Khaolak Mind Home Hostel

The rooms at Khaolak Mind Home Hostel range from a shared dormitory for women to private rooms for two and family rooms for up to four guests. Rooms can have air conditioning, blackout curtains, a private bathroom with a shower and a clothes rack.

Several rooms have a mountain view, and one family room also has a balcony or terrace. The rooms are set up for different group sizes, from a solo traveller or a couple in a queen-bed room to a family sharing bunk beds.

The hostel has a bar and a garden on site, and it offers an airport transfer and a shuttle service. Kitchen facilities include a shared kitchen, BBQ facilities and a snack bar, and a continental breakfast is served.

Guests can use laundry service, luggage storage, lockers, currency exchange and daily housekeeping. Tours, bicycles and car hire are offered, along with canoeing, diving, fishing, hiking and snorkelling.

Free Wi-Fi covers the rooms and public areas, free parking is available on site, and there is an elevator. Rooms can have air conditioning, blackout curtains and a balcony or terrace. A shared lounge and TV area is on site, and English and Thai are spoken.

Khao Lak is a long stretch of beach resorts, forested hills and national parks on the Andaman coast of Phang Nga province. Khaolak Mind Home Hostel sits in the Bang Niang area, a village district with its own market, where the sea and the hills are both close at hand. The village has a daily rhythm of its own, centred on the market and the road down to the beach.

The Tsunami Museum is 50 m away and records the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that struck this coast. Bang Niang Beach is 1.1 km away, and Bang Niang Market, with its afternoon trade, is a few hundred metres from the hostel. Ton Chong Fa Waterfall, 3.7 km inland, is a forest waterfall in the hills, and Khao Lak-Lam Ru National Park, 4.7 km away, covers the forested hills around the town, and it is the place for a longer walk among the trees.

A good first day might start at the Tsunami Museum, continue on Bang Niang Beach, and end with an afternoon at Ton Chong Fa Waterfall. Boat trips to the Similan islands run only when the sea allows, which depends on the time of year. Phuket International Airport, 61.9 km away, is the nearest airport by road.