Luckanawadee is a unique property in South Khao Lak - even with a couple of hiccups, I will never forget our 4 night stay. Hubby & I got a fantastic rate dealing direct with Luckanawadee, and we stayed in one of the 2 beachfront villas. The pool was just outside our door, and the lovely beach just a stroll over the grass. We were met late at night by Adam, one of the owners - he had a beautiful cocktail waiting for us. Our room was gorgeous with one of the best kingsize beds I have ever slept in. Beautiful bathroom with lovely ammenities - so spacious. The little things that weren't perfect:
Satellite TV at the time didn't have any English speaking channels at night - apparently this is going to change.
Water pressure in the shower was not great - but this was rectified during our stay.
Air Conditioning was placed in the wrong area, as it became a bit hot in bed sometimes. There is a bit cooling fan as well as the air-conditioning.However, every room/villa is different, and the other beachfront villa had the a/c near the bed, which was great - completely different layout to our villa. Both villas are beautiful though. I had a look at the Junior suite & Garden villas - each one is unique in it's own way and beautiful touches throughout.
Breakfast - what can I say! Amazing!!!! You get asked what you would like, with suggestions being made - the staff will make anything you want. We usually had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon (lots of it) and the other couple on their honeymoon often had magnificent pancakes - Yum. All served with beautiful coffee & fresh fruit etc.
Just across from our villa was the "communal" kitchen/restaurant table/free computer/lounge/dvd's etc where you could help yourself 24/7 to whatever was there - just amazing - unlike any other place we have ever been to. No such thing as only 2 bottles of water per day - it's all there with fruit juice, flavoured milk, coffee maker, selection of teas etc.
Adam & Luck (the owners) have a lovely dog, Ghengis, who also greets you every day.
There is no other place on the beachfront that is like Luckanawadee - all the other resorts are quite large, with lots of sunbeds etc. We had the pool to ourself most of the time - Adam even threw in a great lilo to use in the pool.He told us we could keep it, but it remains at Luckanawadee now, for the guest to use.
The boys will go out of their way to make your stay a great one. The 1 day where hubby & I were both sick, Luck organised medication (at no cost) and kept on bringing over Jasmine tea for us.
Our stay at Luckanawadee was far too short - it is one place that we would just love to own and manage ourself - a couple of tiny things to change (only slightly) and I think this place could be an award winning "boutique" property. Luckanawadee is Paradise in every way.
Thank you Adam, Luck & Ghengis for a truly memorable stay - good luck in the future.
Sandy & John

This is THE place to stay in Khao Lak!
This hotel is beautiful, peaceful, and literally right on the beach.
The staff and the owners were friendly, helpful, and even sent us back home one small bag that my daughter had forgotten in the room!
When you see all the other resorts around absolutely crowded, you feel happy to be in your wonderful 9 rooms boutique hotel, with the pool almost just for yourself, with free Wifi so as to surf the Internet while the kids are playing!
The rooms are huge, spotlessly clean, with huge TV and DVD player (and loads of DVD to choose from in the kitchen) and best of all is the breakfast. You can get what ever you want for breakfast: from scrambled eggs and smoked salmon to fresh raspberry pancakes!
No rush, no queue at the buffet line...you ask and you get whatever you want, whenever you want (early breakfast before diving is not a problem).
And best of all, the open kitchen where you can go and help yourself during the day: fresh fruits, juices, cereals, fresh coffee...Everything is available for free all day.
Just one drawback: it is so difficult to book...the online reservation system on the hotel website did not work, and the answers to our reservations inquiries were long to come back...In the end, we booked through an online Agency.
But anyway, I am so glad we booked at Luckanawadee.

Where to start with Luckana Wadee? Well, it really is a unique and memorable experience, the owners Adam and Luck make the experience more like a visit to friends at their gorgeous sea front villa, rather than a regular hotel. They took the time to ensure we always had everything we needed, but also spent their own time taking us to a local festival, and on a seperate evening organising a fantastic meal for all the guests of great seafood from the local market. But none of this is done with a hard sell or profit in mind (the meal cost us less than we spent in many local restaurants), just a genuine desire to meet people and make them feel happy.

The setting is also lovely, between the villas (which are spacious and have some cool furnishings) and the long sandy beach is a small garden with bar set to one side, which is a great place to watch the sun set, or just relax in the shade during the day, if the beach gets too hot. Also because there are only ten rooms/villas it never has that crowed feel of other hotels futher along the beach, no need to get up early for good sun loungers.

If you're looking for a low key, friendly place to unwind this place ticks all the boxes.

Although we were meant to stay for 5 days over the New Year, upon arrival we were told by Zac that he was so sorry but a flood caused by a broken pipe meant we had no room but not to worry as it was being fixed and he hoped the room would be available for us the next day. In the interim he arranged for us to stay at another hotel in the vicinity.

As dissapointed as we were we agreed and commiserated with him on our bad luck - how naive of me, althoug my husband had his measure.

To cut a long story short, our room that we had booked months ago was occupied by another guest.

Such a shame as the resort did look great, although the room we were told was to have been ours (if it wasn't so supposedly wet) - no. 6, a junior suite which we had assumed would have a wrap around balcony, didn't.

Had we been told the truth and offered profuse apologies, we probably would have waited until the guest had departed.

However, really don't take to being lied to so we took ourselves off elsewhere. It did put a downer on our holiday and incurred expense that was unneccessary.

Certainly wouldn't attempt a second visit as there are great places all over Thailand with owners who don't mess you about.