Guest Reviews

Rachamankha: "Haven of tranquility…"

We stayed here for 5 nights in July 2015, and can honestly say what a magical place it is. It’s in a brilliant location within the old town, and yet is so peaceful and tranquil. The layout of the hotel feels beautifully designed and considered. The service and staff and are very professional, helpful and friendly, in particularly Paul the manager. If you have chance to stay here then do - it really is unique and we couldn’t recommend it more!

Pindaya Farm House: "Amazing stay at the farmhouse"

Had an unforgettable one night with my family of 5 adults and 2 kids several weeks ago. Amazing serenity surrounded by beautiful mountainview and farm, in which the property host raises various kinds of fresh veggies and herbs. The rooms were equipped with comfortable beds, and the modern style shower was a pleasant surprise! My favorite part of the property...

Les Maisons d’Itac: "A peaceful place"

"A good place to stay with friends or a family. I lived in the house for 6-8 guests. Rooms are airy. A peaceful and very quiet hotel for a relaxing vacation. Nice food, wide list of beverages. Comfortable bed. Private water pool, CCTV cameras. There are no TV, hair dryer. WI-FI is slowly. I would be happy to live there again! Stayed March 2017, traveled with family"

Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge: "A fab place to hang boots and watch the change of light across mountains…."

This is a truly wonderful place to arrive at after a week of trekking (with sometimes hilarious hospitality conditions!). Or indeed just to arrive at after the hurly burly of Kathmandu! Marcus oversees a superb hotel with glorious views, beautiful lodge-style rooms and simple home-cooking. It is with some reluctance that I left, and to my disappointment now back home, there is no thoughtfully placed hot water bottle in bed at the end of the day, or mosquito net drawn to envelop me and my dreams.

MesaStila: "Exquisite Gem"

This is the perfect place to relax and unwind from the busy city life. Surrounded by beautiful views of the mountains and the forests and ricefields and plantation. The public areas are very well appointed, having taken pains to fill the clubhouse and the bar/lounge with vintage, period pieces. The staff is always helpful and polite. Excellent service by everyone. We even had a private tour of the coffee plantation where we were introduced to the flora and fauna of the place, the organic garden, the coffee area and once more given traditional snacks and more coffee and jamu. One can spend an entire day just lounging by the infinity pool by the jungle. Or playing billiards in the lounge. Or walking around the extensive estate. The spa/hamman facilities and menu are also top-notch. I can't say enough good things about the place. It is a very, very gracious place full of hospitality, warmth and the beauty of nature.

Locavore: "Still surprised after reading all the reviews about Locavore"

"It doesn't happen to me very often, but in this case the atmosphere and expectations raised by the reviews of hundreds of Tripadvisor members did not reflect the genuine experience we had by dining at Locavore. This kind of intro-paragraph will mostly precede a rather negative and contrary viewpoint but in this case I must say the evening we spend here was truly mesmerising. The amuse-bouches were drenched in local flavours even though some fitted on my fingernails. Imagine with that the 'Ashes' cocktail (you will indeed put a burning stick into the concoction, thus releasing a fair bit of ashes in your drink) and culinaire paradise in coming into wide view. The mains - we went for the 7 courses menu - were a mixed bag with caffeinated fish as a weird but surprisingly good part of it. Overall it is the combination of the nouvelle-cuisine presentation on the dishes combined with the exotic, original and authentic taste of local ingredients (chili pepper flowers, anyone?) that made this a very special evening for the both of us. Do try the Balinese coffee at the end. With a total bill of around 2.700.000, including two glasses of excellent Sangiovese, we probably spent more than half the average salary of the people working there, but as this works out at 160 Euro it was money more than well spend."

Cuisine Wat Damnak: "Excellent reasonably priced fine dining"

You must visit this place if you can afford to and can get a table; delicious food that is a cut above the rest, successfully fusing traditional Khmer cuisine with all sorts of other influences. Atmosphere can be a bit stuffy, mainly due to the type of customer it attracts, but come for the food and enjoy yourselves. Is actually good value given the quality of cooking when you compare with typical costs of other tourist oriented restaurants in town. We visited with young children and they were very accommodating doing the full menu with smaller portions for our 9 year old and some chicken fried rice for our 5 year old; both kids declared the food delicious and ate everything in sight. Some very good wines as well. We managed to get an outside table at quite short notice despite them saying they were fully booked for months; if you don't ask you don't get!

Sea Dance Resort: "Great staff, great food at a relaxing boutique resort."

"We searched very carefully for our Koh Samui stay. Coming off of 2 weeks of hard touring around Laos and Cambodia our goal was peace, quiet and relaxation, preferably in a villa on the beach rather than a hotel room. We found Sea Dance and, despite a few mixed reviews here, decided to give it a go. We ended up thrilled that we did. Things did get off to a rocky start: despite a confirmed airport greeting and pickup there was no one to meet us at the airport meeting point. After 15 minutes and a phone call we hopped in a taxi expecting the worst. Instead we were met by the Managing Director/owner Poy with a heartfelt apology. Everyone makes mistakes, and rather than shifting blame or making excuses Poy simply took the fault, apologized and promised to make it up to us. Which he and his staff did do. Perfect service recovery. As for the property itself, we stayed in Villa 1 and cannot recommend it more highly. It’s mostly a glass room but with blackout shades and AC that must be on steroids. During the day we lounged in the private pool or on the very private lounging platform staring at the ocean. At night we opened the glass doors and listened to the sea sipping one of the many wine selections from the restaurant’s wine room. The restaurant serves excellent eclectic food including Thai, other Asian and western food. My favorite was the duck Red curry. My wife loved the steak sandwich for lunch. The beach is ‘meh’. Pebbly and rocky. Gorgeous to look at though. But let’s be clear: what made this place special for us were the people. The staff are just awesome. They call guests by name here (nice Ritz touch!) Beyond Poy, Faith the ex-Pat American manager gave us pro tips on our plans to go digital nomad next year during the included breakfast. Ex-pat English Helen provided excellent service with a healthy dash of wit and a wry smile at dinner. And ex-pat Myanmar ‘John’ serves great drinks and fascinating stories of his life. And those are just the ones we got to know by name. All of the staff were excellent - although it would have helped a bit if the eggs station staff at breakfast spoke at least a little English since we like our omelette well done. We kept thinking that the place ought to go all over-13. The bungalows and social atmosphere at breakfast, happy hour and dinner are really conducive to grown-uping. And we met and made some new Facebook friends there. But, alas, it’s not all-adult so there were babies, toddlers and kids about. That’s where the private pool came in super-handy. This little resort isn’t a highly polished gem. It’s a boutique resort. That’s part of its charm, but too, it means there are minor service gaps and gaffes. Bring bring a relaxed attitude and good nature and you’ll have a great time, no worries and even make new friends. To us, it was just what we wanted just when we wanted it."

Tugu Lombok: "Awesome"

Lombok is a fantastic mix of warm people, wondrous scenery and amazing sea life. Stay at the Tugu and you can add fabulous staff and service with a wonderfully quirky resort. A great destination complimented by a resort that exceeds expectations highly recommended for all types of activities.

Villa Song Saigon: "A serene and lovely start to our holiday"

"We spent 3 nights at the beginning of our stay here. Its been said before but this place really does treat you like royalty. We arrived, tired and sticky from two very long flights, and were checked in quickly while sipping cold watermelon juice. Our luggage was whisked upstairs then so were we. We had a lovely large room with a veranda and a view of the Mekong. The first afternoon was spent by the pool, and we even had impeccable service there! We had breakfast included, and could eat as much as we wanted from the menu. They have an excellent selection of both western and Vietnamese breakfasts, so we sampled several during our stay. All delicious. We also appreciated the cocktail happy hour, as well as the free mini bar in the room. It was warm enough during our stay to eat and drink outside, but I noticed an interior dining space if required. The best thing is the boat shuttle service, which handily drops you down town and picks you up, all with no charge. This is an excellent feature as the hotel is a bit out of the main city area. The room was large, clean, and roomy, and the bathroom was well stocked with toiletries and towels. The staff were all lovely, and we even had the manager checking we were happy at one point. It really seemed nothing was too much trouble. It was lovely to just relax without worrying about anything. Highly recommended! Stayed February 2017, traveled with friends"