Fleewinter

Koh Yao Noi is located at the centre of the Phang Nga Bay archipelago near Phuket in southern Thailand. The island can be reached in under an hour by speedboat or long tail boat. Services leave from Bang Rong Pier on Phuket several times daily. From the small pier on Koh Yao Noi there is a 20 minute tuk tuk ride to the hotel.

The Rooms
Set within an extensive beachfront garden this charming hotel has just 15 private villas and 3 Studios. Each studio features a comfortable outdoor seating area that opens up to garden or sea views.

The 6 Koyao Beach Villas were especially designed for couples. The open air, natural style villas have comfortably furnished living space and a separate bedroom, which opens up to the garden with sea view. Each Villa has an in suite bathroom with an indoor and outdoor shower.

The 5 Beach Villa Suites were also designed for couples, but with an option to accommodate up to three guests. The Villas are recently upgraded; all have a spacious and furnished living room with an additional sofa for your comfort. The bedroom opens up to a sheltered area from which you may enjoy the sea views. Each Villa has a garden bathroom with a shower, a luxury bathtub and a walk-in dressing room.

The Family Villas can sleep four with the option to turn the sofa beds into two further beds to sleep 6 in total. Both categories have separate living spaces and en-suite bathrooms.

The villas are designed to make the most of the spectacular views across Phang Nga Bay with open frontages and open air bedrooms and bathrooms. Large wicker blinds offer some privacy but with the villas set well apart from each other, star filled skies at night and gorgeous sunrises come morning most guests appear to leave their blinds up at all time.

While close to nature, the rooms are still very comfortable and fully equipped with electrical sockets, a telephone line, refrigerator, coffee and tea dispenser, a mini bar and an electronic safe. TV and DVD's are available on request. There is no A/C but numerous fans, the straw roofs and the benefit of a sea breeze keep the villas comfortable.

The Facilities
The hotel has one main restaurant and a small bar (which closes at 23:00hrs.). There are not many other places to dining out on the island, but the Six Senses Hideaway next door welcomes non-residents for dinner and Paradise Koh Yao is wonderful for lunch on the beach.

Koh Yao Noi remains a working agricultural island. It is a great place to observe Thai lifestyle. The resort can arrange bicycle or motorbike hire for you to explore the island independently. The small number of roads are easy to navigate.

The island's other great asset is its quick and easy access to the stunning limestone rock formations and numerous deserted islands within Phang Nga Bay. While an excursion to these island from Phuket is nearly impossible unless you are on a group tour, from Koh Yao you can easily hire a private long tail boat and driver for the day and charter your own course. The main highlight is Koh Hong, with its hidden emerald lake.

The tidal changes on the Andaman Coast can be dramatic during certain times of the month and year. As most people know the tide comes in and goes out twice daily, but the hour at which this happens is constantly changing. During high tide the sea is perfect for swimming. During low tides however the water can become too shallow and during extremely low tides the water can retreat altogether sometimes up to 100 metres from the beach, exposing mud and coral reef. Of course the tide always returns but it is important to accept that this may not be at the optimum times of day.

Koh Yao is predominantly a Muslim community who are keen to preserve their traditional lifestyle. Therefore please respect the local culture by dressing modestly and refraining from drinking alcohol outside of the restaurants/resorts catering to visitors.