Jamahkiri Resort & Spa

“Lots of highs and one low”

I had a really lovely visit to Jamahkiri resort. The villa we stayed in was really nice with its own plunge pool and view of the endless sea. Inside was spotless clean but showed a little wear from being by the sea. As others have said, there are lots and lots of stairs, no elevators, and the entir… more

I had a really lovely visit to Jamahkiri resort. The villa we stayed in was really nice with its own plunge pool and view of the endless sea. Inside was spotless clean but showed a little wear from being by the sea. As others have said, there are lots and lots of stairs, no elevators, and the entire resort is perched on the side of a hill like a billygoat. I would stay here with the intention of spending all of my time at the resort. It's just so difficult to get from your room to just about anywhere (even if you stay within the resort) that you will tire yourself out with all of the up and down. I visited with a girlfriend who loves to work out, so it was perfect for her and I was there for the diving and snorkeling. We ordered room service and I ate at the buffet breakfast each morning (it was not included in our room but was worth the 500 baht with western and eastern food, british breakfast items, and champagne. There is a shuttle to Mae Haad pier and all the craziness that is down there, but it only runs 3 times a day. Otherwise taxis are surprisingly expensive out there, but useful when you need them. The hotel is kind of out of the way. Everything was lovely until checkout. Even though my AMEX travel reservation showed a check out at noon, they insisted it was always 11am. It was already 10am when I learned this and I was in the lobby talking with them (at the top of the hill far away from my villa). I asked for late check out the woman was stern but was able to give us until 11:30am. Why then, was a man pounding on our door at 11:10am being aggressive and insisting on standing at the door until we both left or handed over our keys??? He could see that we were clearly almost out the door. I mean bags were at the front door. I didn't understand why there was a sudden and incredibly rude shift in service right as we were trying to leave. I still don't understand what happened. When I finally completed the long uphill walk to reception to find out why that had happened, the women at the reception had no explanation and didn't understand what I was talking about. One even admonished me for carrying my own bag up the hill, "they have a team for that" but she wasn't getting yelled at by that team member, we were. It was a truly confusing end to what had been a really lovely trip. After realizing that I wasn't going to get any clarity that day, I just left it alone and left.

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