Ao Nang hotels cover all budgets and there is some good value accommodation, especially in Ao Nang’s mid-price and luxury hotel price ranges. Here are our Ao Nang hotel recommendations.
Although the Ao Nang area gets busier every year, it still in no way matches the capacity of Phuket for crowds, noise and traffic. It is heavily developed though, and there is an amazing choice of excellent accommodation in both the luxury and high end brackets. If you want an even quieter and more rustic experience head to Noppara Thara which is not only more peaceful but backed by tropical woodland, with some laid back places to stay amongst the trees. The further away one gets from the beach as the hill climbs to the rocky outcrops beyond, the cheaper it gets, although real bargains are now pretty much a thing of the past in this area.
Luxury Ao Nang Hotels
Leelawadee Garden Resort
The area behind Ao Nang, on the road to Krabi Town is indescribably picturesque with jungle and rubber forest dotted with huge limestone outcrops rearing from amongst the trees. The Leelawadee sits amongst this scenery sporting clean and airy design and a very muted but tasteful approach to decoration.
One can relax on the deck by the swimming pool and contemplate the rugged and green scenery surrounding one. If you do get the urge to swap the contemplation of chlorinated water for the contemplation of salt water, the beach is really not far away and is just a short hop by taxi or scooter. As with everything at this resort, the villas are clean, bright and beautifully conceived with fully equipped kitchens. There are also only eight of them meaning you will never have to compete for the best place by the pool.
:: Check availability at Leelawadee Garden Resort
Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas
Technically speaking the Centara is not actually on Ao Nang itself, but is instead the only hotel on the adjoining Pai Plong Bay. It is this isolation that gives it its unique character since it can only be reached either by boat or by an arduous clamber over the monkey-colonised rocks, facing down regiments of unpredictable looking simian loafers.
If you stay here you do have to make the positive choice that you will be tied into the facilities that the Centara and the Centara alone has to offer, particularly those involving breakfast. The scenery surrounding the Centara is breathtaking and the layout, particularly the swimming pool, complements it well. In high season the facilities can be stretched though and the spa a little understaffed. Both spa treatments and boats to Ao Nang should be booked ahead in order to make sure one isn’t lost in the queue.
:: Check availability at Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas
Golden Beach Resort
This solid and established hotel right in the middle of Ao Nang is a very safe option. They probably wouldn’t win any prizes for flare or imagination, but they might win one for ‘doing what it says on the tin’. It has all the necessary facilities for business or pleasure, including a conference room, which along with its central location does, in fact, make it a good venue for conferences and business events. It also has a pool so vast that you could actually hold a huge international business conference, with delegates from all over the globe, entirely underwater. The rooms are solid and clean and totally devoid of any innovation but nor are they cloyingly boutiquey and annoying.
The compound as a whole has plenty of space with a restaurant overlooking the beach. When we visited the Golden Beach Resort, it was employing a psychotic security guard whose main aim in life was to blow a whistle and furiously prevent potential guests from parking in the space marked with a large sign saying ‘Parking’… But with any luck he has been ‘let go’ by now in order to spend more time with his witch doctor. The other downside is that, as of the time of writing, they charge for wifi in the lobby and have no wifi at all in the rooms.
:: Check availability at Golden Beach Resort
Phra Nang Inn Hotel
This was one of the very first resorts built on Ao Nang hence the superb location only yards from the beach. Everything here works fine and the staff are very friendly, but it is very old fashioned (and indeed quite old) which might suit many, although others might find all the dark wood and dark a little oppressive.
Whatever one might think about it, the Phra Nang Inn Hotel certainly does not represent a question of style over substance. The town of what is now Ao Nang has grown up around it, but despite some late night noise in High Season, if you stay here you will still be in a quiet little beachside oasis.
:: Check availability at Phra Nang Inn Hotel
Red Ginger Chic Resort
The Red Ginger Chic Resort bills itself as being ‘Like a Tropical Flower in bloom’ which is laying it on a bit thick, however chic one is attempting to be. However, despite the less than bashful marketing, it is actually a very pleasant and well-conceived place. It verges on being cloyingly twee but is hauled back from the precipice by top rate facilities and an airy use of space.
It’s all a slightly odd fusion of incipient art deco in bright colours mixed with traditional Thai styling. The location is wonderfully quiet back up the hill a little bit where Ao Nang meets Noppara Thara. It also has excellent facilities. The swimming pool is beautifully designed stretching right up to the doors of the ground floor suites, each suite having its own little bay. The conference room has a leafy garden in the middle of the table and flowery plumage on the microphones. You don’t see that very often in hotel conference rooms. This could be what the ‘tropical flower’ reference is about… Microphones as floral arrangements.
:: Check availability at Red Ginger Chic Resort
Mid Range Ao Nang Hotels
Blue House
Calling this the Blue House is a bit of a misnomer since it is actually a mish mash of all the colours of the rainbow. Red walls, purple cushions and some things that are green are mixed in with all stuff that is blue and it is a very cheerful look since the dominant theme is actually an airy white that holds the light.
A little way up the main road the Blue House is about 15 minutes walk from the beach and very near all the amenities you might need. It’s an ‘all mod cons’ kind of an affair with Italian/Thai management. They have thought about what people in this price bracket might want and then provided it with a no nonsense approach. The wifi is fast, the food is clean, the place is modern and well maintained and quite a bit of imagination has gone into the decoration and lighting. It is cozy. They even have a special movie lounge.
:: Check availability at Blue House
Baan Habeebee Resort
Behind the Ao Nang Boxing stadium, which is on Noppara Thara, the Baan Habeebee Resort is an exercise in all things being made out of wood. Sometimes one feels they are veering towards traditional Northern Thai styling. The gardens in which the rooms are set are beautiful and gloriously tropical.
The Baan Habeebee is also gloriously quiet and peaceful but it is also quite a hike to the beach so you will either be taking a lot of tuk tuks or you will need to hire yourself a scooter.
:: Check availability at Baan Habeebee Resort
Sunda Resort
The Sunda Resort is ‘up the jungle’ in the rice paddies. It is gloriously peaceful but it is 4km to the beach. The hotel provides a free shuttles service though so you are actually getting the best of both worlds.
If one is a lover of foliage the Sunda will be an ecstatic experience. It’s everywhere. One is never far away from a leaf or a frond. The restaurant is halal, Krabi being a largely Muslim area, nor is alcohol permitted. Some might see this as a drawback.
:: Check availability at Sunda Resort
Cheap Ao Nang Hotels
Glur Hostel
This quirky budget favourite is up the hill from Ao Nang and then down a lane to the right in the lee of an enormous limestone outcrop. This kind of super fashionable dormitory accommodation is all the range amongst the partying, backpacking fraternity for whom the herd instinct is overwhelmingly compelling. Nor is the Glur particularly cheap given what it offers and its distant location.
If, however, your idea of fun is to stay on pastel hued bunk beds, in a very clean, very new, imaginatively decorated, airy, white-themed Scandinavian scout hut with others of a like mind, then this is the place for you. As with all outlets espousing this new trend in chic, luxury hostels you get your own big locker space to hide your valuables from your brand new and potentially light fingered room-mates.
:: Check availability at Glur Hostel
The Krabi Forest Homestay
Situated just where Ao Nang morphs into Noppara Thara, staying at this hotel is a quiet, roomy and leafy experience at an incredibly reasonable price. You are close to he wildlife here, so don’t be surprised at encountering the odd frog attempting to join you in your room for a rest and a spot of television.
The hotel has an endearingly clumsy approach to décor, attempting to go for a ’boutique’ look and getting it completely wrong, but creating something far more homely and odd in the attempt.
:: Check availability at The Krabi Forest Homestay
The Sun Aonang Bungalow
Thailand is known for the ease and warmth of its hospitality. In heavily touristed areas this is now usually more myth than fact. Not so at the family run Sun Ao Nang Bungalows. About 4km from Ao Nang itself in the beautiful and wild countryside between the beach and the main road this place is a taste of the real rustic charm that initially made Ao Nang such a popular destination.
If you are looking for 5-star facilities and slick modern management, you are in the wrong place. If you want friendly and relaxed family hospitality, you are definitely in the right place. Scattered across a leafy hillside one can get AC or fan cooled bungalows, each a little self-contained wooden house. They make some faint hearted attempt at boutique styling with some fancy towel folding and the odd flower scattered about, but the fact is that this place could never be ’boutique’, the reason being it is far too genuine. Distance from the bright lights means you will be best off hiring a scooter, but if you don’t have one the family that owns the place will happily ferry you about in their tuk tuk for free, but it is dependent on them being near the mobile phone if you are stranded in town.
:: Check availability at The Sun Aonang Bungalow
