The Racha — Hotel in Ko Racha Yai

I don’t recommend this place, especially if you’re traveling with kids.

Before leaving Australia, I wanted to book somewhere special for our wedding anniversary, but I’m so disappointed. The staff at this hotel seem to care about nature but not about people. I don’t understand why they even run a hotel if they don’t like guests. I certainly didn’t feel welcomed, and the staff’s expressions were often cold. The manager, in particular, seemed to dislike children.

After checking in at The Racha Lounge, we got on a tuk-tuk loaded with luggage. Suddenly, a middle-aged Indian man yelled at my kids, telling them to get inside the cramped space with all the bags. I told him, “If you want someone to sit there, why don’t you sit there yourself?” But he was relentless. I initially thought he was a guest, perhaps with the Chinese woman next to him, but it turns out he was a hotel staff member. If that’s the case, shouldn’t he be the one to take the uncomfortable seat instead of shouting at guests? On the boat ride to the resort, he kept picking fights and even asked, “What is wrong with you?” If that’s how a manager behaves, I can’t imagine how the other staff must feel working under him.

There were also so many mosquitoes that we decided to order room service. The food was great, but even in our room, the mosquitoes didn’t give us a break, and I couldn’t sleep at all.

The beach itself was beautiful, but from 10 AM, large groups of day-trippers arrived on boats, making it impossible for our family to enjoy the shore. The hotel pool wasn’t an option for my kids either because they weren’t allowed in. Although they offer bicycles and ATVs, you have to pay extra to rent them.

For dinner, I had lobster, but it was tough and chewy. I also tried a small grilled squid, and it was so rubbery that I nearly damaged my dental filling. The scallop salad had only four tiny scallops, no bigger than my thumbnail, and it tasted worse than anything I could make at home. The bill was 6,226 Baht — even more expensive than in Australia. I thought the seafood in Phuket would be fresher and tastier, but I was seriously disappointed.

To top it all off, the cocktail was terrible. The bartender clearly wasn’t a professional, and the flavors were completely unbalanced.

Overall, the hotel looks like a 5-star resort from the outside, but once you check in, it’s a different story. I spent so much money expecting to relax and enjoy myself, but now I just feel regretful and sad...

An experience like no other.

Amongst all the luxury resorts my wife and I have had the pleasure of visiting in Thailand and the world, this has to be up there with the best of them. It's the overall experience of this place that will keep us coming back. Starting with the excellent lounge on the pier before you hop on the 30 minute speedboat ride to the island. Everything is very well organized devoid of the chaos that usually tends to follow Thai establishments. The resort itself is out of a movie set. Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of phuket as we know it and just gorgeous from the time u set foot. The soft sand is rivalled probably only by those of Koh phi phi and the waters are crystal clear with plenty of shoal fish to see literally just feet away from the shore. The rooms are brilliant. Rustic and if u opt for the grand deluxe villa u get probably the best outdoor shower I've ever seen and used. The in house restaurants are part excellence and the entire resort seems to be able to slow time down and let u unwind....

The biggest drawback...and probably why I would think twice before returning is the fact that this is not a private beach. On the resorts website it states under Thai law that beaches are public property but a check at some of the neighboring resorts seem to show them charging guests to enter their beaches. For the money you pay, the least we expect is some privacy but the honest truth is from 10am to 4pm, the beach is literally overrun by day trip boats that bring hordes of tourists to the resort..making you wonder why on Earth you paid so much if u only get to enjoy the beach for 2 hours at the most each day. It gets chaotic in the afternoons and u find yourself paying ( after paying already so much ) another resort just to check out their bay because you want that peace to just go about snorkeling and enjoying the waters . That's what we did because despite the waters being blue, the hordes of ppl drive all the fish away and you just feel hard done by for the amount you have paid.

Overall a fantastic experience. Will definitely return but hopefully the resort will apply to make it a private sanctuary. For which I'm sure ppl are willing to pay. Keep up...

Based on all the reviews I had read, I was beyond excited to stay at The Racha!! In my mind it was something out of a movie.. it really looked that spectacular!! |Unfortunately we were off to a bumpy start when our plane was delayed which caused us to be 30 mins too late to make the last shuttle to the island.|I felt the resort didn’t communicate clear enough that if you don’t make it by 4pm there is NO OTHER WAY to get to the island other than to rent a private boat, which will cost you a fortune !! (I think we literally could have bought the boat ! lol) additionally, the price of the transfer kept “changing” which felt sketchy. (Also it’s cash only, which the didn’t tell us until the last minute and we didn’t have that massive amount of cash on us, so we had to find an ATM… exhausting considering we had literally been travelling since 6am) |The lounge staff at Chalong pier were not super helpful, and it felt like they just wanted us out of there.|We had no choice so we booked the private transport.|This was additionally not a great experience, no life jackets and the boat was going to fast it was literally skipping over the water and we were bouncing around.|When we got to the resort we were upset, this was not the luxury experience we were expecting. We tried to explain and asked to speak to a manager but there was a big communication issue as the staff had great difficulty with English, and there was no manager there.|We emailed the senior management team to express our disappointment and went to see them the next morning to explain again.|They did their best to make up for it, however seeing as we had planned a very short 2 night trip, it was hard. |The good news is that the resort is phenomenally beautiful, and the beach rivals that of Turks and Caicos, its perfection!! Most of the staff tried hard to please, but there is definitely a language barrier.|I would go back, as I now know the issue with the transfer to the resort. I hope the management team gets better at...