De Veranio Resort

This beachfront ample hotel is about 1hr driving from Trat city along a panhandle that juts into Cambodia. It was such a hidden paradise, whether it be a serene ambience and a clear view of the gulf of Thailand with clean private beach in front of the hotel, very nice staffs, comfortable and spacious new room. Moreover, the hotel provided us a fantastic dinner with several delicious dishes such as Creamy omelet with seafood Tomyum soup on rice (189 baht; fresh and very tasty), Salmon steak with pesto sauce (189 baht), Curry braised pork belly with Cowa leaves (หมูชะมวง ; local food = 150 baht), Carbonara with Onsen egg (extremely delicious), "Bualoy" (Thai dessert ; rice balls in coconut cream). Breakfast was also good. It was a buffet including both Thai food & American breakfast. Don't forget to try "Bun duke" (Trat dessert ; pandanus pudding in sugarcane syrup and coconut milk topped with grounded peanut). Truly relaxing. Highly recommend.

LOCATION The location is very far off and the hotel doesn't offer any transport service aside from picking you up down the street. We corresponded with the hotel before arrival asking for recommendation on how to get there from Trat airport and they simply advised us to get a taxi from there. Lo and behold, taxis didn't exist, even airport staff had no idea how to get ahold of one and we wasted about an hour trying to figure this out and not getting much help from the hotel when we called. The only option ended up being paying for a private ride with a songthaew pickup and they were happy to scam you for it since you'd be stranded otherwise. HOTEL GROUNDS The hotel is located kind of in the middle of nowhere, suitable for those not wanting to go anywhere and just staying put at the resort. You're right up against the edge of the water but there's no actual beach. At sunset, when the tide's low, it's possible to take a walk along the shore. The main pool area is nice and the grounds were tidy enough but a bit lackluster. It was also very dark on the premises in the evening with minimal outdoor lighting. ROOM We stayed in a Pool Villa Beach Front which has a nice, unobstructed sea view. The villa itself was basic and disappointing in a few aspects. The room has the bare minimum, although it's spacious, and the bed was generous and comfortable. They also offered refillable, free snacks and beverages, but they were the exact same ones every day so if you're staying more than a few nights you're over it pretty quickly. The only light sources in the entire villa were two main overhead lights and a faint light strip in the headboard which would flicker and buzz. Not even a bedside light. The air-conditioner couldn't cool down the room during the day. There was also not a proper sofa, just a chaise longue that really only seats one person comfortably while leaning back. The interior design was just a bit off and not well thought-out. Our biggest letdown was the cleanliness. The floors were dusty upon check-in, the chaise longue was totally covered in dirt marks, we used a wet wipe to wipe down the desk and it came out brown, there were even extra pillows in the wardrobe that were heavily stained allover. It was pretty off-putting seeing all of this. Most baffling was, we let housekeeping clean the room everyday and they would arrive with 4-5 people total. You'd think with that many people, it'd be spotless. They'd be in and out in 5 minutes flat, just fluffing and refilling. There's major room for improvement, to say the least. FOOD Breakfast spread was fine with basic options but they would often clean up breakfast early, on a couple of occasions it was an entire hour before the actual end of breakfast time. No matter the circumstance, this shouldn't be done as guests are on vacation and shouldn't feel rushed to get to breakfast. The restaurant menu was limited but food was tasty and high-quality. The chef was also open to making just about any cha