Kerppu

More in a FYI basis because I have no experience of the place yet, but we're heading to Rayong for christmas with 2 families. Will stay in Laem Mae Phim, a small village which is not yet too popular with western tourists but quite popular among Thais. Laem Mae Phim should have a long beautiful beach, and you can easily make a quick trip to Koh Samet which has even more beautiful beaches as far as I understand. There are also several sheap seafood restaurants and a few shops. Maybe o half an hour drive from Rayong and Klaeng cities. We're staying in Lomtalay Chalet which still had room for christmas and new year last week. Have no idea if the staff there speak english, so I guess I'll try to print some handful sentences in thai before we go.

I've only been to bigger tourist resorts near Phuket so far, so this is the first time we're heading to a more quiet and not so touristy place.

Edit: Rayong city is about 180 km from Bangkok.

We've booked rooms now at Lomtalay Chalet, seemed to be something the whole family would appreciate.

Did 2 nights at Mai Phim resort over new year, very handy for eating places in the centre of the strip, did not see a pool, very noisy as you would expect over the new year and the beach was packed, all the way up to Ban Phe. Will not do it again!

Yikes, we're heading there for christmas and new year.. But then again I guess new year is pretty noisy almost everywhere.

We'll see what happens, they don't seem to reply very eagerly from the hotels, so might be we're forced to stay at some more "touristy" place..

Hi, I'm also interested in recent hotel experiences in the Mae Phim area (especially not far from the "center", ie. where the restaurants are). Has anyone been to Mae Pim Resort (www.maepimresort.com)? We're traveling with a group and some insist there must be a pool at the hotel. Don't see any pool pics on the pages so that probably means the hotel doesn't have a pool?