Normally Captain Hook Resort wouldn’t pass our first selection criteria; skimming through resort names “no, no, no, nope, no, Captain Hook Resort? Definitely no. Sane people don’t travel the world for Peter Pan fun time resorts… but in many ways this works to our favour as Captain Hook Resort proves to be a gem of a stay without the nuisances of mass international tourism. The resort no doubt targets a domestic market and other than the name and logo the theme goes no further than branding. So I won’t pretend we were wowed from the start and in many ways it was the opposite. Arriving to the bungalow “where’s the fridge?”, “we can’t use air-con at daytime??” Electricity is obviously scarce at the resort and understandably so. Captain Hook Resort is cut off from the world with access only by boat, back-to-basics, our own slice of paradise. The villa front Cabana overlooks an empty, pristine and seemingly private beach (Ao Yaikee Cliff Beach) only separated from the resort by a passing stream of sea.
Ao Yaikee Cliff Beach
We are quick to explore the beach and opt for the free kayak rental over the waist height paddle to reach it. I’ve seen few beaches this perfect. Palm trees line the inland perimeter, soft white sands slowly drop to the hot, shallow seas. We paddle 100 meters, 200 meters continuing towards the horizon but the water gets little deeper and the sand seabed remains. We climb back to the Kayak and follow the stream of sea to cut back into the island, between mangroves where we find old teak huts stilted to the riverbanks and pacific swallows zip from one side to the other. The entire time we are alone. In the evenings however the beach does get lively as day-tours return to the resort and the sun-shy leave the shade to splash in the water and play games on the sand.
The Ocean View Veranda
In front of each of the beach-view bungalows is a detached cabana which overlooks the serene scenes of Ao Yaikee Cliff Beach. Scenes which played through my head at every resort since leaving Captain Hook. We stayed with two resorts following and while we may have experienced more luxury in bungalows; the views didn’t come close. We arrive to the next resort and ask “where is nice to Kayak to?”, the answer “there’s a beautiful beach 1 kilometer that way… look for Captain Hook Resort”. Sigh. Sometimes the back-to-basics approach works and Captain Hook Resort is the perfect example. Also check out the cute tree snake (below) who joined us to savour them.
The Dog Friendly Resort
While often overlooked by the international crowds Captain Hook Resort does have its own unique niche of canine travellers as the dog loving owner has marketed the resort to fellow dog lovers and the ‘cute’ Thai crowd which comes with. It is no doubt unusual to see so many dog walkers at a resort so cut off from the world. What is even more bizarre is how they cater to the obvious dog needs with dog sized swimwear and dog-sized safety preservers. This in itself was an attraction.
Getting to Captain Hook Resort
We arrive to Captain Hook Resort from nearby Koh Chang island where speed boats leave daily from Bang Bao Pier (full details here) and drop us directly to the resort pier. Simple. There are alternative routes from the mainland leaving Trat Province with similar drop-off to the resort pier. For travel inland the resort offers transfer by private speed-boat following the same route as we had earlier kayaked. Here we meet a small wooden pier where we can forward on to our inland destination in the resort’s songtaew car (all free). Out of travels in the Trat province Captain Hook Resort was the most expensive and while the rooms were the most basic, the experience was ten fold. Full Details on Captain Hook Resort Here.
