Ban Rai Chay Khao Resort, Khao Yai, Thailand.

Inquiries:

At the time of our visit, you could only make reservations by calling 044-297150 or 081-9674204. Otherwise, you can check out Hotels.com for the best deals on other accommodations in the Khao Yai National Park, Thailand area.

Important Note:

This is one of the few resorts that we decided to review without actually spending a night at the resort. We decided to write this review because we think it's a good option for the area. We think staying at this resort would be a good and authentic Thai experience. We were shown multiple rooms and feel confident with our review based on what we saw.

Location:

The resort is located within close proximity to the Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. It is located off the highway 2090, about 5km from the main park entrance on the north side of the park. The resort is spread out on a nice and secluded property and has good, distant views of the bat cave where you can see thousands of bats emerging into the sky at sunset. Since the resort is so close to Khao Yai National Park, it makes it a good base for exploring the park, especially if you want to do some early morning hikes. The resort could be hard to find as we did not see any signs to it off highway 2090, but it's possible that there are some and we just did not see them since we weren't looking for the resort to begin with.

Room Comfort:

The accommodations at the resort range from tents with shared bathrooms to private cottages with private bathrooms. They also rent two full 4-bedroom houses. Each type of accommodation is well maintained and full of Thai character. Since we didn't stay overnight at the resort, we really can't attest to the comfort of the rooms.

Cleanliness:

The resort grounds are nicely maintained. From what we saw the cottages seemed to be clean and well maintained as well. Since we didn't stay at this resort we cannot fully comment on the cleanliness.

Service:

Although we weren't staying at the resort, the owners (and family) made us feel very comfortable and welcome. The owners of the resort spoke little English but they did their best to communicate with us and welcome us into their resort/home. Their daughter who was visiting for the weekend spoke English very well. She kept us company as we watched the bats emerge from their cave and afterwards joined us for a drink. Her mother brought us some local fruits called Tamarind to try which we thought was very nice. A few hours had gone by before we realized how much time we had spent there. We were lucky to find this place and we were truly welcomed by the very hospitable Thai family, even though we weren't overnight guests at their place. (The owners did not know we were travel advisors either so we know their hospitality was genuine.) We thought this was a true demonstration of Thai hospitality.

Food:

We did not have any meals at the resort, but can only imagine that they would true homemade Thai dishes.

Overall Value:

Although we did not have the pleasure to stay here we were very happy that we came across this place. The family that runs the place were very kind and welcoming. It seems that they take lots of pride in their resort and take good care of it. We liked that there was a range of accommodation options for people yet the resort was still small enough for the owners to show you traditional Thai hospitality. If you're looking for a different, (i.e., one that caters to Thai tourists where you are likely to mingle with Thai people as opposed to other Westerners) and locally run place to stay at in the Khao Yai area, we recommend you give this place a try.

Other Notes:

We could not stay at this hotel because, unfortunately, we could not fit it into our schedule. We discovered this resort strictly by chance. We were actually looking for a good place to view the bats emerging from their cave when we stopped and asked a very nice man for directions. With his limited English he said to follow a dirt path and pointed us to a gate. The gated property turned out to be his resort. At the time, we didn't realize that he was allowing us to view the bats from his property which was actually the Ban Rai Chay Khao resort.

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