First Villa Beach Resort

If the complex was a little better maintained we would have scored higher as we did have a nice stay. The staff here are lovely, the food in the restaurant is amazing, every meal we had was delicious, the beach and sea are lovely right on the doorstep, you have to walk up quite a long dirt road to get out of the hotel, if you turn left at the top of this road there are lots of nice restaurants to choose from just a short walk away. We had a room with two beds for 4 of us, the beds were not the comfiest but were ok, room was a good size, bathroom had a bath and shower, the water was never warm, always cold, not bad after a hot day but be prepared its always cold, the sink at the end of everyday always had black dust in it, we were unsure where it was coming from? Rooms cleaned daily, new towels provided, they provide bottles of water in the room but then you have to fill up at reception and the water dispenser was often warm water so we just bought our own. The safe had a padlock and when locked you could still open the safe door about an inch, lots of coat hangers to use in the wardrobe. You are in the wilderness so expect creatures, we had a nightly huge gecko visit us on the porch, little gecko in the room and something running round inside the ceiling, you come across lots of interesting bugs, bring mosquito spray and coils/candle if you want to sit outside as they are rife! didn't bother us was all part of the fun! lol. The thing that let this place down was the pool area, the pool water was green, the hot tub was green with slime in the bottom and part of the pool became like this too during our short stay, there was broken concrete and tiles everywhere, it all needs a little TLC, the pool had what looked like a pond filter trying to keep it clean so no wonder it was turning green and slimy!

First Villa Beach Resort is located directly at the beach. They help you renting a Scooter easily (and a Scooter is recommended to drive around the island). We've been there to visit the Full Moon party - they help you organize the Taxi (300 bath / person which is totally fine). We had an amazing stay and would come back immediately.

quirky and beautiful, convenient to get to but still off the main street enough to be peaceful. The restaurant in the resort was fantastic, and the staff treated us like they'd known us forever. We will definitely be coming back! ps. Loved the purple bathroom. So random. xoxo

I feel bad writing a negative review of First Villas because it’s a family-run business and they have clearly been badly impacted by the effects of Covid on Thailand’s tourism industry. However, whatever the experience was before January 2020, the experience now is quite poor despite the friendly staff. First, access is down a 500m unpaved dirt track that has so many major potholes that it’s dangerous for cars to attempt to drive down. We had a small jeep, drove inch by inch in first gear, and it still managed to damage our exhaust pipe. They have to repair the access track as a priority. The resort next door has a proper paved road but a wire fence prevents you from using it to get to First Villas. Second, the restaurant and bar are closed and there’s nothing within easy walking distance in this isolated location. The nearest bars along the main road specialise in adult entertainment for groups of single males. The closure of the resort’s restaurant is understandable given the low (or zero) occupancy for the last two years but the web site still talks about a restaurant and we should have been warned that we needed to stock up on beer, snacks, and breakfast coffee before we arrived. The garden villas are clean but old and desperately require an overhaul. The corroded bathroom fittings in particular squirt water in all directions. Our air-con was also erratic, the fridge was not that cold (important given the closed bar), and the safe didn’t work. Refurbishment work could have been carried out over the last two years when the place was empty. The beds were comfortable though and there’s a friendly cat wandering around. I feel for the family who own this place and the pain they have suffered since January 2020 but the pictures of happy, fun, holidaymakers enjoying drinks by the pool simply don’t reflect the experience today in this run-down resort in an isolated location and until they spend the money to repair the access track, refurbish the villas, and reopen the facilities, it’s difficult to recommend this place.