Lanta Pole Houses

Rooms

Coconut (sleeps 2-4)

Coconut is the more practical of the houses. Downstairs, the main room has an open-plan kitchenette with a breakfast bar, so you can perch and enjoy sea views with your cereal. Beyond is a spacious sitting area with a couple of wooden benches and Thai-style cushions, warmly lit by halogen strings at night. From here, you step through wooden folding doors onto the large deck with a thatched roof, hammock, and more seating of varying degrees of comfort. At high tide and when the water is clear, you can dive right into the sea, though you may want to take the steps until you figure out how deep it is.

Streetside is a boxy air-conditioned room, with 2 day beds, where you can watch TV or a DVD and deal with your electronic correspondence at a spacious desk. Up a slightly precarious wooden staircase lies the long master bedroom, with a firm double bed and a swivel fan to keep you cool. A big teak wardrobe downstairs has plenty of hanging space.

The bathroom has a pebble floor and a shower - and should the pressure of the running water be too low, there’s a great terracotta urn to shower from. Towels are suspended from sawn-off tree trunks. Next door is a little w/c.

Lychee (sleeps 2-5)

Because it’s angled the ‘correct’ way, i.e. with the eaves side-on to the sea, Lychee feels bigger and more sumptuous. Through traditional double doors, you enter a biggish hallway with a bamboo table for your bike helmet. Beyond that lies two air-conditioned bedrooms with double beds and plenty of pillows, cushions, throws and blankets. There’s a sizeable built-in wardrobe in one.

The bathroom has a pebble floor and polished-concrete walls. There’s a rather clever sculptural rain shower that’s almost high enough for a Swede to stand up straight under. There's also an open-air shower.

The main room features an open-plan kitchenette; when we visited the wiring was a bit eccentric, but it's been renovated since then. On the other side is a big wooden desk and a sitting area with an additional single bed. The satellite TV at the time of writing showed snow, but the DVD player worked, and pirated films and TV series can be found in town. Beyond that is the huge deck with interesting tropical plant life but no railing, so sleepwalkers beware.

Features include:

• Air conditioning
• WiFi

Eating

Each house has a kitchenette equipped with a 2-ring cooker, toaster, pots and pans, crockery and cutlery, plus a fridge-freezer. Coconut also has a barbecue on its deck.

Fresh milk, eggs, rice and other basic provisions are available from the nice woman next to Fresh Restaurant (up the road), whose mynah bird can say ‘good morning’. She’s also the only one in town to sell cigarettes at market prices. Further afield, there’s a French bakery on the road to Phra Ae and a German one on Long Beach, with excellent streuselkuchen (crumb cake). The Lanta Mart in Saladan has cheese, salami, pasta, olive oil, cereals, frozen bacon, steaks and the glummest staff this side of Bucharest.

Fresh-caught fish can be bought from the fishermen’s wives out of their ice boxes, about 50m left of the houses. Just look and point. Various farmers' markets have fresh vegetables, chicken and pork.

To eat out, Susanna provides a list of recommended restaurants. In the Old Town there are 2 good Thai places. Beautiful, at the far end, lives up to its name with romantic little private decks among the mangroves, and a charming owner. Fresh Restaurant, also over the water, is less beautiful but the food is good, down to the handful of Western dishes. Most of the Old Town restaurants offer delivery service, if you're feeling lazy. Along the high street, a few basic places have fried rice and such for lunch. In season, Mango House has extortionate so-so breakfasts and burgers, but decent milkshakes. A noodle woman just past the pier does what she can. Up on the hills in either direction are restaurants with stunning views.

The nearest tourist beach is Klong Nin, where barracuda steaks and pizza are on offer everywhere, and some hotels advertise fine dining.

Features include:

• Restaurants nearby

Activities

• Laze in the hammock on your deck, then at high tide, dive in for a swim
  
• If you enjoy fishing you can buy equipment in the village or bring your own
  
• Explore the nearby islets and deserted beaches by longtail boat
  
• Swim and dive. Klong Nin is the nearest tourist beach, about 10-15 minutes by scooter or car. It’s studded with dive shops that also organise tours
  
• The nearest beach from the Old Town is Sang Ka Ou at the southern tip - tiny but well worth visiting for the whimsical forest sanctuary, with a tame monkey, mad statuary and sagacious maxims nailed to the trees
  
• The best beaches for swimming are at the southwest end, about a 25-minute drive uphill and down dale and along a dramatic coastline. Shade, drinks and showers are available at the bungalow operations
  
• Mai Kaeo Cave has impressive stalagmites and -tites. The tour takes about 2 hours including a half-hour jungle hike to and fro
  
• The Old Town goes to bed at 9pm sharp, though you can linger a little over drinks at Beautiful restaurant
  
• For a livelier experience in the high season, Klong Dan or Long Beach is a holidaymaker's paradise, where the surf slams into a dismal wasteland of (admittedly) white sand, fringed with bungalow and resort operations. Along the main road are ‘beer bars’, restaurants, souvenir shops and more bars, mostly populated by Swedes. Funky Monkey, that’s a big one
  
• Red Snapper on Phra Ae beach comes recommended for pricey dining, tapas and wine

Activities on site or nearby include:

• Fishing
• Nightlife
• Scuba diving
• Snorkelling
• Wildlife

Kids

Families are welcome and the houses each have two bedrooms, sleeping 6 in total. There’s plenty for children to do, late-afternoon winkle-picking is included, but there are no special facilities.

Best for:

Children (4-12 years)

Family friendly accommodation:

Bopth houses have two double bedrooms and two single beds/daybeds. Note that baby cots are not available in either house.

Extra Beds Available

For more family-friendly places, see our Kids Collection

Location

The Lanta Pole Houses are set on Koh Lanta's east coast in the seaside fishing village of Ban Sri Raya, also known as Lanta Old Town.

By Air:
Krabi (60km) is the closest airport to Koh Lanta, and is served by internal flights from Bangkok (a flying time of 80 minutes). More frequent flights operate the Bangkok-Phuket route. Click on the links below for a list of airlines serving these airports.

From the Airport
The easiest way is to take a taxi from Krabi airport. Those flying to Phuket can catch the public boat (see below).

By Boat from Phuket:
From Phuket you can catch the daily express boat service which runs all year, connecting Phuket with Koh Lanta via Koh Phi Phi. When you arrive on the island, you can take a cheap tuk-tuk from the harbour to Lanta Old Town.

Detailed directions will be sent to you when you book through i-escape.com.

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