Koh Kood is one of the least developed islands we have been to in Thailand, and because of this we loved it!
We, my wife and I, stayed at Cham's House, for 8 nights in January 2013 and enjoyed our stay thoroughly.
The staff, including the reception staff, waiters, gardeners, and the German manager (sorry, I'm bad with names) at Cham's House were all really very friendly, efficient, and smiley, which was appreciated. The German manager takes time to chat to you in a friendly, down to earth way and I thought this was a good touch.
The villa was good and was well equipped with Bose ipod dock (handy for charging your iphone as well as good sound!), espresso machine with free daily replenished coffee pods, and large LCD TV (not that we wanted to watch TV). The bed was very comfortable, and they do a turn-down service in the early evening where they draw your curtains, turn down your bed, and give the room a tidy. We declined this most of the time because we seemed to be in the villa when they came, but it was appreciated all the same.
There are two restaurants, one down at the beach, which serves mainly European food like burgers, club sandwiches, pizzas etc. I really liked this building and its furnishings. The food was well presented and was tasty enough, but was nothing special, although it was very good compared...Koh Kood is one of the least developed islands we have been to in Thailand, and because of this we loved it!
We, my wife and I, stayed at Cham's House, for 8 nights in January 2013 and enjoyed our stay thoroughly.
The staff, including the reception staff, waiters, gardeners, and the German manager (sorry, I'm bad with names) at Cham's House were all really very friendly, efficient, and smiley, which was appreciated. The German manager takes time to chat to you in a friendly, down to earth way and I thought this was a good touch.
The villa was good and was well equipped with Bose ipod dock (handy for charging your iphone as well as good sound!), espresso machine with free daily replenished coffee pods, and large LCD TV (not that we wanted to watch TV). The bed was very comfortable, and they do a turn-down service in the early evening where they draw your curtains, turn down your bed, and give the room a tidy. We declined this most of the time because we seemed to be in the villa when they came, but it was appreciated all the same.
There are two restaurants, one down at the beach, which serves mainly European food like burgers, club sandwiches, pizzas etc. I really liked this building and its furnishings. The food was well presented and was tasty enough, but was nothing special, although it was very good compared to most other places we ate at on the island which is very limited. One complaint I have is that I think they could do with changing the oil in their fryer.
The other restaurant is where you have breakfast and at night they serve mainly Thai food with some European options if you want it. Breakfast was okay but a bit underwhelming, but the service was always really good which made up for it, and some of the Thai dishes I had in the evening were very tasty. Both restaurants were reasonably priced which was good. I stayed a couple of years ago in Langkawi in The Andaman which was on a similarly remote part of the island and the food and drinks prices were extortionate which pissed me off when you know that on the rest of the island there was better food at a fraction of the price. I don't mind paying high prices as long as I feel like I am getting value.
We rented a scooter from Cham's House which was useful to see both the waterfalls, the two villages, and the makka tree. I would not rent a scooter unless you are pretty confident on one, as the path from Cham's House to the road is pretty rough and up a hill, which is the same all around the island if you leave the main (only) road. I quite liked this as I prefer rugged to over developed.
There is building work going on at Cham's house still but it didn't disrupt us in any way. You get the feeling the location of the reception desk is temporary, so it not the grandest reception desk I have seen, and the stairs you go up when you arrive at the hotel are not the nicest. I really would not let this put you off staying here as the work is almost finished, so they are not doing any loud heavy building work, and it really doesn't affect your stay., but is good to know that there is work going on in case you panic when you first arrive, and the rest of the resort is lovely.
We didn't use the pool which is in an odd location but who cares about a pool when you have the beautiful beach and warm clear sea there. There is a good couple of hundred meters of beach to the left of Cham's house that is completely unused and when you lay on it it feels like you have a whole tropical paradise beach to yourself.
I would say that if Cham's house was on a busier island then I would have probably have been more critical and certain things would have annoyed me, but the fact that you are on a remote, sparsely, populated island, and on the whole Cham's house is really good, then you just take any imperfections with it as part of the charm of being on such a remote island. If you are one of the fussy types that gives a hotel 1 star on tripadvisor for the staff not walking in front of you sprinkling rose petals whilst you walk, then this is probably not the place or the island for you (apart from the massively expensive resort somewhere on Koh Kood, that flys you in from Bangkok in their own cessna plane, has a personal butler, and your personal golf cart- which to me sounds like my idea of hell). If you are happy to be away from the likes of Koh Samui or even Koh Chang, and can appreciate that there are bound to be a few minor problems now and again, then you will love Cham's House and Koh Kood.
If you are looking to relax and get away from civilisation for a while but still stay in relative luxury then Koh Kood and Cham's House should be high on your list.More
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