Lazy Day Koh Mak, officially named Lazy Day The Resort, was the final stop on our recent island trip to Koh Mak. We had been enjoying all that the island had to offer and Lazy Day would tie a nice ribbon around our experience…hopefully!
We had booked a bungalow with sea view for a cost of 2750 baht per night (about 91 US dollars). Our room turned out to be the worst at the resort with a view of the back of another bungalow, not any sea view… The staff admitted that it was their worst room and that their “Agoda listing and pictures were confusing”. We were not off to a great start here. They could not offer us another room, since they were booked solid. We were stuck in a room with a crap view and just had to make the best of it.
Our room was old and worn and not clean at all. It had huge gaps in the doors and windows, which allowed pests in. The key here (from past experience…) is to keep the outdoor lights on around the room at night and the lights off inside so the bugs gather outside and do not attempt to infiltrate within. It worked to a large degree. Since there was no TV even in the room, it was easy to do! The room had the worst shower with no real hot water and no water pressure. It did not offer much in terms of comfort. Therefore, we spent most of our time outside the room in nature on Koh Mak.
It was obvious right from the start that this place was small and had a minimal staff. There were only a handful of rooms on a rather large property on the most gorgeous beach. There was a small reception with built-in restaurant and a mid-property bar under an amazing huge tree. The beach itself was super calm, unlike all the other places we had stayed where the water was rough (by Thailand standards, at least). We could see a visible reef system here and really hoped to have the first decent snorkel of our trip. The water did not disappoint!
The star of Lazy Day Koh Mak was definitely the property itself and the glorious water of the Gulf of Thailand. We swam for hours and snorkeled very far out, since there was coral and fish galore. It was an amazing adventure each day to hit the water and see our beloved fish friends. Visibility ranged from ok to great, but the ease of the swim made it a truly memorable experience that we will never forget.
There are other resorts along this beach and we made friends with the one close by called Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort. We ended up eating there each night, as their menu was much bigger, the service was far better and the prices were less than half the food offerings at Lazy Day Koh Mak. Service at Ao Kao White Sand was super friendly also and the facilities were much nicer. It will be the place we stay next time we return to this beautiful beach for sure!
We did have breakfast at Lazy Day The Resort each morning and found it to be quite awful. The portions were ridiculously small and each guest could only order 1 item from the extremely limited menu. Food quality was not good and it was just sustenance food without any joy. We also had drinks at the resort one evening, but the amount of alcohol in the drinks would not have made a child drunk, so we gave up and just stuck to eating and drinking next door at Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort (thanks to the staff there for making our time at Lazy Day much better!)
Lazy Day Koh Mak was extremely relaxing. The natural environment was a total win! The water was divine. The best thing we can say about the service and food is that it was close to Ao Kao White Sand Beach Resort, which saved us, for sure. The staff seemed to want to do better for us, but also seemed to be held down by untrained and greedy policies. There was no feeling of hospitality here. We personally did not see any management while we were there, so they are probably absentee and largely hands off. Well, since the place was on such a great beach and only had a handful of rooms, they seemed to do just fine even with the obvious holes in their hospitality experience.
Thank you to the kind staff at Lazy Day Koh Mak. We know that you did your best and we did enjoy our stay. If we had paid 1000 baht per night, we would have no complaints at all, but given the much more expensive price, we feel that this resort offered the lowest price to value ratio of our entire stay. It was nowhere near the wonderful value offered by Mira Montra, which won best of the trip!
