Well located and the food is adequate, but an overpriced trap with no peace or quiet.
What really made me angry was the “morning safari”: 20 minutes of being ferried to 3 selfie locations for 40+ minutes of selfies. I was insulted, angry, and genuinely upset. No attempt to find wildlife. No attempt to do or see anything interesting. No reverence for the location. Cookie cutter trash. I’ve been on safaris from Chitwan to the Serengetti and gladly would pay to avoid a Panvaree tour. After that, we refused to go on other “excursions”.
We didn’t have a private villa so had to stay in the room above the restaurant, which pipes Ed Sheeran in through the sewer, and the room next door hosted chimpanzees who don’t know how to not slam a door. Cloth door stoppers cost like $1. Thus, sleep was difficult. We paid 5,500 baht a night - for nightly air con and a separate bathroom; it’s not worth 2,000.
I stupidly stayed there for two nights; this amazed the staff who are used to ferrying in the cattle and then ferrying them off 20 hours later. Children scream the livelong day and staff listen to their soap operas on their phones while you’re trying to hear the gibbons.
The swimming area is difficult for anyone not in a cabin, it is impossible to step on the landing in bare feet, and the hotel uses plastic cups and straws. Oh and racist golliwog dolls on the lobby doors.
Khao Sok is a beautiful place and deserves better.