This resort flips what we think of as a tropical resort on it’s head and I like.
Hi there, my name is Kevin. This channel came from a love of traveling,
a love of the full process and the journey itself. I feature airline trip reports and
high end hotel reviews from all over the world. My reviews aren’t sponsored by
airlines or hotels so you can be sure to get my unbiased honest opinion. Am I an expert?
You can decide. Am I fair? Yea, I am. Let’s get into it, welcome to Phuket.
If you’d like to know the nightly rate that I paid or my next five videos in queue,
please check out the description below. Also note that these graphics will now include my
scoring spread so you can see how today’s hotel’s score fits into the other scores on the channel.
Straight away, we can see we are not at a typical Thai Beach Resort and the entrance
is designed to do just that. Minimalist and modern with touches of Chinese and
Portuguese heritage and just enough whimsy to keep it light and welcoming.
I think blacks and greys are underused tones in tropical resort design, but I’ve always
believed that they compliment deep and lush surrounds better than lighter tones ever could.
Welcome to this new Thailand Series. There are 8 resort videos coming in the following weeks, but
I also have 15 or so other Thai hotel and resort videos on the channel, so be sure to check them
out. If you’ve been watching for a while, you know my videos, from the format to the graphics to the
sound, are continuously evolving, so if you have any feedback or suggestions, feel free to leave
them in the comments. After all, this content is for you and I do reply to every comment.
When arriving, guests are treated to a pretty unique process which I’ve
still yet to see at any other brand besides Sala.
You will of course have your welcome drink- in this case a honey ginger tea- and cold towel,
but then the receptionist will offer you a tray of choices. From here,
you’re going to choose the type of pillows you’d prefer as well as the soap and amenities scents
you’d like to have in your room. Whichever you choose will be swapped out soon after check in.
With a small lounge area on the left and an activities center on the right,
the reception pavilion leads to the central artery of the hotel which
will take you to all of the rooms and villas and end at the beach.
And what a beach it is, you likely know, Phuket is an island in the far southwest
of Thailand and while it is covered with beautiful beaches, I think Mai Khao on
the far north of the island is by far the best one, stretching for 11km and clean as a whistle.
The layout of the resort would lead you to think it had quite a narrow bit of seafront,
but the property actually opens up towards the beach giving guests truly
an unparalleled amount of space in the lawn area. My room though,
was about as far away from the beach as possible, but it was calm and quiet so I’m not complaining.
Designed by Amata Luphaiboon, the resort has a total of 79 guest rooms,
63 of which are private villas which take up the vast majority of the property.
The design aesthetic here is minimalist and linear, but it’s not cold and stark.
At every turn from every vantage point, you still feel like you’re
in a lush tropical slice of paradise- not inside a stark and barren fever dream.
Here we have the front lawn. I mean honestly, look at how much space there is here- beachfront
to boot. On a per capita or per room basis, I really can’t express how huge this area feels.
So rather than explain it, I’m going to actually show you compared to the two other
resorts I reviewed on Mai Khao. This is looking at the usable lawn space that each resort has.
I measured each as best as I could in Google Maps.
First, the Melia Mai Khao, admittedly has a small lawn, just 72 square feet per room.
The JW Marriott though is a pretty respectable size offering ten times
more lawn space per room than the Melia. The SALA comes in more than double that though.
And SALA really used the space wisely and takes really good care of the lawn,
something in retrospect, I can’t say equally for the JW. The pools are set
back with the lawn in front. So, who is actually using all of this space?
There are no “adults only” policies, but this is clearly not a young kids focused property.
Families with older kids, couples, expats all fit in equally well and it just has this impossibly
cool vibe that is like a beautiful beach club, but on a lawn without a spec of pretension.
The first pool area on the north side of the lawn has the most variety of seating
and seating is something SALA does really well. The cushions are all
next level luxurious and you won’t find a faded or frayed towel anywhere in sight.
Just across the path is the other larger of the two pools which is surrounded by the
resort’s bar and restaurant. The last time I said this was for the Six Senses Uluwatu,
but the designers here really did a nice job of providing like one stop shopping. From breakfast
to the pool to the beach to lunch to the pool to the sunset and so on. Let’s also keep in mind,
the vast majority of the rooms have their own pool, so it’s not even that crowded here.
And then we have the beach itself. The resort has a few kayaks and such on hand for guests to
use and this beach never disappoints, we will take a closer look at sunset.
Now though, it’s time to head to my room.
So you already know how much I paid for my stay here, but do you know how much the hotel paid
me to publish this video? That’d be a big fat 0. Not only was SALA unaware I’d be making a video,
they have no idea who I am and that’s how I like it. Why? Because content creators
are recognized every day, on the street, on a flight, in a hotel and instantly, the VVIP
alarms start ringing in everyone’s ear pieces and suddenly their experience is no longer typical.
When I’m making a review video, I don’t want special treatment, so I film anonymously.
That is more challenging than you’d think though- so that’s why every like,
comment and subscription really does mean a lot and helps the channel grow to keep
this twice weekly content flowing. Thanks very much for watching today.
We are heading to the back left corner.
My room is up there to the left. Welcome to my room, it’s a strange one.
For me the room is relatively speaking the low point or the resort and while I
don’t always believe this to be true, in this case if you’re going to come here,
you really should be booking a more expensive pool villa.
My room had everything you’d need. It really is thoughtfully equipped, but they just tried
too hard to make it cool and in doing so designed the room way out of proportion.
Behind these sliding panels is a mixed use area which has a mini
bar in the center flanked on either side by closet space.
It is plenty of space, in theory, but with a combination of always needing to slide a
panel and the lack of wiggle room in general in the room, it’s just an awkward design.
When I score rooms, it’s out of 20 points. I generally have
it broken down into four even categories: Aesthetics, Features, Condition and Layout.
In todays case, it lost four points for layout and one for
features since the layout prevented you from really enjoying all of the features.
Generally, I’m
not against small rooms, I actually quite like them when they’re done well,
but this balcony is way too big. I want a place to sit and lounge and drink some coffee,
I don’t need a space to do the electric slide.
If half of this depth was in the room, the entire accommodation would have a much better feel.
Then we have the bathroom. I see what they were going for, I can live with it,
but I would have preferred a larger space for the shower and the pooling
drapes besides the toilet just gross me out a bit.
There are of course curtains- sheer and blackout- for complete privacy.
I knew it was going to be a struggle to make it until dinner time so I ordered a
chicken sandwich and I gotta hand it to them, it was piping hot when it arrived,
super crispy and really delicious- just about as good as a room service sandwich could possibly be.
Next up we can take a look at the spa and fitness center area.
Sala currently has 8 resorts and has been operating since 2004.
They are also the very proud majority stake holder in Six Senses Samui. I
say very proud because they mention it near ad nauseum in their literature.
For the number of rooms, I think it’s equipped well enough, just
do yourself a favor and ring the Spa ahead of time to make sure the AC is on inside.
Now it’s time to take a closer look at the beach and also, check out today’s beautiful sunset.
For beaches, this is just about as good as it gets for me in Thailand.
Yes, it would be nice to have loungers here, but the fact that they’re not
allowed is precisely why the beach is so pristine, so it’s a give and take.
The vast majority of the restaurant and bar is outdoors and also note
that the roof of the full structure I’ve seen in photos is an extension
of the restaurant and bar, but it was closed during my visit.
The layout and collection of seating types really did make you feel like
you were in your own private corner no matter which table you were sitting at.
The menu was equally accommodating with a bit of everything, but elevated.
Note this menu differs slightly from when I was there, both it was just as comprehensive.
For starters we had a rock lobster salad, which was the most basic of the dishes we ordered along
with incredible thai style meatballs with crab dip.
The main dishes though are where they really shined,
ticking the curry, stir fry and western boxes quite well.
After dinner the room had been turned down and there was a Beal Fruit drink.
I really like when hotels do touches like this that you’d never get at home.
As many adults focused resorts are, this one was quite sleepy
in the morning and I felt as if I had the entire place to myself for a while.
The interior air conditioned portion of the restaurant is where the majority of
the breakfast buffet was located. It was in my small but well curated category and
considering it was supplemented by an a la carte menu, it was more than enough.
As I’m getting to the end of the video I’m realizing I’ve barely said a word about the
service. Overall, it was very friendly if not a bit unpolished, especially in the
restaurant and bar area. Since all of the spaces kind of overflow into one another,
when you enter the bar for example, no one acknowledges you since they
don’t know if you’re there for the bar, or the restaurant or just to sit down.
So, a bit more proactivity from the restaurant and bar staff would help, but otherwise it was typical
low touch service that you’d expect from a resort like this- which I think is how it should be.
Outside there was an omelet station as well as all of the hot foods on offer.
The a la carte menu comes last and each guest is welcomed to choose two of the items that you
see. Of course, I went with the Pulled Pork Eggs Benedict and the Mango Maple Pancakes.
Both were delicious and both were a touch too sweet.
So, that is that. This being the 2nd SALA resort on the channel,
I feel like I’m getting a true sense of what the brand stands for.
Design driven small resorts with an emphasis on outdoor spaces and really good food programs.
The SALA Mai Khao will certainly make it onto my own personal short list for holidays.
I really do hope you enjoyed this video today, if you did, please be sure to click that subscribe
button and turn on notifications so that you can stay up to date with my current Thailand
series. Make sure you join me next time from the sublime COMO Point Yamu on the east coast of
Phuket. Oh and thanks for watching ‘till the end. So you already know how much I paid for my stay
here, but do you know how much the hotel paid me to publish this video? That’d be a big fat 0.
Not only was SALA unaware I’d be making a video, they have no idea who I am and that’s how I like
it. Why? Because content creators are recognized every day, on the street, on a flight, in a hotel
and instantly, the VVIP alarms start ringing in everyone’s ear pieces and suddenly their
experience is no longer typical. When I’m making a review video, I don’t want special treatment,
so I film anonymously. That is more challenging than you’d think though- so that’s why every like,
comment and subscription really does mean a lot and helps the channel grow to keep
this twice weekly content flowing. Thanks very much for watching today.