chocolate cabin in the woods behind it. The infinity pool was mostly quiet and the rooms were cleaned well, which was important to me as someone with OCD. Despite being on the ground level with a sea view, I didn't encounter any bugs or ants inside. The staff was decent, but not overly welcoming or friendly. Jik, who worked at the reception, was helpful and booked reservations for us at restaurants and other Samed group resorts. However, the resort was a bit far (15-minute drive) from everything else, making it quite a ride by motorbike or taxi. The distance felt longer when traveling around the island. My least favourite thing was the breakfast restaurant. The Japanese style seating, while great for lunches or dinners, became annoying after a day or two, especially during breakfast when I needed to get up several times and bruised myself getting up. The restaurant also had an ant problem, which made me feel very uneasy and ruined my enjoyment of breakfast. I wished we hadn't included breakfast at the hotel. I felt that the same hygiene methods used for the rooms should be applied to the restaurant to prevent the ant issue.

We had a wonderful first resort experience. The service and facilities were great, fireshow was exciting and our 3 hour snorkelling adventure was super fun.