Well, hello, nice to see you again. Another review for you this week, this time our apartment in Kamala.

So after our first week’s stay in Patong we opted for a place a little further along the coast, a much more relaxed village boasting a beautiful sandy bay with lots of bars and restaurants to explore, more on that another time.

And as with most of our month-long stays, we found this place through Airbnb, it had some mixed reviews online but the location looked good and the apartment looked clean and modern so we moved in for the month of April and so here it is, our honest review of our stay at the 5 star rated Citygate Resort & Residence.

LOCATION

The location was one of our favourite things about staying at Citygate. Everything is on your doorstep, several minimarkets, cafes, bars and restaurants are all within a 5-minute walk from your apartment. But it’s the beach that is the true star and it’s only a 10-minute walk away, but if you prefer not to walk in the tropical daytime heat, then a courtesy shuttle service runs several times a day from the hotel and drops you off right where all the action is – you can also arrange to be collected from the same spot later in the day.

Honestly, just look at the colour of the water here! We took full advantage of the shuttle service and spent almost every day at Kamala Beach during our 30-day stay. In an upcoming blog I’ll be sharing some of our favourite spots to drink and dine here, so stay tuned for that.

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APARTMENT

The good stuff.

The apartment itself was clean, spacious and modern and boasting the most comfortable bed I might have ever slept in. Weekly cleaning was also included in the cost of our rental, including fresh bedding & towels.

The kitchenette was small but functional, with an electric hob & microwave for cooking and a good selection of cooking utensils. I’ll be honest though, the food here is so cheap that aside from fruit & toast for breakfast almost all of our meals were eaten at the local restaurants and cafes.

We didn’t have a smart TV, but they did have a number of English speaking channels, including a movie channel so we still managed a few movie nights at home.

Wifi was really good and allowed us to stream movies & TV and work without interruption. Decent.

The not so good stuff.

They did have a few power cuts whilst we were here, it is common in certain areas of Thailand and if you’ve seen the powerlines you might understand why. But it didn’t massively impact our stay.

The only other downside was the cost of electricity. The apartments are mostly glass and get very hot without having the aircon switched on. Admittedly we used to leave it on when we went to the gym or popped to the shops to keep the apartment cool, but it cost us a whopping £135 for 30 days of usage. Lesson learnt.

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LAFAYETTE CAFE

Would you just look at that happy face! We both appreciate an onsite restaurant and Lafayette was a great option for breakfast or lunch and offered a huge selection of both Thai and Western dishes. We would often grab a smoothie or pastry in the mornings but the highlights for us were the fried rice dishes, Tom Yum soup & for Carl, the epic club sandwich. Everything was reasonably priced, with most dishes coming in at between £2 – £5.

And if you were craving an icy cold beer at the pool, no problem, they’ll bring one straight over.

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SWIMMING POOL

The pool area here is really beautifully designed, with numerous palms, plenty of loungers and even a bar (although it was closed whilst we were here). The design of the pool is a little unusual, with lots of ‘layers’ giving you the opportunity to sunbathe whilst in the water, my feeling was that it’s definitely more of a ‘cool down – splash around’ pool, as trying to do lengths involved swimming at a rather unusual diaganol.

As an extra little bonus there are lovely fluffy pool towels available for use.

We didn’t spend a huge amount of time here though as the beach was just too beautiful, but it was definitely appreciated on our quieter more relaxed days.

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ROOFTOP BAR

The rooftop bar area was the first place we headed to after ditching our heavy suitcases – not all backpackers travel light – and we were not disappointed. The views were absolutely spectacular and we managed to catch some incredible sunsets from up there.

There is also a small infinity pool, which we didn’t actually use but was an amazing addition. Highly recommend grabbing a G&T here before heading on a night out. The sunsets alone are worth it.

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GYM

No photos from the gym, but it was an added bonus for us. If you’re renting an apartment here you get the membership included. It has lots of equipment & machines and wasn’t ever very busy, I think the maximum number of people we ever shared the space with was around five. The only negative for me, was that I wish the aircon was on a little higher, when it’s nearly 40°C outside and you’re on a treadmill you want it icy, right?

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SUMMARY

We really enjoyed our stay at Citygate Resort & Residence, the staff were absolutely wonderful, the apartment was spacious and had everything we needed, the cafe & rooftop bar were a welcome addition for those lazy days and the location was just perfect. If you ever find yourself in Kamala and are looking for a place to stay, we’d highly recommend staying here – just don’t leave the aircon on unless you want a whopper of an electric bill.

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Join me next time when I’ll be sharing our day trip to the Phi Phi Islands, including a stop at Maya Bay, made famous by the film The Beach.

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Laus & Carlos x