Botanica Khao Yai

“An enjoyable surprise!”

Having read some of the reviews here, I was worried about what our stay would be like. The hotel has clearly fallen on hard times, it kind of looks like the Barbican slowly being reclaimed by the jungle - you can see it was once pretty fabulous, but a lot of work to the external appearance is requi… more

Having read some of the reviews here, I was worried about what our stay would be like. The hotel has clearly fallen on hard times, it kind of looks like the Barbican slowly being reclaimed by the jungle - you can see it was once pretty fabulous, but a lot of work to the external appearance is required to restore it. Despite this, it was a really enjoyable stay - the staff are lovely and helpful which is a real bonus. Our room was aesthetically sparse, but with fantastic views over the local jungle, full of strange noises of frogs and cicadas! The bathroom was very good, and we had no hot water problems at all, AC also worked well. Good quality shower gels etc were provided. Breakfast was in a nicely arranged pavilion surrounded by bamboo trees - there was a good selection, including good enough coffee, fruits, eggs and omelette freshly made, and a range of Thai cooked food as well. We had room service as we arrived late on our first night which was also extremely good quality. The gym and swimming pool were both functioning whilst we were there. The walk to the road from the hotel is a fair way, but is doable - there is a selection of food stands, a small local market, two 7 elevens, a Lotus, and a fantastic Thai massage shop. The hotel shares a site with two other hotels and provided you are being picked up for a tour, is not too far from the gates of the national park. All in all a surpsingly comfortable and enjoyable stay, at a reasonably priced place, that admittedly has seen better days aesthetically!

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“Lost in translation.”

Definitely a surreal feeling of past grandeur. Exterior showing decay and neglect. Room itself was comfortable with good bed and nice cold air conditioning. Room trim falling off near shower with mold underneath. Many items on menu not available. Breakfast buffet pastries very stale. Service slow … more

Definitely a surreal feeling of past grandeur. Exterior showing decay and neglect. Room itself was comfortable with good bed and nice cold air conditioning. Room trim falling off near shower with mold underneath. Many items on menu not available. Breakfast buffet pastries very stale. Service slow at dinner with each of the four in our party receiving their meal at different times. Thus the first finishing when the last just starting. Repeated mistakes in order, due to misunderstanding from language barrier. Lots of smiles and giggles and bows of thanks/gratitude from wait staff. This was charming. We learned to have order double confirmed and to point to menu to order. We were too tired at night to go elsewhere and didn’t want to get taxi to village or do the long walk in the heat. Biggest problem was that front desk took each couple’s passport at check in and returned them with two of them exchanged. Unfortunately, this was not discovered until we had left each other having different flights from different airports. This caused one couple to miss flight to Krabi, But was able to buy another ticket on flight 3 hours later. Other couple did make international flight back to USA. All’s well that ends well. We more or less randomly chose this hotel because of its being on list of recommended hotel by Khoa Yai National Park. We should have researched reviews.

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