The Naka Island Resort & Impiana Private Villas with the Thai Girlfriend

Our view

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from our room at The Naka Island Resort

This will be a short review from me (maybe just two posts) for both the resorts we are visiting.

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https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...ka_%289%29.JPG

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Our room

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guest room and bath (separate building)

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Dining room, kitchen and living room (separate building)

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https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...26069/Naka.JPG

The resorts pool that we visited once to get a picture and some common areas

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Food was excellent

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It is a nice place and the staff here could not have been more helpful and were wonderful to us.

We did a little island hopping while here,........

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and did visit the other side (by bike and boat) of the island (public beach) and the public pier

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This is a protected animal, out in the sun. :( Do us all (and these animals) a favor,..please don't take your picture with them or give their captor any money. In time these people might stop exploiting them.

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The resort looks good quality, though I'm not a fan of Naka. The 'public' beach is a major stopping off point for tour boats returning to Phuket from James Bond Island and other Phang Nga Bay tours, and as such the beach is full of Russians and Chinese with the roar of jet skis. It is quite a sheltered beach (depending on season) though, and I've anchored off there quite a few times for a picnic lunch onboard. How would you rate it in comparison to Six Senses on Koh Yao Noi?

Fantastic resort. That bedroom and pool area are outstanding.

I'd gladly sleep in that guest bedroom if you'll bring me along next time. Would even sleep outside on a recliner by the pool!

You certainly do it in style SL !

Beautifull place way outside my budget , but nice to see how the other half do it


shame about the weather though , looks well cloudy and overcast , still its warmer than the UK

Nice but no private pool ?

Hope that you didn't have to go outside the resort and meet the monkeys from Phuket, the worst place on earth after Irak and Afghanistan.

I looked at this place a while back but like nigelandjan it was a bit out of my price range. Nice to see what it actually looks like and I now see why it's so pricey, looks fantastic. The shot of the infinity pool looking out across the bay is wonderful.

Thanks for posting.

SL, that looks fantastic. Thanks for posting. i'm checking out the costings now but i would like your advice on one aspect. Namely, the durability of the resort.
By this I mean, we live in the north. Would it be worth our while travelling all the way down for, let us say, a weeks- 10 day stay?
Do you think we'd get bored after 2-3 days.
As long as I've got my books I'm happy but my wife likes to be doing stuff. What is there to do for a non reading, sociable "busy" person?
Would you stay there for a week?

^ Phuket is only ten minutes away. Break the stay up with a couple of day trips there.

Thanks SL....looks a nice enough place for a visit

Nice report, Landreth!

Keeping TD famous with lovely travel threads....

Cheers.:)

Great pic's SL green sent

Quote:

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Originally Posted by luckyjim

SL, that looks fantastic. Thanks for posting. i'm checking out the costings now but i would like your advice on one aspect. Namely, the durability of the resort.
By this I mean, we live in the north. Would it be worth our while travelling all the way down for, let us say, a weeks- 10 day stay?
Do you think we'd get bored after 2-3 days.
As long as I've got my books I'm happy but my wife likes to be doing stuff. What is there to do for a non reading, sociable "busy" person?
Would you stay there for a week?

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If we're talking about the Naka Island that I think we are, then it's only a kilometre or so long and half of that wide. The advantage is that it's only a 10 - 15 minute slow boat transfer to Ao Po Marina (or Ao Po Pier) on Phuket. Not a great deal in that part of the island, though quite scenic. One recommendation would be the Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre (in a National Park), where there is also a reasonable restaurant in a scenic setting, and a nearby waterfall (not a lot of rain so far this year, so might not be 'flowing').

Once on Ao Por, it's maybe around 45 minutes taxi journey to get to Phuket Town central, or the Bypass Road (main north/south artery) which has a couple of shopping malls. Heading to the southern most part of the island would probably take another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or if looking for the 'action' of the west coast (Patong etc), depending on the time of day and traffic, maybe around 1 hour from Ao Por. I'm being pessimistic on the transport times, but could still be plus or minus.

For a non shopping day out with local flavour, go to the largest of the nearby islands, Ko Yao Yai and Ko Yao Noi (large and little). Both have a rural kind of infrastructure, with their staple economy based on agriculture and fishing (though increasingly influenced by tourism of course). A thing to note, this area is almost wholly Muslim, so if seeking a beer in a local restaurant, you might be disappointed. That won't apply to international orientated resorts of course.

Nice work Mr Landreth, wonderful photos. Glad you and the girlfriend enjoyed the break.

For the second part of our trip we stayed at the Impiana Pivate Villas. Careful there's another Impiana Resort on this side of the island.

Our room

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Our view with our own pool

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Impiana Dinners

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https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...d_%2816%29.jpg

Common areas

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The place was OK (couple of minor problems but nothing serious) and the staff and food were fine.

While we were on Phuket we spent most of our time getting wet or harassing the local sea life.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by PAG

The resort looks good quality, though I'm not a fan of Naka. The 'public' beach is a major stopping off point for tour boats returning to Phuket from James Bond Island and other Phang Nga Bay tours, and as such the beach is full of Russians and Chinese with the roar of jet skis. It is quite a sheltered beach (depending on season) though, and I've anchored off there quite a few times for a picnic lunch onboard. How would you rate it in comparison to Six Senses on Koh Yao Noi?

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The room at The Naka Island resort is nicer than the room we had at Six Senses Koh Yao Noi (https://teakdoor.com/thailand-hotels-...-thailand.html), however if I were to choose between the two I would prefer Six Senses, for the island and not the resort/room. There is more to do on Koh Yao Noi than on Koh Naka Yai (which is only 2.5sq kilometers). But if a couple who were to marry and wanted to honeymoon around Phuket I would recommend The Naka Island resort if they could get our room. The reason,......some newlyweds might not have a desire to leave the room [own private pool, meals are served in the dining room if you wish (we ate breakfast in our dining room every morning), privacy, view, etc].

About the public beach on Naka Yai (the other side of the island). I agree with you about it being a tourist destination and that beach would be so much nicer without some of the tourist that visit it (jet skiers, speed boaters, tourists wanting their picture taken with protected animals, etc), however we need to talk about some of the Chinese tourists that visit the beach. While I was there and the girlfriend was picking up a smoothie, two tall Chinese women walked up (and you know how some tourists will do and wear things they wouldn't at home?) hand in hand and looking for a smoothie. Both women were stunning and didn't fit well into their bikinis (well-endowed). Still cannot get that image from my mind.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by misskit

Fantastic resort. That bedroom and pool area are outstanding.

I'd gladly sleep in that guest bedroom if you'll bring me along next time. Would even sleep outside on a recliner by the pool!

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I'll ask the girlfriend to try to book a place (she has a couple of places already picked out she would like to visit) next year (about July 4th) with two bedrooms. I'm serious and will give you a couple months notice.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by nigelandjan

You certainly do it in style SL !

Beautifull place way outside my budget , but nice to see how the other half do it


shame about the weather though , looks well cloudy and overcast , still its warmer than the UK

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The weather was fine for tourists. Blistering sun most every day. I/we prefer the showers each day (this time of year) but didn't get as many as we would have liked.

Kata View Point

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by stickmansucks

Nice but no private pool ?

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Did you miss this picture? :)

https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/albums/u...ka_%289%29.JPG

The private pool; in the picture above, comes with the room we stayed in.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by luckyjim

SL, that looks fantastic. Thanks for posting. i'm checking out the costings now but i would like your advice on one aspect. Namely, the durability of the resort.
By this I mean, we live in the north. Would it be worth our while travelling all the way down for, let us say, a weeks- 10 day stay?
Do you think we'd get bored after 2-3 days.
As long as I've got my books I'm happy but my wife likes to be doing stuff. What is there to do for a non reading, sociable "busy" person?
Would you stay there for a week?

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Please look at my response to PAG, above. I think with PAG's view (PAG knows best. I'm just a tourist) and what I wrote should give you an idea where to stay. By the way, my girlfriend enjoys exploring and socializing with the locals and wouldn't stay at Naka more than three nights and one reason why she scheduled the trip the way she did.
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That's it. I would like to give thanks to everyone who stopped by to view the thread and especially to those who contributed.

Great reports SL - Just out of interest, on Naka, how easy is it to get out and about to the other beaches on the Island? Do you think that the way over the Island would be passable / not too tough by foot or would you be looking at getting a boat?

Beautiful pics and resort!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by misskit

Fantastic resort. That bedroom and pool area are outstanding.

I'd gladly sleep in that guest bedroom if you'll bring me along next time. Would even sleep outside on a recliner by the pool!

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eee, yer mucky bitch! ...mind you I might give it up for him for that poshness ...was she worth it?!

AHHHHHHHH. The life of the rich and famous.

Nice thread again mate.