Ayara Villas Hotel

At Ayara Villas Hotel the rooms run from a 28 m² villa with a beach view to a 130 m² duplex suite with a mountain view. In between come rooms with pool views, a holiday house with a garden view and a 28 m² Deluxe Room for two. Sleeping capacity runs from two guests to seven. The Duplex Suite and the Holiday House each sleep up to five guests.

Several rooms have a private bathroom with a walk-in or roll-in shower, and the resort is wheelchair accessible. Some rooms have a choice of bed set-ups, so the bedding depends on the room you book.

The grounds include an outdoor swimming pool, a children's swimming pool, a playground and a kids club, plus a garden and a terrace.

For wellness and activities there is a spa with sauna, a massage service, a fitness centre and a body scrub. The private beach is on site, and tours, diving and snorkelling are available. Bicycles are also available. Dining options include a halal restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant, food delivery and BBQ facilities.

Practical services include a 24-hour front desk, laundry service, an airport transfer and free parking on site, with restaurants and a coffee shop for meals. A happy hour is also offered, and Wi-Fi is available in the public areas.

Khao Lak sits on the Andaman coast of Phangnga province, in southern Thailand, and Bang Niang Beach is one of its best-known stretches of sand. The atmosphere is relaxed, with beach resorts, small restaurants and local shops along the road. Many of the resorts here are low-rise, and the dive operators based in the area run day trips out to the Similan Islands. The private beach at Ayara Villas Hotel is part of this same stretch of sand.

Khuk Khak Beach is 600 m away, and the International Tsunami Museum, 1.5 km from the hotel, documents the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that struck this coast. Khao Lak-Lam Ru National Park, 5 km away, has forest trails and waterfalls, and Similan National Park, a marine park of islands, is reached by boat from the coast. Phuket International Airport is 62.7 km away.

A good plan is a morning at the beach, an afternoon at the Bangnieng Afternoon Market, 1.2 km away, and a visit to the tsunami museum to see the local history of the coast. Boat trips to the Similan Islands are one of the main excursions from here for those who want to see the reefs, and the forest trails of Khao Lak-Lam Ru National Park make a walk among the trees.