We stayed at P.P. natural resort for the 2nd time on 10.March to 13.March 2009. Our first stay was in March 2003. In these 6 years, nothing seemed to have changed in the resort. In our bungalow, a warning message on the wall told us to be careful when walking in the room in order avoid a breaking of the floor. The bungalows in the resort are nicely fitted into the landscape, spacious and well equipped, only the salty water in the shower is getting boring on a longer stay. Snorkeling possibilities are excellent (house reef). Breakfast wasn't much of it, the hotel's restaurant for dinner did well (Thai food). The staff was very friendly.

Sophie T.
Australia
27 Aug 2009

     Sejour en fevrier 2009 dans cet hotel avec 2 enfants 9et 11 ans.
Globalement cet hotel merite sa chance, l'emplacement est vraiment super, la petite piscine (assez grande vu qu'il n'y a jamais personne) surplombe la mer, au calme, en bas de la piscine acces direct a un tombant pour le snokeling (requin baleine), bout de plage sympa d'un cote, et belle grande plage mais avec plus de monde (autres hotels) de l'autre, la plage est magnifique.
les chambres sont grandes mais nous avions un familli cotage qui a besoin d'un rafraichissement, prendre les vues sur mer ou superieur, l'emplacement dans la foret est extra.
Petit dej copieux mais simple, le personnel est tres sympa pas de vie nocturne sur cette plage, tres au calme, un petit coin de paradis, Tonzai est a 15 minutes en long tail

"Cool Resort on a Relaxed Beach"

     This place is pretty cool. From the pier to the hotel costed us 700 Baht, and when we checked out it costed 600 Baht to get back. We arranged our own longboats so I think we got pretty good prices. Be careful when you come back because if you ride with some of the Sea Gypsies, they will take you to an inconvenient part of the beach when you return to Tonsai Bay. Its not horrible, but they do park their boats at the end of the beach and its a pain to walk back to town with luggage in the rain.

     Besides the longboats, this hotel is pretty great. The room was really great. Very clean with a nice bed and good safety box. I suggest shopping in Tonsai Bay before you come out because there is no place here to shop thats cheap. Things are a little pricier on this side of the island. The Resort Beach is nice, quiet, private and very very hot. The main beach is cool, but the portion of the beach that belongs to the resort isnt the best area. If you stay here, walk to the other end of the beach and relax at the Holiday Inn's beach. You can grab some beach chairs and a hammock and chill out. Its easy and this part of the beach has the clearest water. For a sunset, walk through Erawan Beach Resort. If you want, they have a restaraunt that has a great view of the sunset. Its a nice place to have appetizers and get a cocktail. For dinner, if you want to splurge, go next door to Zeavola. Its very stylish and delicious. For two people, we paid about 30 dollars for dinner and drinks.

     Natural Resort's hotel grounds are really nice. But, there is a elementary school in the middle of the property. But, that doesn t really get in the way and I never even saw any kids. The pool is pretty good, its 0degreez. But, if you look down where the water spills out it can be very dirty. I would give the pool a 3 out of 5. The restaraunt near the pool is really cool. It overlooks the pool and the ocean. For breakfast, the buffet is really good. The crouissants were amazing. Overall, i give this place a 4.3 out of 5. Its a great, relaxing, peacefull and beauitfull beach resort. But, its pretty boring. There aint much to do out here. For the money we paid (1400 Baht) it was perfect.

"Loved it - "The worst house on the best street!”"

     It’s like this – if you want to stay on perhaps the best beach (Laem Tong) on Phi Phi but you can’t afford to pay $300+/night and are the kind of person who doesn’t require 5 star luxury or service then this place is for you. I looked at it like property – you buy the worst house on the best street.

     We booked this through sawadee.com (which I had read good things about on Trip Advisor) about 2 months before our trip and of all the hotels and guesthouses we pre-booked, Phi Phi Natural Resort was the only one that required full payment before arrival. On booking through Sawadee.com we payed an initial deposit and then the balance about a month before we arrived – all of this happened smoothly and with no problems.

     Having not found a cheap and easy way to get to Phi Phi from Patong in Phuket where we were, I rang Phi Phi Natural Resort the day before we were to arrive to arrange a transfer. They arranged each leg of the trip – picked us up in a mini-van to go to the pier, directed us to the ferry to phi phi which took us to a Ao Ton Sai (TonSai bay - the main tourist beach of Phi Phi), transferred us to another boat and then took us up to our beach (Laem Tong Beach) where a resort long-tail boat took us in to shore. We paid for the transfer on arrival at the resort which cost us about AUD40 each (for all bits of the journey). Yes, there was a car and 3 boats to get to our final destination but it was defiantly worth it! The only thing I would change about the transfer would be I would book it with the accommodation in Australia so I didn’t have to worry about it!

     When we arrived, the resort staff carried our luggage out of the beautiful long-tail boats and up the beach to the resort where we were greeted with a welcome drink. We checked in and were taken to our room which was the cheapest twin room (standard room) available – town house style accommodation away from the beach for 2450 baht per night (approximately AUD125 per night). The room was more than adequate and if you have been staying in cheaper guesthouses you will find it great. Quite big rooms with veranda, excellent air conditioning, safe, mini-bar, tea & coffee making facilities, toiletries – just those little touches that make all the difference. My only word of warning would be that they are a bit of a hike from the restaurant, pool, reception and the beach – I would say about 300-400 metres on a bit of an incline – it was enough that we would pack a bag with our stuff for the day, go to breakfast and not come back until late afternoon!

     As you might be gathering, I had no major complaints with the resort itself but the service and facilities are pretty basic. The food available in the restaurant is well below average for Thai food (although the view is amazing), the pool is average and a bit grotty and there are no other ‘resort’ style facilities like a gym, hire equipment or activities (traditional craft making etc) like the other resorts have.

     This place has soooo much potential but they don’t seem to know how to ‘up-sell’ –their promotion of extra items is non-existent. For example, there is no real information about available tours (some sun-faded print outs of information in a window only), gear you can use or hire (I asked if they had canoes and they said they could arrange one for me for what was I think about $25 for a few hours but this was not advertised). They have a massage area which is crummy and again not advertised – you have to ask at reception how much it is. You also have to book at reception which I think puts a lot of people off – they wander up to the massage lady and ask and are directed to the reception but they can’t really be bothered going to the reception so the sale is missed.

     All the other resorts are along the main beach but one plus for Phi Phi Natural was there private beach. I have read posts here that have said what a crappy looking beach it was and they felt cheated that the very small stretch of sand was there ‘private beach’ and so they just went to the main beach. These people have missed out. Although not good for swimming, this little beach is amazing for snorkelling – straight off the beach! Just bring rubber thongs you can wear in the water so you can get past the rocks. Go out to the edge of the reef where the water drops off to see all kinds of marine life including little nemos in their little homes! It was truly amazing!

     Overall, I was more than happy with our stay at Phi Phi as this island is just a magical place and we could not have afforded to stay at the other resorts on this beach (Erawan Palms Resort, Holiday Inn and Zeavola).

     We did lunch almost everyday at Holiday Inn (which I will point out cost us about 1000 baht each day (about $50) for 2 meals (burger / pizza / salad), 2 cocktails and sometimes another juice or coffees). But it was just sooo nice there – right on the beach, tables on the sand and the atmosphere was super relaxed while the service was attentive without being over the top. We also had a cocktail at sunset at Zeavola and although the cocktails cost as much as you would pay in Australia (and we didn’t eat there as the meals were certainly more), I would definitely recommend it.