We have just returned from a week at the Avani after time elsewhere in Thailand. It absolutely surpassed our expectations in every way!
We are a family of 5 with kids aged 12, 10 and 6. We had a 2 bedroomed pool villa and it was fabulous. There were 2 bedrooms plus a living area which had a full sized dining table plus a double sofa bed. Two full size bathrooms and a very special pool/veranda area that we felt very lucky to experience!
There were beach towels provided for your use, free bottles of water (as well as a paid for mini bar if you wanted items from there). The air conditioning was powerful and an absolute godsend after the humidity!
The hotel grounds are beautiful - a mix of wild and manicured which give it a real tropical feel. The beach is long and sandy, the sea was like a warm bath (although was quite rough when we were there and did get deep reasonably quickly). Sunbeds are comfy and there are towel stations positioned by the beach and at every pool so you dont have to go traipsing about looking for them or carrying them very far!
The hotel staff are great at removing towels from sunbeds if they haven't seen anyone using them but we never had a problem finding beds (I dont think the hotel was overly busy when we were there though).
The pools are not 'traditional' hotel pools as in huge big lagoon style ones but again, they are in keeping with the feel of the hotel and look perfect.
We had breakfast included in our rate and it was plentiful and delicious with lots of things for fussy kids! (Pancakes, waffles, donut wall, cereal, cakes, fruit etc).
We ate at Mi Scusi by the kids splash area and had room service one night, again, all good.
In terms of location, the hotel isn't in the middle of all the action but actually we really liked that.
Its about 12 mins in a taxi/tuk tuk to Bang Niang market and a few minutes more to what they call Khao Lak Centre (where McDonalds is). Each trip we paid 400THB each way but again, we didn't mind, the kids loved travelling in the tuk tuks and it was nice to visit the busier parts of the area then return to the laid back atmosphere at the hotel.
There are a few restaurants within walking distance down the beach which are cheap and cheerful. The hotel can call you a taxi or there is a small place directly over the road near the mini supermarket shop where you can get one from (to be honest there was no price difference and easier just to get the hotel to call you one!)
