Ruknam Resort — Hotel in Kanchanaburi Province

WOW! What a find. We have guests in from the USA and they expressed a desire to see some of the historical and natural sights that Thailand has to offer. For me this was a no brainer but my wife really added the icing to the cake, per se.||||Our destinations were The River Kwai and Hellfire Pass but not the topic of this review. My wife, as I mentioned, discovered this place. It is located up above SriNakarin Dam about 30 minutes. A smart phone or a Thai maps loaded GPS will be most beneficial.||||The trip up is not for those not use to mountain driving. It has lots of switchbacks, sharp curves and what goes up, does come back down on the return trip. Once you get close, there is a narrow 2 lane road leading into the resort. There is staff available to point you where to turn and where to park.||||Opposite the car park is the registration office. With its all glass design, it offers great views of the resort and the lake below. We were fortunate in booking and got lucky. After registering, staff drive us via golf cart to our first room, a large wooden bungalow with a King and Twin bed for the three in our party. The front was all glass offering nice views of the lake. There was also a small patio with a table and 4 chairs for outside relaxation and dining. ||||The room was quite a walk from the restaurant and discovered they will come collect you to take you to dining and return afterward. When we called for the ride to dinner we were notified of a cancellation and asked if we would like rooms on the water...DUH! Of course we would. While we dined, the staff collected our belongings and transferred them to the new rooms. We were moved to a sort of duplex bungalow on the water. All these rooms are solid structures on pontoons.||||The rooms are about 40-45 sq meters with all wood construction for a nautical feel. Ceilings are high and the opposite side of the entry is a glass wall that opens on to a small lanai and ladder into the lake. ||||The Bath is nicely appointed with all the things you'd expect with all modern appliances and fixtures. Modern commode some with auto-bidet function. Shower is an all glass corner unit with individual temperature control for water. ||||There is a decent size flat screen TV with an assortment of Thai channels only. The fridge is larger than the average dorm room type and comes stocked with water (2), Heineken (2), Singha (2), Coca Cola (2) and Fanta variety (3). there is an additional bottle of water for the hot pot and complimentary coffee.||||You have two options for dinner. You can either dine in the restaurant or join the lake cruise for dinner. Food was quite good and service was reasonable and not expensive. Breakfast was typical Thai buffet with rice soup, curry, fried chicken, eggs sausages, toast, juice, milk coffee and as this is the annual Vegetarian Fest, they had that covered too.||||This place gets BIG thumbs up and will...

Money up front before you see your room or facilities. I just wrote an extensive and  scathing review of this ($hit #ole) only to have it deleted toward the end by a site error. But I so want people to know how bad and expensive this place is, I am writing again. This place caters for itself and not customers. I paid over 35000 Baht for 3 nights with my 3 daughters and wife ( it was robbery plain and simple) the facilities are filthy and pose a health risk to all. I even saw vomit in the pools. No cleaning or self cleaning facilities. No wi fi. No reception on your phone with AIS Electrical, trip and many more very dangerous hazards. I am a 58 yo Electrical Engineer and would advise all to stay away. The rooms Tap in bathroom broken and not repaired during our stay despite complaints. Dirty showers with other peoples body oils caked on to the screens. Sheets not changed during stay. Torn sheets used. Toilets not secured to the floor. Aircon leaking directly on top of our heads in bed. Compressor outside the partition wall at the head of the bed kept us awake all night. The wipe out play area is appallingly dirty and has never been cleaned. The facilities are old and lack maintenance. No choice of food, nothing for vegetarian or vegan. No facilities nor entertainment. The food is limited and bad/cold. Your breakfast including eggs are nuked in a microwave nothing wholesome to eat and no fruit or real juice to drink. Overpriced shop. The boardwalk is a hazard with loose and rotten broken boards and metal. Electrical hazards are rife. Treacherous golf cart ride to and from rooms over a dangerous boarwalk. Lack of car parking facilities. Nearest town 50Km. I could go on and on and on and on. This is a 500B a night resort but even at that price I would not come again. If anyone has said this resort is good then they work for the resort or have been paid by them. Even the staff have confirmed that all who stay there complsin. The staff are terrible and do not care nor the management. There is no pride in their work nor the encouragement to have it. If you go here you will be dissapointed and feel cheated. There are many better resorts nearby. The holes in the floorboard will allow any creatures including, mosquitos, cockroaches, geckos, snakes or any other vermin get into your room. I was not able to upload the more important pictures as there is a 5mb limit.

Advice: In short,...

Nice setting floating water in the dam of kanchanaburi. It is located approximately 30 mins drive from the Famous Erawan water fall. Most rooms as well as the main restaurant is floating on the water, giving you a unique experience. The reason we decided was it’s water park and it was fun for kids as well as adults. Our villa was next to the restaurant (room 7) and in front of the water park. The room has quite large windows so I was a bit concerned on he privacy but it was actually nice and convenient to be close to everything and it was nice to be able to watch kids having fun at the water park while relaxing with a glass of beer on the villa balcony. The water park was fun but some inflatables were not well maintained.. some were deflated and not able to play with. Some inflatables gets slippery with a bit of agar.. I believe the water park could be the main points of the stay for many guests, especially families, so I would like to see this improved.. maybe they should give it a daily cleaning.. if you decide to stay here, don’t miss its floating dinner!! This was the highlight of my stay! They have a large rafting restaurant that pulled into the dam by a jet ski. The setting is rather traditional Thai, sitting on the floor with some cushions with low table, which means you are close to water and different from other dinner cruise experience. You need to order food in advance as there is no cooking facility in the raft. I saw some groups ordered some kinds of soup which came with small cooktops that keep food warm. Food was pretty good and reasonably priced. For the rafting dinner, no need to order drinks as they can serve basic drinks that do not require preparation. Iit was so relaxing and fun, so make sure you try this- it departs at 6pm, so I would recommend to book.

Room is quite spacious and clean. Breakfast was modest. The tariff is a bit expensive side for waylay it is but I think you pay for this unique experience.

Staff were super helpful and friendly, especially the guys driving around the golf cart.. so kind snd they accommodate request from guest with...