Name: Vanalee Resort
Address: 101 Moo 1 Lonely Beach,, Ko Chang, Ko Chang, Ko Chang, 23170, Thailand
Rating: 6

Air conditioning

Terrace

General

Non-smoking rooms

Hairdryer

Rooms

Laundry

Services and amenities

Restaurant

Meals

Internet access

Internet

Location

At the resort

Room amenities

Trat Airport

Vanalee Resort

Ko Chang

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

I stayed at Vanalee Resort for three nights with my Thai girlfriend. We were greeted by the manager and even though I didn't have my passport at the time, he gave us our key and pointed us in the direction of our hut. The hut could have done with a lick of paint, but honestly I feel its design adds to the tropical Island feel. The staff were friendly and one of them even drove to the nearest 7eleven to buy me some cigarettes. There is not a great deal happening around the resort, bar a few restaurants come bars but you can take a 10 minute taxi ride to Lonely Beach or hire a motorbike for the day and even go further afield.

Picturesque and good location

Picturesque but Awful!
Maybe the fact there were no reviews on this place should have been a warning to us???
But I will start on the positives…  

The resort from the outside is picturesque, truly stunning!  It is located in a small cove with palm trees and a big green lawn that runs down to the sea.  It has its own beautiful restaurant on the sea where you can watch a beautiful sunset even the bungalows look ideal from the outside.

We stayed here from 29 Dec – 2nd Jan 2013, booked through Agoda.com and paid £30-40 per night (Which is Over Priced) they are also advertised on here http://thaisea.ru/bung/resort.php for 1800 thai bart or £36.  I had been traveling Thailand since the end of Nov 2012 so roughly knew how much to pay and what level of service to expect from our money my girlfriend has been to Ko Chang before and she was appalled by the Vanalee resort. 

Our problems begin with a 35 minute wait to check in after a 10 hour bus ride as there was no one around; finally a middle aged man woke up saw us and went to get his wife. (these 2 run the resort)  We told her we had booked through Agoda and would like to check in, she tried to say that we need to pay her on top of the agoda charge which I knew was paid in full back in early Dec 2012, she then said we had to pay extra for Air con (type a room) which I said NO we have paid for that already and after about 10 minutes of discussions she said ok and checked us in; a 500b key deposit was given and we also hired a moped as we were in a rush to get to a scuba diving lesson we had booked.  We were then shown to our room.

Our room, The Type A room with air con which we paid for was nothing like the advertised pictures which are clean and appear a lot bigger, the ensuite bathroom was also appalling with poo stains and pubes from whoever last used the hut it also had a faulty light.  We decided there and then that we would look for alternative accommodation on the island but did not check out as we were unsure of availability so close to New Years.   (We did find one for 2 nights who charged 600b per night and were 100 times better!  With more space and clean facilities each bungalow came with a wardrobe, a TV, air con, a safe and wifi that worked).
Our Vanalee bungalow was also infested with ants a problem which is not helped by the bathroom not having full height side walls and large gaps in the block work.  When we spoke of our numerous problems nothing was done about it or they tried to charge us extra to do so.  In the end I went & brought 2 cans of bug spray, a tub of bleach and a sponge in an attempt to make the room habitable and we used a torch in the bathroom at night.  

On one occasion we had walked to the shop at the top of the road (approximately 15 min) to discover that someone had been in our room although nothing was taken and nothing cleaned or repaired they had turned off the air con which we felt was a bit of an invasion of our privacy.  
The final kick in the teeth from the Vanalee resort came when we checked out.  The woman accused us of crashing the very old and battered moped they had rented to us (which we did not) and demanded a 1000b and so ensued a 40 minute argument in which the crash accusation turned into an accusation that we were too heavy for the bike and buckled the rear wheel (again which we did not), I have seen 3 people on these mopeds loaded with shopping at a time, I weigh 80Kg at most and my girlfriend is very petit so the accusation was a complete farce but still the old woman refused to give me back my passport until I paid some money… A Thai girl came from one of the shops to translate and she told them we had not caused this damage… the argument then turned into a plea to help them pay for repairs to the bike (again not caused by us) so they reduced the charge to 500b but still refused to give me my passport.  I was still not happy to pay this money but not wanting to miss my taxi/ferry/minibus I begrudgingly paid.  
Overall: Terrible resort! Terrible service! & Overpriced!

Vanalee Resort

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