This is essentially an upscale residential complex with some of the owned units being rented out as hotel rooms. It's not a hotel, but your room does get cleaned every day like at a hotel.

It's surprising to see something like this in Thailand, but there are apparently quite a few Europeans and others who have purchased flats in this area, removed from the madness of places like Patong Beach and Phuket, but close enough to go there if you want to. The area is not completely developed, but it's fast getting that way. There are still local Thai elements around. However, this is an area where you'll find exquisite antique dealers, high-end retailers, expensive restaurants catering to Europeans, and so on.

There are a handful of restaurants, convenience stores and other amenities located on the main road close to the condo. We tried various cheap restaurants in the area, but we never really found one that suited us. We appreciated having Tesco's and 7-11 so close by.

There are three beaches nearby, conceivably within walking distance: Surin Beach, Bang Tao and Laem Sing.

Surin Beach is the closest, about a 500 metre walk along a busy road. From what we saw, it was not our kind of beach. Highly developed. Busy. So many deck chairs, you could barely see the beach. Overpriced. Very European crowd. It's like they're trying to recreate the Med here. Very boring. Even when we go to the Med we don't go to beaches like this. If you come to this area, google Surin Beach to make sure it's the kind of beach you like.

Bang Tao is a 15 minute walk away. A beautiful strand, about 6 kilometres long. There are hotels the whole way, but the development is low key (so far) and the beach still feels natural. Google it and you'll see what I mean. We enjoyed this beach a lot and we're grateful to the condo manager for telling us about it. If you don't want to walk a lot, a taxi can take you there. (Or you could book a hotel right on this beach....)

The third beach (Laem Sing) is a cute little out-of-the-way beach and perhaps the best of the three. The waves in particular were fun here. If the 20 min walk uphill along the busy road is too difficult, you can get to Laem Sing by taxi. You'll still have to walk down to the bottom though.

Laem Sing is such a nice beach that it helped make our stay here worthwhile. You see, we felt rather trapped at this condo. You might want to rent a moped or a car while you're here. However, we didn't bother (OK, we didn't dare given the traffic). The taxis seemed overpriced, so we had to find ways of getting around. Haggling sometimes worked, but the drivers in the area are working in collusion. It cost about 600 baht to get to Patong Beach or the airport. We also ended up exploring some of the area on foot, but of course we didn't have much choice. That's why we were relieved when we found Laem Sing. All of a sudden it made sense to be staying at this condo.

On your way to Surin Beach, turn right before the driveway and you'll get to a number of restaurants and hotels that put on nice breakfasts at various prices. 200 baht was the price of one I remember. I know, it's a lot for Thailand. Many of the people staying in this area are staying in the hotels here.

At the condo we had booked the smallest room (a studio). It was about 20 square metres, I'd say. It included a small hotel fridge, sink, hotplate, kettle and dishes. Useful. Our room faced outside and had a view of a some greenery and complete privacy. Nice shaded balcony. (Some of the units facing inside towards the pool have a more communal set-up though.)

The bathroom was small, the door actually hitting the toilet when it was opened. Whenever the light was switched on, the fan made a huge noise, a problem reported to the efficient management so I'm sure it'll be fixed. The shower was large (for such a small bathroom).

The room had a small flat-screen TV with five or six English stations, a couple of which were quite watchable (eg shows like Law & Order). The bed, linen, towlels, etc. were fine.

I booked this resort partly because of the gym and pool. The pool was nice, but smaller than it looks in the photos. The gym had enough weights to get a serious workout in.

There was free wifi in the lobby, but it would have been nice to have it in the rooms.

We were initially quite disappointed when we got to the condo and saw the small room, the location and Surin Beach. The room was not expensive, but nor was it cheap. We were expecting more for this price, especially outside of town. We had stayed at a place in Patong for the same price (breakfast included) and this hotel and this area just suffered in comparison.

However, we enjoyed exploring Bang Tao and Laem Sing and we're glad this condo offered us a chance to do it.