We stayed here for five days, after five days in Koh Phi Phi and 5 on Railay Beach. Really loved it, and really loved the town.
I'm not sure if TripAdvisor will let me write the review I want to write, because my main statement about the hotel on this page is "the reviews here are not all to be trusted". I can understand if someone has a one-off bad experience, but some of the criticisms being levelled here have no basis in reality. Two big ones:
1) There are a lot of reviews saying "service is unfriendly". Could not be further from the truth. We were bracing ourselves, since the reviews seemed so unified on this - but in the probably 20 interactions we had with the hotel staff over 5 days, we never had a single bad one. They were helpful in telling us how to get into town, helpful in recommending restaurants (i.e. didn't try to tell us there was no place good in town so we should eat in the hotel). They left the room in great shape - just no complaints at all on this aspect.
2) The resort feels like it is new and in great shape. In fact it seems pretty clear it was only constructed in the past several years; Thong Nat Pan Noi has now got 3-4 of these big resorts. Ours did not feel like a major complex because none of the buildings were too massive; we were also worried about this, but it was fine. But for people to say "this is an 80s 3-star in need of a revamp" - it's just not credible; they have never been there. Especially if at the end of the review they say "I am staying at this other wonderful hotel, here's the name."
The rooms were very spacious and the view out the balcony was lovely. (The pics on the hotel website of the room are accurate - I think the room we stayed in was called Deluxe Superior, which is their second-from-the-bottom I think - i.e. we did not stay in a standalone villa.) I liked that the balcony was big enough to have both space in the sun and space with a little roof, so we could sit out there even if there was a quick rainstorm. Air conditioning worked great, bathroom and shower are big and spacious. We didn't use room service - only ate one meal at the hotel actually, dinner the first night - it was perfectly good but there are many great small places in town so we ate there.
Finally the kicker for us was we got something like 50% off via Agoda - all in all, a no-brainer. I'm not well-versed enough to say whether this is a 4-star or a 5-star place in technical hotel grading, but it's definitely one of those, and not a 3-star. The rate plus the room itself plus the town at the base of the hill made this a great place to stay.
If you go: eat dinner at Luna, have cocktails and get a foot massage at Jip Cafe, get a real massage at Tamaporn, have breakfast and use the wifi at Star Huts. Wander over to the south beach for food at Dolphin and a pint and pool to Flip Flop Pharmacy, and go up the hill to the waterfall if you're feeling marginally intrepid, but besides that one wander, the Noi town and the beach is the main draw here.
- Panviman Hotel Ko Phangan
- Panviman Resort Ko Phangan
