Koh Mak White Sand Beach

Ao Kao (White Sand Beach) is a beautiful beach front resort, with stunning banglows; alongside a pristine white beach which stretches far along the coast. It is a place to unwind and grasp the beauty of Koh Mak sunsets on the rooftop bar. Masseuses are also located right in the centre of the resort, open air. There is also a sports club with tennis, badminton, table tennis and basketball right next door and for those that cannot leave work behind there is a building dedicated specificly as a open workspace. The location is perfect and the people are wonderful. My stay on Koh Mak has always been exceptional, and Ao Kao makes the experiance that much more. Being a very popular resort on the island, I would say book fast and book longer, as it is likely you will not want to leave.

We spent 3 weeks in Dec 2022 (post-covid) and liked it so much we came back in Dec 2023. A lot of TLC has been given to everything in the meantime. Very friendly and helpful staff, clean bungalows with large mosquito-screened windows, great beach and sundowner lounge make it an outstanding place. We absolutely love the rooftop terrace that the bungalows offer, did a lot of daydreaming or stargazing there. Absolutely recommended.

Amazing team of staff who made us feel very welcome and helped us anyway they could! Good clean facilities, delicious breakfast, good rooftop bar to watch the sunset, and overall excellent place to spend a week on Koh Mak! Thank you Mouy and team! We will be back :)

First impressions of the resort was a feeling we’d come across an army camp or a council housing estate. All the villas had bare concrete walls and all looked the same (tick-tacky boxes spring to mind). The gardens went someway to break up the monotony but I found the gardens to be not particularly well kempt. There were signs everywhere of the resort looking a bit tired. Rotting planks and a half-filled rancid pond which once would have looked nice just left. The rooms/villas: They were even worse inside than outside. A boring box for a bed-sit with no décor, cheap and nasty lights and absolutely appalling furniture such as cupboards and drawers with no handles. There’s no room service. There’s no phone in the room and if you want the room cleaned you have to go down to the restaurant and leave your key in a box. This means if you want to hang on to your key for any reason, your room isn’t going to get serviced. By far the worst thing about the so-called villa is the bathroom /shower and toilet area. Who ever designed this bit deserves shooting! There’s a set of sliding doors to the washbasin area which also houses the kettle and another sliding door to the shower cubicle all with bare concrete wall I hasten to add. However, what is particularly bizarre is the fact there is NO privacy at all to anyone using the toilet. There’s only a tatty set of shells on string that does not screen anything. This means anyone wishing to use the washbasin or put the kettle on has a full view of anyone on the toilet. If this wasn’t enough, even more bizarre was a rectangular hole in the concrete wall separating the shower and the toilet meaning anyone using the toilet has complete full view of anyone using the shower and vice-versa anyone having a shower can watch someone else on the toilet. Why no obscure glass? Horrible! On top of each concrete block is a roof area with a couple of loungers. Here again, very tatty. There are gaping holes in the grass roof and one of the live switches to the lights up there was in pieces revealing bare live contacts. The food and restaurant: Where to start? Well, for starters the buffet breakfasts are simply appalling. All you get a choice of is stone-cold streaky bacon, French toast, some lukewarm Thai dish in watered down sauce and boiled rice. There’s bread & butter and some fruit and that’s about it; dreadful 2-star rubbish. The evening meals aren’t much better and way overpriced so eat elsewhere whenever possible. On a positive note, most of the staff are polite and helpful. This not good value for money particularly as it’s the most expensive resort on Ao Kao area. I’ve travelled the length and breadth of Thailand and stayed at many of the islands in the area such as Koh Wai, Koh Kood, Koh Chang and Koh Tao and found the accommodations good. I’m also married to a Thai and have a house here, so I’m well versed to be able to comment. White Sands resort is, at best, a 3-star resort. Oh yes, and the sand is N