Amari Emerald Cove Resort, Ko Chang

The experience with the Amari Emerald Cove is fantastic from the point of arrival. If you are flying into Trat Airport you will be met by Amari stafff offering drinks and cool towels for the journey to the Island. The journey itself takes around one hour including the ferry crossing.

The transfer takes in Whitesands which is the main town on Koh Chang, comprising of a few restaurants, bars and shops aimed at tourists.

...become too commercialised. Outside the Amari are the usual tailors, and other shops plus a few restaurants and if you walk 10mins to the right of the hotel entrance there is more of the same.

If you are looking for total relaxtion and a fairly unspoilt destination Koh Chang is the place. This Island gives you more of an insight into Thai life than more developed resorts and allows you to see Thailand as the developing country it is. ... more

The experience with the Amari Emerald Cove is fantastic from the point of arrival. If you are flying into Trat Airport you will be met by Amari stafff offering drinks and cool towels for the journey to the Island. The journey itself takes around one hour including the ferry crossing.

The transfer takes in Whitesands which is the main town on Koh Chang, comprising of a few restaurants, bars and shops aimed at tourists.

Upon arrival at the hotel we were served refreshing welcome drinks and asked to sit whilst checking in! This was a first, normally I've queued to check in and grown fed up at waiting for the room key! Sitting with the welcome drink kept the check in experience relaxing.

The hotel itself is quite large, with a nice reception area with comfortable seating, a good sized bar serving cocktails with nibbles and almost any other type of drink you can think of. Below the reception area is an internet access facility (chargeable by the hour) a shop, games room and a dive centre. Also accessible from the reception are the Just Thai and Sassi restaurants more about those below.

We stayed in a deluxe room facing the pool and beach, the size of the room was excellent with plenty of storage space, comfortable bed, cd player, tv, mini bar and great bathroom with walkin shower, toiletries and drinking water, as well as a good sized bath with hand held shower and hairdryer. Dressing gowns and slippers are also provided. The balconies are well furnished with wooden chairs and table.

Rooms were made up each day and also beds were turned down each night and a chocolate was provided on your pillow - a nice touch. Clean towels were also available at turn down.

The food at the hotel was excellent, I have to say I think they had the best breakfast buffet I've ever had in a hotel, with great fresh breads, good quality cold meats and cheeses, excellent pastries and a good selection of hot foods, with a cook to order egg counter. There was also fruits, cereals, yoghurt etc... I can't emphasize enough the quality of the food, I have been to larger buffets but the quality did not match that of the Amari.

The food in the restarants was reasonably priced for a five star resort, a two course meal at just Thai with drinks was roughly £8 per person. You can eat much more cheaply outside the hotel and in whitesands, however we found the quality was not the same. If you eat outside the hotel I would recommend sticking to fish.

The pool area is really nice, the sun loungers are comfortable wooden, with mattresses, fresh pool towels are provided, which they will happily change when wet. The pool is so great to swim in, with a 50m length you can really do some exercise, much better for swimming than a lagoon shaped pool or similar.

The beach area is well maintained and the sea is lovely to swim in warm and shallow, you can walk down the beach to neighbouring resorts - which offer cheaper options for lunch or drinks or you can kayak.

The Island itself is nowhere near as developed as Koh Samui, there are still available plots of land adjacent to the sea. There is some building work going on, but lets hope it does not become too commercialised. Outside the Amari are the usual tailors, and other shops plus a few restaurants and if you walk 10mins to the right of the hotel entrance there is more of the same.

If you are looking for total relaxtion and a fairly unspoilt destination Koh Chang is the place. This Island gives you more of an insight into Thai life than more developed resorts and allows you to see Thailand as the developing country it is.

Lastly the spa at the amari emerald cove is well worth a visit, they have special offers on treatments which are worth taking advantage of and they look after you very well - not clock watching or rushing, pure relaxation! With full consultation on treatments if required.  

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