We recently found ourselves “New Island Trippin” and decided to give Coco Lanta Resort in Koh Lanta a shot. We have become a bit stale with our usual places and decided it was time for a change. When you hit the same places a few times a year for about six years, you got mix it up a little to keep the excitement going, and that we did! We planned a little trip down to Krabi and having done it before we thought it would be fun to move around a bit and see what else is out there. We found Koh Lanta. I was, at first, a little turned off by it because we did not know exactly how to get there. We thought, from what we had read that it required a two to three hour ferry ride by boat. Now, I am not one who gets seasick easily, but I have before, and if you have you know how terrible it is. Due to this, when anytime I see a ferry ride over two hours, I tend to get a little leery. I am happy to tell you that, Koh Lanta does not require a lengthy boat ride to reach, at all. In fact, it was much easier than I could believe. You just hire a driver from Krabi, 2000-2500 baht or if you are rollin backpacker style, you can take the bus or a minivan for less than 500 baht. I think it is about sixty kilometers to the pier from Krabi, but takes about one and half to two hours to reach depending on traffic and how many times you stop. We took a private van, stopped for some lunch, and it took us about two hours. I do not mind taking the bus, but have a kid whom is little and like to be able to stop on the way. The driver takes you straight to the pier where ferries leave every thirty minutes, and they are car ferries. This means the driver just pulls his car right onto the ferry and right off, taking you straight to your hotel, hassle free. The ferry from the pier to Big Lanta is only fifteen or twenty minutes, piece of cake! Then you drive another twenty or thirty minutes over the bridge to Little Lanta and you are at your hotel. Koh Lanta is very easily reachable from Krabi.
We picked out Coco Lanta Resort and this place was awesome! We loved it! We found it on the internet and it looked really nice from the pictures. I messaged the staff via Facebook. Vicki, the hotel manager, got right back to me and set me up with a room. The rates are insanely cheap right about now due to the Covid situation, ranging from 700 baht a night for a small room, big bed, to 1800 for a family room with bunk beds. I think the room we stayed in was their superior triple room at about 1100 baht a night.
Let me just say, the room at Coco Lanta Resort was excellent! The place looks new. I do not know how long they have been open, but all the bungalows look new. I say bungalow, but they are not like the bamboo beach bungalows. These are all modern cement free standing bungalow rooms, if you call that a bungalow, I don’t know. Our room was big, clean, modern, with a king size bed, and bed was good. Firm mattress but very comfortable. I slept like a baby in it. Then it had another little bed cut into the wall with its own little window for my daughter to sleep in, also comfortable. My wife and I both spent time on it reading stories and playing Spot It with our daughter. We both commented on its comfort. The bathrooms were nice and clean. Showers had good water pressure with both, hot and cold water. It had a refrigerator in it, which is always a plus. It had a nice spacious patio with a couple chairs, table and couch.
Something worth noting is that every room at Coco Lanta Resort has a spray hose right as you enter the patio to wash the sand off your feet, and it has good pressure to get it all off, too. I don’t know about you, but I cannot stand sand in my bed. It drives me crazy! I hate it. Needless to say, there was no sand in our bed on this trip. Thank God! I know its not something that you normally think about, but it makes a huge difference to me, and I was really happy that they did not overlook this minor detail at Coco Lanta Resort.
The resort is actually quite large. You start at the reception and follow a trail of bungalows down towards the beach. On the right, there is a big open grass yard with a volleyball net set up and a couple of cool little swings. Further along, you reach the pool on your right. It is a nice pool, pretty big and green tiles. Green is my favorite color, so I am always happy to hit up a green pool! We swam in it every morning, every afternoon, and every evening/night. The joys of having a five year old. There is also a little baby pool sectioned off for the little ones to stay safe.
Past the pool it opens up to a picture perfect beach resort type place. I thought it was awesome! From left to right. You got a little bar right in front of you with a bunch of cool signs and beach bar paraphernalia, “What’s your poison?” There is a wicked hammock hung off a tilted palm tree that stretches out over the beach. It is super cool, just like you see in post cards. Then, there a couple of swings facing the beach, and the view is stunning. The water was pretty calm with no real waves, and no undertow, so you could swim without any fear. The water had good color and was clear. I could see my toes, no problem when I was up to my chest in the water.
My daughter and I would race down there every morning to see who would be the first one in the water! We would play and dive for handfuls of sand, try and find Kermit Crabs (some people call them Hermit Crabs, my daughter calls them Kermit Crabs. A side effect of Sesame Street, no doubt.), practice our handstands in the water, and build sand castles or sand mountains. It is exactly what you hope for when you head to the beach, nice sand and a beautiful ocean facing the sunset. When I dream about relaxing on a beach, this is the picture that comes to mind. Dare I say, it was PERFECT!
Off to the right you have the restaurant. A nice big high ceiling open air place with a great beach side atmosphere. It has cool bean bag chairs set up facing the ocean to relax on while sipping a cold beverage, frozen Pina Colada being my drink of choice on trips like this. Smoothies for my daughter.
We, my daughter and I, liked their pizza. We ordered one every night. My wife, again, loved their soup, for both breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was good. I had a couple of fried eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, a plate of fresh fruit, and some orange juice to wash it down. If you need more bacon, just order it. They will accommodate. The porridge was very good. My daughter liked the fact that they had cereal.
The staff at Coco Lanta Resort are great. They are super friendly and always smiling, pretty much do anything they can to make sure you are happy. It always brought a smile to my face to go down and say hello to them.
You want to do some snorkeling, fishing, or The Emerald Cave? Just tell Vicki and she will get on the horn and get you set up.
I think a shared boat is about 800-900 per person for The Emerald Cave, Four Island Snorkeling trip. Those can be a bit crowded for me, and you have to stay on a schedule with everyone else. They pack ten to fifteen people on a small long tail boat. Don’t get me wrong, it is always a lot of fun to meet up with other travelers and make friends, but I just wasn’t feeling it this trip. The other option, Plan B, is chartering your own boat and making your own schedule. I opted for Plan B. You can charter a private small long tail boat for 3000 baht or you can get a big longtail boat for 4500 baht. Go big or go home, that’s what they say on the mountain, and so we did.
The snorkeling was the best I have ever experienced in my life. We saw thousands of fish; Tiger Fish, Clown Fish, Parrot Fish, Giant Squid (2), just to name a few. It was amazing!
The Emerald Cave is a definite yes! Really cool, easy swim in, took maybe six minutes to get through the cave. It is really cool swimming into pitch blackness. The guide has a headlamp to keep you safe.
A couple of other things worth noting. You can rent a bike right there at the resort, you do not have to go searching to find one. All you have to do is tell Vicki and she will take care of it for you. This is a key thing for us as we enjoy getting up early every morning and going for a ride around the island to scope things out. It’s nice to get a little fresh air in you hair when it is nice and cool in the mornings and a great time to explore the island and see what it has to offer. The traffic is pretty non existent so no real danger there. There can be a few rough spots on the road, but just pay attention and you’ll be alright.
There is a lady right next door to them that washes clothes, and Yes, she has a dryer, so no need to worry about if your clothes will be ready that day. They will. We dropped our clothes off one morning and they were ready that afternoon. I don’t remember exactly what she charged, but it was cheap. I think it cost 60 baht to use the dryer if you want to make sure your clothes are done the same day. Done! I guess this could be an issue in the rainy season if you don’t have a dryer. It didn’t rain while I was there, but I think I paid for the dryer anyway. Why take chances?
In the end, Coco Lanta Resort turned out to be a big winner in my book. The whole place was really great. Vicki was a sweetheart, the staff was super kind and warm to us. The room kicked ass! It was just a great place to spend a nice little getaway. I could not be happier about staying there and look forward to returning sometime soon.
Cheers,
Suckadave
Their website – https://www.cocolantaresort.com/
