There are many hotels and resorts to choose from depending on the kind of experience you’re looking for. I knew I wanted to be somewhere as remote as possible after being in Bangkok, so I chose to stay at Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort, which is located on the north side of the island.
Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort is one of the two premium luxury resorts you’ll find on the island. I picked this one over the other one, because the reviews on TripAdvisor were overall more positive than the other choice and the photos looked much better, especially the bathrooms.
The Resort:
The Bungalows are clean and well kept. There are golf carts that will come pick you up at your bungalow to take you to wherever you want to go at the resort. The main restaurant serves an amazing buffet for both breakfast and dinner. There’s a little village right behind the hotel where you can find local restaurants, bars, and even book tours. If you are planning to stay at Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort, you might want to check the restaurants here first before putting down the money for the resort buffet.
There are two infinity swimming pools here. They are located on the opposite ends of the resort. The smaller one is located right on the beach, but it gets crowded very quickly. The larger pool was never crowded whenever I visited, but the downside of the larger pool is that you don’t really get to lay out on the beach. The sunbeds are on the grass area overlooking the beach.
There is a tennis court as well for you tennis players.
The Wana Spa is a beautiful spa with various treatments and massages for both men, women, and couples. I did a Yogurt Honey Body Scrub treatment at the spa and my skin was baby soft after. It was the perfect treatment after being in the sun for a few days.
The Location:
The location of the resort was challenging at times. It is only accessible by boat and if you want to go to Tonsai Bay, which is the main town, you have to take a boat there. It is only a 15 minute ride, however, the resort only shuttles to the main town about 3 times a day and the last returning shuttle is around 3pm, so if you don’t get on the 3pm shuttle back, you have to find your own boat back to the resort. It is very easy to find a long tail boat on Tonsai Bay, but the problem I encountered was that no boats would go to the resort between 5pm-9pm because it is simply not safe due to the tides. One night I was able to find a boat back at 9pm, but I had to walk through at least half a mile in the water to get back to the resort because the boat was not able to get close enough to the resort due to low tide. I'm sure it would be different depending on the month you're going. I was there in Feb.
The most off-putting thing that happened was the day we arrived at the resort. The tides were so low that our speedboat had to anchor so far away from land that we literally had to jump into the ocean with our bags over our heads and walk/swim to get to the resort. People tripped over rocks, luggage got drenched, our clothes got wet, and many were bleeding from cuts from walking through corals. It was so poorly handled. If you plan on staying here, please bring water shoes and wear something comfortable on the day you arrive and depart. We had to walk through water on the day we left as well, but it wasn’t as bad as the day we arrived.
Overall
I had an amazing stay despite the nightmare on the first day. I would definitely return again. I will have to say it is more suited for couples and people that want to relax. There is no nightlife around Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort, all the actions were at Tonsai Bay, which I will follow up with another post about my experience of Phi Phi Island in general.
If you have any other questions about Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.
Their website is- http://www.phiphiislandvillage.com
