Firstly, this is really a great villa or maybe for us an accidental find as our initial booking was cancelled by the owner and in replacement we got this bigger and exceptional villa. It was really excellent for our 35th reunion with my high school friends, all 24 of us. Yes, it shows how big the villa is as it could fit all of us so comfortably. We had the place to ourselves and also had the service of a wonderful chef (we called him Uncle and still don't know his name!) Without this villa & the chef & the transport (mini van), we would not have had such a wonderful time.
Firstly, the layout of the villa, 2 bedrooms downstairs and 5 upstairs. The rooms are huge especially room 1 with the pool view. We could fit 5 pax in the room with 2 king sized bed and 1 single add on bed. The other rooms have combos of 2, 3 and 4 pax so it fitted all of us comfortably with a bed for everyone. We were all very comfortable except for 1 complaint from the ground floor room facing the pool where 1 of the single bed had a faulty mattress (too soft and saggy). Other than that we were all good. Each room was has ensuite bathroom & toilet so it was very adequate. A bonus to that, another toilet on the groundfloor next to the lounge. So it was a thoughtful design for guests to use instead of going to the toilets in the bedrooms. Don't expect hotel like amenities in the villa as they don't provide soap/shampoo and only have 1 hairdryer. However, we were pre-warned so we were prepared. Towels were provided though and changed on a daily basis. The villa is cleaned everyday by some housemaids who come in every morning and disappear after that. They can actually do laundry for you if you require and cost was reasonable. Drinking water was available from a filtered tap in the kitchen so we just have to refill our own drinking bottles everyday.
The private pool was great and my group had a great time frolicking in the pool before dinner. We had the free use of the mini van which was included in the rental but bear in mind the petrol cost is not included (but very minimal so no big shakes). Due to the size of my group, we used 2 other vans from our travel agent plus using the villa van. It was great that our travel agent could communicate with the villa van driver so everything went smoothly.
What I want to mention is the highlight of our stay...Uncle Chef. OMG, he is a one man wonder. We engaged his services to cook breakfast & dinner for us as it was too much hassle to eat out with such a big group in view of the location of the villa. Yes, the villa is located in a residential area and it would be quite a hassle to get in and out to the town center especially at night. Anyway, this suited our plans as we wanted some quiet time in the villa after a day of touring. How the chef service works, we had to book him on a daily basis, flexible and up to your request which day you need him. He charged a flat rate per day but you need to order your dishes per meal and pay for the raw ingredients. There was a menu you can choose from but that was quite a challenge as Uncle Chef has limited English understanding. Thank goodness we had our tour guide to help us translate for us. But let me tell you, he really cooked up a storm as he only had 1 helper and to cook for 24 hungry ladies was really a challenge. His dishes were excellent and can out do any fancy restaurant's food. Yummilicious!! His papaya salad was to die for! If you are worried about the cost, don't be as it was really reasonable and quantity was more than enough for us. Excellent meals and he is such a sweet man!!! You can actually order anything extra and if you can get him to understand, he will do it.
We also utilised the services of masseuses when we were there. 12 pax wanted massages and it was arranged quite late at night. It was a funny sight seeing 12 lady masseuses driving up the porch in their motorbikes...What great service and the rates were again very reasonable for 1 hour massage. You could do Thai or Oil massage at different pricing. Again, such luxury of having this service in the villa with absolute privacy.
What you see in the pictures is what you get. We are happy with the villa except for a few points for improvement.
1) Location - please be aware that it may not be as easy to get there by taxi. We were lucky as our tour guides know the place.
2) Coffee & tea - why can't these be provided? We wanted to include in the menu but we were told this is NOT in the list. Like what? Why so strange as we wanted to pay for it but not allowed? We ended up buying our own coffee and tea for the 3 days we were there.
3) Sewerage & pipings were a problem - we were not allowed to throw tissue paper in the toilet bowl but it was clogged up after day 2. We were told that toilet paper was also not allowed to be thrown into the toilet bowl but must be thrown in the garbage bin...Yikes, never knew such a system! As a result, we had to pay for the plumbing services to unclogged the pipes.
4) We didn't quite have enough seats for breakfast and dinner although an extra table was brought in for us. I believe the unit would fit 20 pax very comfortably but with 24, 4 pax had to sit at the bar so not very comfortable but this is just an info to share.
5) the lounge upstairs was super huge and nice and would have been perfect for games and our activities but there was no aircondition so we had to use the lounge downstairs. Maybe can consider to aircondition this lounge.
6) We were a bit disappointed as we were not greeted by the owner/property manager and had to figure things ourselves as the service maids and Uncle Chef were not good in English. We were fortunate we had our tour guide to help us settle in.
Overall we are extremely please with the villa and it is highly recommended if you have a large group like us.