Review: Pleasant Stay at Railay Bay Resort & Spa

There's only one word to describe Railay: AWESOME!

One of the reason the holiday was awesome was because of Railay Bay Resort & Spa.

I chose the resort simply because Groupon had an offer. Costs only RM798 for a 4D/3N stay for 2 in the Privacy Cottage with daily breakfast.

My first encounters with Railay Bay Resort & Spa were not great. First of all, our reservation was not in the system despite me making the reservation 3 months in advance via email. A few days before our trip, I called up the resort just to be sure, and that was when I found out they screwed up our reservation. Thankfully it was the low season and we were travelling on a weekday, so the Privacy Cottages were still available.

Secondly, I read many negative comments about the resort and the Privacy Cottage on Tripadvisor - that it's dirty and not well maintained, etc. So I discussed with TC and said that we would inspect the cottage first upon checking in. If it's not up to our expectation, we would ask to change cottage. Thankfully, our cottage was fine, although it's a bit rundown and could do with a refurbishment.

The Privacy Cottage certainly lives up to its name. There's a high wall surrounding each cottage that you could run around naked and no one would know :-)

Each cottage has its own jacuzzi, which is on the right of this pic. When I got home I realised I didn't take any pic of it :-(

The interior of the Privacy Cottage is spacious and woody:

I love the king sized bed!

The bathroom is big ...

 ... the shower cubicle looks rundown (which could have contributed to the negative comments on Tripadvisor):

Can sit and let the water fall on your head. Pity it was not a rainshower, or else I would have sat there for hours. And what a waste of water that would have been :-)

 This is the lane that leads to the Privacy Cottage:

Reminded me of Bali.

And this is the doorway to our Privacy Cottage:

Housekeeping would ring the doorbell every morning at around 9.30am to clean the room. We would tell them to come back later because we're on holiday and we want to sleep in, but not late enough to miss breakfast lah.

On our second night there, we couldn't get into the Privacy Cottage after dinner because the latch had accidentally fallen and bolted the door from the inside.

So me being the heroine climbed over the high walls to save the day :-)

Thank heavens my parents allowed me to climb trees when I was growing up in Port Klang. Never knew it would come in handy later on in life, hahaha.

TC pointed out that Railay Bay Resort & Spa needs to be commended for their attention to detail.

Ready in the room are a plastic mat for lazing on the beach and a torchlight which came in handy since we lazed on the beach till late and needed light to make our way back to the cottage. A rattan beach bag was also provided to carry our stuff like beach towel, camera and our other companions - Gin & Vodka, hahaha.

Who would think of bringing such stuff on a beach holiday? Moreover it would take up luggage space. But Railay Bay Resort & Spa certainly remembered to provide for their guests.

Just outside the row of Privacy Cottage is a lovely pool where we spent our afternoons lazing and reading before heading to the beach towards the evening to indulge in nude sunbathing :-)

This is the other pool at the entrance of the resort:

This pool is perpetually crowded probably because it's facing the beach.

Breakfast is served in the coffee house. The spread is good with a mixture of Asian and Western food to cater to their guests from both sides of the world.

It was nice having sea breeze in my hair while I enjoyed my breakfast.

Tables are also placed on the beach for those who want to feel the sand in their feet as they have their breakfast.

Despite the negative experiences before the trip, Railay Bay Resort & Spa turned out better than expected, which was a pleasant surprise.

We had originally planned to head back to Krabi and spend our last day (4th night) there before flying back to KL. But since we were so cosy at the resort, we decided to extend our stay. We had to pay normal prices for that extra night since the Groupon voucher was only valid for 3 nights.

Railay Bay Resort & Spa will always hold fond memories for me :-)