Anantara Koh Yao Yai Resort & Villas — Hotel in Ko Yao Yai

We spent 11 unforgettable days at Anantara Koh Yao Yai Resort & Villas in August as a family with two adults and an eight-year-old child. Here is our detailed review by category:|Food|• The breakfast buffet at Pakarang Restaurant was outstanding, offering specialties from Thai, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Western cuisines. With made-to-order options such as shakshuka, a variety of eggs, pancakes, and crepes, as well as fresh local fruits and juices, every morning felt like a culinary journey. Excellent coffee and barista service made things even better.|• The resort ensured a relaxing breakfast atmosphere —at higher occupancy, additionally the Beach Restaurant opened for breakfast.|• We especially enjoyed dinner at the Pakarang Restaurant with its Thai specialties as well as the vegan and vegetarian menus, and at the Beach Restaurant serving fresh grilled fish and other delights. |• A weekly outdoor barbecue was a highlight with a fantastic selection of fresh grilled meats, seafood, lobster, and vegetables. Never before have we had coconut ice cream which was made at our table fresh from coconut milk – a pure bliss.|Rooms (Penthouse Pool Suite with Seaview)|• Our penthouse infinity pool was simply fantastic—watching the sunrise from our rooftop pool each morning was worth every moment.|• The suite was spacious, with huge sliding doors, a walk-in closet, and bathrooms designed for luxury—think sea views from the bathtub and from each of the two walk-in showers.|• Details matter: not only a coffee machine, but a milk frother and a wine fridge. The extra bed for our child was a real bed, not just a converted sofa (as provided in other resorts).|Nature|• Ocean views are visible from almost everywhere on the property or from 90% of the rooms.|• The resort is nestled in lush nature, meticulously maintained by dedicated gardeners and landscapers. It fully deserves its recognition by Times as one of the "Best Places to Stay 2025"—the only winner in Thailand.|• Wildlife highlights included geckos (including one huge regular visitor by the Beach Restaurant, showing up daily at 7.30pm sharp! ), bats, walking leaf insects, hornbills, sea eagles, flying fish, ghost crabs and hermit crabs, and two lovingly cared-for water buffalo with their own lagoon. |• Low tide and high tide created perfect settings for long walks on the beach.|Excursions & Activities|• The longtail boat trip organized by the resort was a highlight: Hong Islands, Monkey Islands, snorkeling—with our wonderful guide Zee, who provided fresh fruits, towels, mats and snorkeling equipment just when we needed them.|• The village tour with guide Snook was another highlight, including Laem Haad Beach, learning about batik traditions, and rubber tree farming.|Spa, Sports & Gym|• The gym was spacious and extremely well equipped, offering 4 Technogym treadmills, several cross trainers, cardio machines, training bikes, and a large area for strength training.|• Many sports and wellness classes are offered, including yoga, Muay Thai and kayaking.|• The spa experience was excellent: we tried deep tissue massages, the Long Island Treatment, and the Melt-Me massage for our child—all were wonderful, personalized, and relaxing. The staff truly listened to our wishes, and the facilities were top-notch.|• Additional activities included kayaking, bike rental, stand-up paddling, football, and table tennis. |Staff|• The staff made every effort to ensure a wonderful vacation. Any small mistake or inconvenience was immediately addressed by management and generously compensated (for example, after a complimentary upgrade when we were not totally happy with our first room).|• Special thanks to Kob (Beach Restaurant), Touch (Villa Host), Louise (Management), Chef Jong, and Wawa (Suite attendant) for their outstanding service.|Family-Friendly|• The resort is perfectly suited for families, with a kids club and a family pool area, plus family accommodations partly including pool access.|• The family area is thoughtfully separated from other resort zones so children playing at poolside never disturb other guests.|• Rooms for families feature child-friendly amenities such as bunk beds, hopping animals, and more.|• All restaurants have kids' menus, and the breakfast buffet features an adorable kids' section (with marshmallows and a chocolate fountain, plus fruits and muesli).|Local Culture|• Anantara Koh Yao Yai values local culture, offering weekly culture days with village tours.|• Many ingredients and products are sourced locally (such as coconuts and mangos), and the resort actively supports the local community and schools.|We wholeheartedly recommend Anantara Koh Yao Yai Resort & Villas for travelling families and anyone seeking both luxury and authentic nature experiences in Thailand. Our experience was outstanding, and we can’t...

Where do I even begin… I really wanted to like this hotel because I think in general Anantara has great properties. I think it’s still quite new and that is very clear… there are so many issues with this hotel and it is definitely not a 5 star property.

The pros: the breakfast buffet and the Thai restaurant (Pakarang) have delicious food. We loved the room - it was modern and had a unique setup. The bed was also comfy! Awesome fitness center.

The cons:

The check in process was really slow and you basically just stand around and wait for them to check you and everyone else from your ferry in before you can go to your room. Then once we got to the room it took over an hour for our bags to come to the room. Only when we called to check where they were did they bring them. After many hours of flying and traveling, it was really frustrating.

The property is in a weird location and it doesn’t really feel like you’re ’in Thailand’. The beach is not very pretty and it recedes significantly during the day so there is barely any beach to swim.

You also just feel like you are stuck at the resort and they don’t make it easy to leave the premises. They don’t share any information about being able to rent motorbikes right outside the security gate of the hotel, or if you want to take a taxi. We had round trip transfers included in our stay from Phuket which we used on the way there but on the way back their boat didn’t leave early enough to catch our flight so we had to leave from Krabi. When we asked about a transfer to Krabi they quoted us 17,000 THB ($500 USD). Absolutely insane. They also didn’t offer any alternative option when I asked - after a bit of Googling, I found a ferry and hotel pickup through 12Go for $35USD for two to Krabi.

The prices of their excursions are exorbitant (30,000 THB) or almost $1000 USD for a long tail boat to different islands. Absolutely insane. We booked tours through Elixer Diving and Similan Diving for a fraction of the price. We did a tour with one other couple on a really nice speedboat to Phi Phi and surrounding islands for almost a third of the price.

The service at the restaurant is painfully slow. We went to dinner a few nights and it took an hour—on the last night an 1.5h to get our food after placing an order. Our waiter barely ever came over to check on us or tell us there was any delay. It took another 30-45 mins just to get our bill. We could hear around us that on every night other people were also having issues with food being cold, delayed, etc. It’s extremely disorganized.

The pool is so hot it wasn’t refreshing when it’s 90 degrees outside. The pool bar (which is like black granite) is so hot you couldn’t even sit there or it burned your skin. They also had a ton of pool chairs below the pool but no way to access the pool without walking all the way around. It made no sense? You would be in the pool hanging out at the edge like 2 feet from your chair but there was no easy way to get to it.

The service in general is spotty at best. There were multiple instances where we asked the staff for something and then they said ok and it never came.

The weirdest thing is when we were checking out I called to have our bags picked up. Someone came knocking and I thought he was there to help with the bags so I let him in. He started checking the minibar, all around the room, taking the sheets off the bed WHILE WE WERE STILL IN THE ROOM. Never in my life and certainly not at a 5 star hotel has that happened, nor is it appropriate. And then no one came to help with the bags so we walked them up to the front ourselves.

The room: the bathroom shower flooded all over the entire floor every time due to a gap in the glass at the shower door. It made a huge mess. We couldn’t figure out the button for a curtain over the tub to make the bathroom private and it would randomly open and close out of nowhere. Additionally, we tried scanning the QR code for the in room menu but it just took us to the QR site generator.

Also there are just SO many kids. Not a great spot for a...

Underwhelming experience and overall disappointing.

The good: location is unique with beautiful views (as long as you have the expectation that you can't swim at the beach, which we knew and therefore were not disappointed) the resort is brand new, with nice touches that reflect a 5 star luxury resort experience (the rooms have a nice layout and the pools are stunning

The bad: The check in process: it was a disaster. We arrived and watched other guests go to their rooms while we were told our room wasn't ready. And then the staff person waived vaguely to the restaurant and said you can go to the restaurant and walked away. No map of the resort, no apologies to keep us waiting, no mention that we were on our honeymoon/congratulations. So we went outside, realized we had no idea how to get to the pool or the beach and went back to ask for a map. After waiting over an hour, we checked in on our room and were taken to a room where the keys did not work. So we waited some more while they went to get the correct keys. We entered inside to the most bizarre set up- two twin beds, one decorated with honeymoon decorations and one completely bare. We looked at the staff person with confusion and said, We definitely did not request two twin beds and it is obviously our honeymoon, which you know. So began a 2 hour process of staff running back and forth from the front desk to our room, waiting for much longer than they estimated, calling the front desk over and over to check if another room was ready. Then they find the "one King room left" and it is on the ground floor overlooking the restaurant. My wife was so mad that this was the only option, as we were staying only three nights did not want to hop from room to room. We decided to keep the twin beds and have the hotel follow up us in the morning to see if there was a king room for our remaining nights....No one followed up. At that point, we wanted nothing to do with the service and wanted to simply enjoy the resort and explore the island. -Overall service: staff were clearly stressed, leading to a general vibe of tension and disorganization. Staff by the pool would be waiting to hand out towels while trash was left all over the pool area. This all lead to a strange sense that something could always go wrong, so we never quite trusted things to go according to plan (especially after our check in experience). We decided not to book a boat outing through the hotel, kept a watchful eye on our bags during check out to make sure they were on the boat back to Phuket, and did not look into any additional amenities. -The food: after seeing reviews of food poisoning and talking to other guests about the inedible Japanese food and service at the main restaurant, we decided to skip the food and ate at the delicious local restaurants. The breakfast buffet was sheer chaos. The organization was not there- we were only asked for our room number one day. Each day had a different type of service so we were always confused. The food was always being rearranged for some reason. Water leaking from the fridges...Kids run around everywhere, which is fine if there is space and prompt service, but there was none. It was not a relaxing start to the day and we did not like to linger for a leisurely breakfast as we did in other resorts. The check out process: reflected our overall experience. No one asked about our experience. We had to bring up the feedback and ask if we could give it. They took some notes, but didn't write down most of our points and did not mention a manger (we never saw any management) nor did they apologize for the experience. I'm not sure they even really understood what went wrong and did not ask follow up questions to understand. We were told to wait in a corner for the boat transfer and would be called when it was time to leave. We were never called and luckily saw others leaving for the transfer so knew to leave. Otherwise we would have missed our boat.

For a five star luxury resort, this was below par. We probably won't stay at an...