Just a wonderful place. Absolute chill out in luxury. My sixth visit and I will come again next year for sure.

The staff are the best ever. So very kind and so helpful with absolute discretion. The pools and beach are divine, as is everything. Staff are the best ever. Whatever your wish is their command. They just want to please you.

Judy F
Cambridge

We stayed 5 days in this fantastic hotel for our honeymoon (before heading to Four seasons on the same island). We had honeymoon package and we were treated like special persons. First of all we were upgraded and stayed in a private villa. The spa and romantic diner were excellent. I enjoyed the most champagne and canapés after the love-bath ritual. The staff are great, friendly and very confident. Definitively professionals. The location and surroundings are amazing, we appreciated a lot that it was in the middle of rain forest and you have natural shade on the beach (and even monkey company sometimes). It's very relaxing place. We tried all the restaurants there and they are all perfect. The hotel definitively has it's style and soul, it's authentic. We really would like to come back there.

The Datai is perhaps the best hotel i have stayed in. This is not only due to the fantastic setting but also great personal service.
If you are going to visit pay the extra to have one of the villas but not sure if i would bother with the extra money required to have the small plunge pool.
Food in both the European and Thai restaurants was superb wih a good selection for all pallets. The problem is what to choose!!
I would highly recommend doing one of the night walks and if you feel a little more adventurous taking a walk with he local medicine man through the rain forest (enjoy the leaches!)
All in all a fantastic experience!!

I overlooked doing tyhis review of our family stay which was actually in Oct 2010. Spent 3 nights and were upgraded to a villa on arrival. The welcome by hotel staff was an experience in itself, and I have witnessed from just a few establishments that can match - warm and non-intrusive.

After checking into our villa, which was just huge (almost 1000ft2 gross) we just wanted to stay in and sleep for the rest of the afternoon.... but the airconditioning was noisy. Asked housekeeping/maintenance to look into the problem, and it couldn't be resolved - so I decided to revert to a deluxe room in the main building. Instead, GM gave us another upgrade to a corner suite - with a magnificent panoramic view of the pool. It was larger than the villa, had our own kitchenette, dining area, living room, etc...

The ambience, service and surroundings were so good, that we didn't even bother to get out of the Datai, except to return to the airport at the end of the 3 night stay. Everything was superb... We are grateful to the GM and staff for making that stay so memorable.