Guest Reviews

Satri House: "Authentic Experience"

"Satri House delivers on its promise of being ""a historic destination, a unique design"". The original house was run as a hotel since 2002 and was extended in 2008 reflecting the original architecture. We stayed over Songkran for 4 nights and were warmly welcomed by Jacques Mury (General Manager) and Navinda Imbubpa (Guest Experience Manager). On arrival to the room, we were impressed by the handwritten welcome note from Jacques. Whilst it is true that the hotel is located close to a fairground (the source of techno music correctly referred to in the previous review), we understand that Luang Prabang is always tranquil and that the volume we experienced was limited to this New Year festival only. We reflected on the importance of a pre-visit study. Notwithstanding this, Satri House is an amazing hotel. The renovation mirrors the original house perfectly. The Satri House team is attentive and caring. Key takeaways: # the staff is incredibly warm and greet you with sincerity # the housekeeping and gardener teams are amazing # the breakfast is plentiful. We recommend the freshly made noodle soup # the restaurant is terrific. We ate in many restaurants during our visit and will review them separately. We found the quality of the food at the Satri House restaurant to be equal to our better dining experiences # we love the two pools. Whilst we agree that the main pool could do with more lounges, we note that there are additional lounges at the second pool # the hotel is not located in the centre of the (small) city of Luang Prabang. It is in fact a 15-20 min walk to the city centre. The hotel does provide complimentary lockable bicycles with baskets that will get you there in 5-8 minutes One suggestion is to resolve the positioning of the Google Maps location pin. I am confident that when return to Satri House outside of the New Year festival, we will rate our experience as excellent."

Manukan Island Resort: "Really worth the price and best ever for manukau island!"

We booked a hillside villa and the view is amazing! It’s nearer to the resorts private beach and far from the public beach which has a lot of tourists during daytime. The hillside villa is a cozy and clean and tidy bungalow. The only thing I wouldn’t like much in the island I think is the sunset point, which we walked for approx. 1/2 hour but just couldn’t see the sunset as the sun was covered by the cloud! And I have forgotten to bring the torch light so we have to walk in the dark in the forest trail! Other than that everything is so perfect and terrific! I give it a five star!

The Apsara Rive Droite: "Delicious food"

Had a lovely meal here, gorgeous food and very friendly service. It has a lovely view over the river and you can sit looking out over the river if you want. We also had our young son with us who asked lots of questions, they were very accommodating.

Tugu Malang: "My brother’s wedding"

"Ok, first review for lodging I've ever written. First of all, this place is amazing I would highly recommend anybody visiting Malang to come here. The accommodations are first class the staff is incredibly helpful and friendly. Just to mention a few....Dina, Lina, Niluh, Jhon, Nita, Sigit, Hernawan, Wawan, Budi, Yidi, Novi, & Eko all represent this gracious Indonesian culture in the most professional way. Thank you for putting up with the crazy Americans, we will miss you ALL!!!!! CST & Family!"

Rachamankha: "always a bliss"

"this place is always immaculate in terms of cleanliness, neatness, service, food, decorations, amenities, tableware, flowers, garden and every little detail that you hardly notice but it adds up to make this place very special. i always try new hotels in chiang mai but always end up back at rachamankha, this place is one of a kind. you can feel the love the owner has put in to it, i hope it will stay this way! Stayed March 2016, traveled with family"

Satri House: "Absolutely wonderful"

"This is a truly amazing gem of a boutique hotel. The manager introduced himself on our arrival and the staff were exceptionally helpful. There are 2 pools, a spa and lovely grounds to relax in. Breakfast is either continental with a range of cooked eggs or local. The basket of pastries was fresh and they melted in your mouth. The tomato jam is excellent as is the tamarind. If you ask the recipes are available. The room was beautiful with local antique furniture and if you ask they will provide a kettle and tea making facilities. You can also request a tv but with the balcony and gardens who needs a tv! Look forward to returning some day. Congratulations on your property and staff."

Tugu Lombok: "Exquisite"

"My wife and I had the pleasure of staying with the Tugu ‘family’ for 9 days - oh how we wished we could stay for much longer! From arriving Henry (one of the 2 managers) was possibly the most welcoming person in Indonesia. We arrived late due to a delayed flight (just after 10pm), he could see we were exhausted so gave us a very quick tour and took us straight to our room and said we can deal with the paper work for the check in in the morning. He also had the kitchen whip us up some sandwiches which I thought was extremely thoughtful. Rooms/Villa - each are decorated sympathetically in Indonesian/Lombok styles with pieces of furniture of the highest quality, from the living area/ bedroom, bathroom and garden to the restaurant and bar - everything. Food - whether you want to experience typical Indonesian food or prefer something more western, Tugu caters for everyone. I’d recommend for breakfast to try the Burbur Ketan Hetam, delicious. Alongside Henry, Ellie is the other manager who is equally as warm and welcoming. I can’t single out all the other superb staff, but ones I can remember are Russwal and Eka. Hopefully my wife and I can visit again one day in the not too distant future. Thanks again to all of the team at Tugu for making our stay a once in a lifetime."

MesaStila: "Outstanding Resort and Staff"

"We stayed at MesaStila for 4 nights and it was overall outstanding, with two small let downs (at of the review). The staff are excellent, probably the most helpful and friendly that we've encountered anywhere. They really made use feel comfortable and welcome. The hotel and grounds are beautiful and well maintained, the entire time we were in the resort we felt at peace and a sense of wonder from the ambience. The resort has great complimentary activities in-resort, and we tried many of them and enjoyed them all. The coffee plantation tour was particularly interesting. The food in the restaurant was fantastic, we each tried different food from the Indonesian section of the menu and enjoyed everything we had. The issues we had were the airport transfer and the hotel organised excursions. Both were significantly overpriced. The airport transfer was about 300,000 IDR more than it would have cost us to organise ourselves, but we decided to use it as we were staying for a special occasion and thought that for that price it would be a special service; it wasn't. We probably would have had better service going with a random taxi tout. Despite being sent by the hotel the driver did not seem to know where the hotel was. Looking at the excursions you could book through the hotel, we found them overpriced. We organised an excursion ourselves to Borobudur and Prambanan together and our driver was excellent. Everything included it was about 1 million IDR cheaper than it would have been to take the hotel organised excursion that went to Borobudur ALONE. What was especially bothersome about this, was we spoke to some other hotel guests who were wondering whether visiting Borobudur was worth what the hotel was charging. Given how impressive Borobudur is, I think it's a shame that visitors might not get the opportunity to visit simply because of overcharging. Having said all that, if you stay at MesaStila you won't regret it, it's a fantastic resort and the staff are outstanding. Staying there is worth every penny. Just organise your excursions and transfers yourself unless you want to pay through the nose."

Manda De Laos: "Mesmerizing setting at night, great cuisine"

Manda de Laos sits on the sides of a beautiful pond, with lilies and fairy lights, that give a close to magical atmosphere to your dinner. Lovely (and delicious).

The Cabochon Hotel and Residence: "Deserves it’s great reputation"

"Lovely decor, lovely building, excellent staff, convenient quiet location, great breakfasts. Don't use Mr Noi Monyoopanow as your limousine driver. He chain talked to a variety of women using several phones for the whole trip to Hua Hin, often driving fast one handed. Front office and all staff were extremely helpful, and fantastic. Great breakfast. In retrospect we should have had dinner here, rather than a very underwhelming expensive meal at Nahm (which I wouldn't recommend - see separate review). Would suggest that each room have it's own iron and ironing board, although this was quickly provided. We also asked that our room be sprayed against mosquitoes after we left in the evening, although we had no problem with mosquitoes, just noticed loosely fitting balcony doors. Pool area was nothing special, but adequate, and we certainly enjoyed a quick dip in the pool at the end a day out, before getting ready for dinner. Would highly recommend, and we hope to stay again when next in BKK."