Coconut Beach Bungalows — Hotel in Koh Rong

After a great tour of Cambodia we planned to bring in the New Year at a beach resort before heading home. We had booked this place from the 31st through a major booking site after reading excellent reviews, and also called and talked to the owner in advance a few times so he was aware that we were a large group of sexagenarians with heavy baggage. The ferry reached the Coconut Beach pier just as it was getting dark. The owner had sent a couple of young boys to carry the baggage. They showed us the lights of the resort a few hundred meters down the beach but there was no road or path to it! A couple in the group had mobility issues but we all had to walk to the resort through the sand. The boys could not wheel our suitcases through the sand so carried one suitcase at a time on their shoulders from the pier to the resort. It took them six trips. And that was to the beach level, then there was a climb to the restaurant level, and more to the bungalows. It took almost two hours from landing at the pier for the full group to get into our six bungalows.||||The wooden bungalows looked beautiful but were quite basic, beds with mosquito nets and one fan which was inadequate for the weather. Very poorly lit rooms with no frills like tea/coffee maker. We did have dinner at the restaurant and we went down to the beach where there was a bonfire and music but we were too tired after the long day's journey by bus and ferry, and the above issues, to last till midnight.||||Worse was to come next morning on new year's day. After breakfast at the restaurant we complained to the owner that there was no water in our bathrooms. First he blamed us for leaving taps on in all our bathrooms so we asked him to personally check. Then he said it may be the pump and so on. After an hour of this he turned rude and belligerent and started shouting at us that he could not do anything more and to get out of his property if we did not like it. We could not stand such behaviour and decided to leave although we had nowhere to go. He collected one night's room charges in cash dollars from us. How we made it back to Sihanoukville is another traumatic story. We were all experienced international travelers and had never ever seen a hotel owner behave like this. In fact he was so cunning that he listed us as 'no shows' on the booking website so that we couldn't write a review.||||I can understand the great reviews it has to some extent. Overall its a beautiful property with a great and peaceful beach and many activities. The restaurant has a small library, and drinks and good food at reasonable prices. But the other guests we saw at the resort were mostly young western backpackers and young couples staying in tents and other shared accommodation and enjoying it. Guess its not for very suitable for older travelers used to a more...

Our Koh Rong Unfortunately, we arrived here without knowing the place well. It was a fatal mistake. The coconuts beach bungalows where we had decided to stay was a wrong choice. The manager of our hotel, through Agoda, after confirming our reservation with an email, no longer responded to messages and calls. The email reads to get off the ferry at Long set beach and take a car taxi that would have cost $ 2.50 each. It was the first of a long series of lies. On arriving he told us it was $ 5 per person. I pointed out that the email said 2.50 and he replied that it was an old email. The second lie was that the place offered WiFi service. Not only is there no WiFi there, but the data exchange network doesn't work either! We have two sims, Smart and Cellcard. With neither of them it was possible to have internet. A real hell because there is nothing to do there. Even the menu prices are useless. Many things have to be paid more than what is written there. I want to override all the other inconveniences because I understand that we were on an island, that the tourism situation has brought many structures to their knees and that the asking price was low. I imagine the difficulties of the moment for those who have a business. Therefore it's okay that there is no water in the sink, it's okay that the shower drain is opposite the slope, it's okay to have a geko in the closet, it's also okay that there is almost never electricity, even though the structure seems abandoned to itself, but you can't tell lies about the services you offer and then not have them! Obviously I reported this to Agoda, for the sole purpose of not letting others run into it. Fortunately, the island offers better. I personally recommend everyone to stay as close as possible to the Koh Touch village. Here you can find everything, the internet works, ships and excursions leave and you are close to the beautiful beach called Royal beach. Renting a moped is essential for getting around the island and the various beaches. Pay attention to prices. At Koh Touch you can get a moped for $ 10 a day. Two small discordant notes: a company called the Royal company is doing major works for the development of the island. In my opinion they are wreaking havoc in the Chinese style. Maybe I'm wrong but it remembers a lot Sianuokville. This wonderful island and its very kind people does not deserve to pay such a high price in the name of a development that disfigures the environment. Instead, it would deserve to clean the beaches of plastic and garbage, that would be development! I hope that this neglect is the fault of the historical moment and that this beautiful island soon returns to being the center of tourist flows that...

OK so I read some really unflattering and unfair bad reviews left here by a few unsatisfied customers that in my own personal opinion do not do this beautiful place justice, and so I would like to address them:

Taking into consideration the fact that the world is still recovering from a serious pandemic and all it’s negative repercussions for the last two years, Cambodia’s tourism industry is certainly not immune to it either. This country is still a developing country (not Ibiza), and it has to deal with many additional difficulties on top of loosing nearly ALL of its foreign tourism industry. The country is currently going through sort of a transition as it is replacing its dependency on foreign tourism crowds with domestic ones which is actually very important for its development and independence.

If you came to Cambodia with certain unrealistic high expectations, than you might get disappointed, so that’s pretty much on you…

Regarding trash that travels from around the gulf and gets washed onto the beach, we haven’t seen that much except for the occasional plastic bottle. The owner seams to be quite aware of that (additional global pandemic) as he systematically engages in its daily collection every single morning on his own budget without any support from the local authorities like we have in the west. So I understand that during certain periods more trash might accumulate on the beaches as they might be understaffed and overwhelmed with increased amounts of it getting washed onto the beach as the seasonal currents are changing throughout the year, so guests are always welcomed to join in on the the good deed effort if they want to help out a little bit.

Now my honest review:

I think I found my regular Koh Rong resort! Beautiful location, good food, highly affordable, great value, super sweet staff, one of the cheapest motorcycles rentals on the island, cute rooms, magnificent landscaping and view, private and CLEAN beach, some nice corals around the corner. Overall it was a very relaxing and peaceful experience so I was sad to leave.

The owner (Robi) is one of the sweetest most caring local environmentalist I have ever met here in all of my 15 years, and in my opinion he should be the model for resort owners in cambodia!

(Be carful with leaving your stuff outside, the monkeys that come a few times a day might...