We’d spent a week in the jungle. It was hot. It was dusty. It was time for a change of scenery and to head to the coast, and a bit of luxury. Hua Hin is only about 45 minutes drive from I Love Phants Lodge and an hour from the Kaeng Krachan National Park, but it feels a world away. 

We were warmly welcomed in typical Thai hospitality with a beautifully presented iced tea. Because I’m an Ambassador member and we’d booked a Luxury & Lifestyle rate, we were able to check-in early so the room was ready when we arrived at 1230. The lady checking us in ran through our various benefits including the 600baht (£13) resort credit for being an Ambassador and the 3000baht (£65) credit for booking a Luxury & Lifestyle rate. We were also given 2 free drinks vouchers for being Ambassador members, worth about 800baht (£17) and told that we had late check-out, up to 1600. 

One of the other benefits of Ambassador and Luxury & Lifestyle rates is upgrades to the next level room, which stack on cash stays. I’d book an entry level King Cosy room and had a triple upgrade to a Club King Premium. Our room was on the ground floor, right next to the pool but with high hedges for privacy. We also had our own little private garden with sun loungers but the garden didn’t actually get much. Whilst there was also a double daybed on the terrace, the room lacked a seating area inside and you could tell by how saggy the mattress was that everyone had resorted to sitting on the bed. I did report the saggy mattress to reception but nothing was done about it. Otherwise, the room was spacious and I loved the separate bath and shower. The bathroom was open to the room although the toilet is in its own cubicle. You can also pull a screen around the bath for extra privacy. You can watch a walkthrough of the room here, make sure to give my page a like and follow for more reviews and trip reports in your feed!

Because 2 nights were paid on points, we got the room upgrade but not the Club Lounge access. Lounge access for the 2 nights we didn’t get complimentary should have been 8000baht (£173) but they did us a deal for 6000baht (£130). Club lounge access gives you a la carte breakfast, afternoon tea, drinks and snacks during the day as well as soft drinks from the pool bar plus evening cocktails and canapés (between 1700 and 1900). Considering that cocktails or a glass of wine in the bar was about 300baht (£6.50), it’s pretty easy to get value for money from the lounge access supplement.

Now, we love an afternoon tea and we know a good one when we eat it. The presentation instantly wows and the sandwiches of tuna, mozzarella and tomato on charcoal bun, egg on rye, didn’t disappoint. The lemon tart, lemon scones, champagne cake, strawberry and chocolate cake, carrot and walnut cake were also all excellent, although I’m not really a fan of citrus desserts. The strawberry and chocolate cake was my favourite. I developed a bit of an obsession with the vanilla bourbon tea which was absolutely delicious. 

We didn’t have afternoon tea every day, but for our second round, we enjoyed tuna sandwich, egg mayo croissant and salmon mouse cracker. The sweets were peanut brittle, red velvet cake, lemon scones, chocolate mousse cake and a brownie. The brownie was the best! And, of course, the vanilla tea!

One of the highlights of the club lounge is the evening cocktails and canapés. At other hotel lounges, the canapés have been on a buffet and drinks self pour. Here, there’s a small buffet of crudités with hot and cold canapés brought by the plate. Cocktails, with a choice of wines, beers and soft drinks were available for a menu with table service. 

The cold plate was watermelon with goats cheese, tuna pasta, pomelo salad and confit duck. All were amazing! The hot plate was Thai sausage with creamy mash, pork green curry, sea bass and a tofu ravioli. Again, all amazing! For night 2, the hot options were honey and mustard chicken, a beef hash bonbon, carrot soup and spinach and ricotta tart. The cold option was chicken wrap, spicy pork (very!), couscous and tomato and potato salad. 

For our last evening, we enjoyed cold canapés of garlic mushrooms, watermelon and goats cheese (again, but that wasn’t a problem, it’s delicious), a spicy fruit salad ruined by corriander and Parma ham crostini. I forgot to take a picture of the hot plate, which had pasta with a garlic sauce, chicken red curry, ham and cheese tart and vegetable soup. 

Altogether, the canapés and 2 or 3 cocktails were a perfectly good appetiser before dinner and whilst we didn’t have more than 1 plate of each canapé, they did offer to bring more out. They also came around just before 1900 to take last orders from the bar so you could easily squeeze in another cheeky cocktail.

The breakfast options were as equally good although there’s a much better range of options from the buffet in Pirom. The benefit of the breakfast in the club lounge is that it’s a la carte and table service but I enjoyed the buffet more – the range of pastries and sweet options was particularly impressive! 

We only had 1 dinner in the hotel, in Pirom, on our first night, but as neither of us were hungry, we just ordered a selection of starters and had a kind of Thai tapas. We sat at a table sunk into the pool which was pretty cool. The other 2 restaurants at the hotel are very seafood based and the other half doesn’t eat seafood so we ate out for the rest of our stay. The restaurants at the hotel are also very expensive, by Thai standards, and with so much choice of places to eat in Hua Hin, we preferred to go out. The tapa at Pirom were effectively free as we used the Luxury & Lifestyle credit. 

The hotel is located on the main seafront road in Hua Hin, directly opposite the Bluport shopping mall. The hotel is connected to the mall but a bridge but crossing the bridge seemed more of a faff than crossing the road so we just crossed the road most times. 

The mall is pretty decent, has a range of shops that you’d expect in the West as well as local stores. There’s also some good restaurants, cafes and a supermarket. Just a bit further along the road, there’s also Market Village for a bit more shopping and eating. I have a friend that lives in Hua Hin so we met up with her on one night and, by coincidence, some other friends who happened to be visiting at the same time as us, and had a great night in the bars of bintabaht and around Soi 94. 

After a week trekking around the jungle, we didn’t fancy visiting the tourist sites around Hua Hin and mostly chilled around town, but we did spend a fun morning at the Vana Nava water park. As we were staying at the Intercontinental, and the water park is part of the Holiday Inn complex, we had free entry to the park so seemed like a waste to not check it out. The hotel offers a free shuttle too, although we just got a Grab so we could be on our own schedule. 

The park has a decent amount of big slides, including  a slide that has 3 different virtual reality experiences which we’d never experienced before. I screamed like a little girl on the Abyss and Boomerango and absolutely loved them! Both excellent slides! One thing that we didn’t consider is that seemingly most people cover up at water parks in Asia so you might want to wear a swimming T-shirt and full swimsuit for ladies. As some of the only westerners there, we looked quite out of place walking around with no top on. 

We really enjoyed our brief stay in Hua Hin, and would definitely return. Not least to see my friend. I would stay at the Intercontinental again. It has a good location, right on the beach, has a lovely pool area and the rooms are great. I don’t think I’d recommend the city wing, simply because the pool area overlooks the busy main road and I just can’t imagine that being relaxing. I would also consider the Hilton or the Marriott which are closer to the bars and restaurants of bintabaht and Soi 94. 

Although we had 1600 check out, we were keen to get to Bangkok and our next luxurious hotel so the hotel arranged a car for us for 2500baht (£55) and we left just after breakfast, for the 3 hour drive to Bangkok. 

Date of Trip; March 2024

Price Paid; 52,000 IHG reward points for the first 2 nights, 27,000baht (£588) for the second 2 nights, booked through luxury travel agent Bon Vivant.