Love it or hate it Tripadvisor is a staple in the world of travel, which though many can do without, it is always there, offering advice, guidance and apparently unbiased reviews of hotels, activities and destinations around the world.
As seasoned travelers, my husband and I know well to take any review left on TripAdvisor with a pinch of salt. Unbiased or not, one review is one opinion and all opinions are subjective.
That said, TripAdvisor can still serve a purpose by being an easily searchable and accessible database for holiday and hotel information.
It is for this reason that we found ourselves perusing TripAdvisor’s hotel listings for Kata Beach a small but lively area in Phuket where we’d decided to splash out on a luxury end to our Thailand travel adventures and round the world trip.
Kata Beach is a popular area full of hotels ranging in different styles and suited to many varied budgets. Because our next stop was home, a.k.a. reality, we wanted to postpone it for as long as possible. We wanted relaxing, luxurious and romantic.
According to TripAdvisor the best hotel in Kata Beach is The Baray Villa. Although we were pinching salt when we read this, we were intrigued, especially as it was also within our price range.
The reviews were obviously good and additional research confirmed that it was a hotel that many had (seemingly) enjoyed visiting. For want of another option we took a leap of faith and booked three nights.
Check in was a smooth operation and we were lucky enough to be shown to our room hours before we thought it would be available. I say room, but in fact this was much more. In fact it was more of an apartment than a room or even a suite.
We had over 100m2 to play with. A huge open plan downstairs living area lined with a soft cushioned couch and upstairs the bedroom was just as massive including a foot spa at the end of our bed and stand alone bath in the centre of an elegant bathroom.
My favourite feature, however, was back downstairs; a swimming pool which we could access from inside the living area. This swimming pool was shared by our neighbours but each of us had our own small gated space directly in front of our individual suites. At one end was an extravagant feature fountain and at the other a swim-to bar. We couldn’t wait to jump in and use the lilos provided to us.
So the swimming pool was fun and the bar was an unexpected bonus, and this is where we passed many happy hours each afternoon. The bedroom was also incredibly comfortable and the standalone bath was pure luxury.
Despite feeling a little old in places we couldn’t possibly complain about the grandeur of our stay.
However, there were a few disappointments. The food in the hotel restaurant wasn’t as good as we had expected, the staff were not as friendly or smiley as we’d grown used to in Thailand and sadly that open area for the swimming pool was a free for all invite to mosquitoes to make their way into our suite, even despite us shutting it up as advised.
So we may have had to walk further for our supper, and it’s true that we didn’t gel with the staff like we prefer to and I certainly itched more than I would have liked but it was a great stay and could still be the best hotel in Kata Beach.
All I know is that it was an unusually romantic end to our Thailand travel and round the world trip.
For more information, or to check dates and prices visit The Baray Villa on Booking.com.
