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Casa de La Flora Review: The Most Insta-Famous Hotel in Thailand

@ThreadTherapy and myself stayed at Casa de La Flora as part of a 15 day trip throughout Southeast Asia during the Christmas and New Years of 2015.

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Prior to arriving at Casa de La Flora, we spent 4 nights at SALA Phuket, and 3 nights in Hong Kong at 99 Bonham. Our last stop on the trip was Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

The property itself is simply breathtaking. It’s a modern marvel situated right along the beach in Thailand.

To find out if you should stay here, and what we recommend, continue reading our review of Casa de La Flora.

Casa de La Flora Review

Whenever I’m considering a property to visit, I checkout TripAdvisor. Any property worth visiting needs to have at least a 4/5 rating for me to visit.

But the thing that sucks about TA, and what takes me so much time is determining if a property is just a 4/5 or truly a 5/5.

Too often on TA people will rate a property a 5/5 because they loved the service, and don’t take into account poor food, facilities, etc. and also on the same foot, people will rate the same property a 1/5 simply based on poor service.

So to make your life easier, I review all our properties using a system similar to Zagat.

Every property is scored 0-30 in five areas:

  • Location
  • Entertainment
  • Food
  • Service
  • Decor

This way you can find the property that has the 1) best food, and 2) best service or mix and match.

Where is Casa de La Flora?

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This was our first time in Thailand and prior to our trip, we didn’t know the difference between Khao Lak and Koh Yao Noi. (The first being the area CDLF is located, and the second, an island off the coast of Phuket)

Casa de La Flora is located in Khao Lak, an area abutting the Andaman Sea to the West, and just about 1 hour and 10 minutes from the closest airport in Phuket.

The area itself is best known for being one of the hardest hit areas by the 2004 Tsunami. As we drove through the area, we didn’t notice any damage. Everything we passed seemed to be either newly built or in relatively good working order, so from our peripheral experience the area has recovered from the damage.

The beach is beautiful, but now OMG worthy

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The beach was right up against the barrier wall.

Unlike picturesque island formations you see on Instagram of Thai islands, the beach the Casa de La Flora sits on is relatively unspectacular. It’s a beautiful beach, but does not have the OMG factor you see off the coast of Phuket Island and on other islands like Phi Phi, Ko Yao Noi, etc.

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Since the property is a bit further from the main islands, it’s reflected in the price. The rates on the property were about 1/3 of the price of similar hotels on Phuket island.

Location: 23

What is there to do at Casa de La Flora?

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@ThreadTherapy and myself, despite traveling almost every month, are bit of homebodies once we arrive at a destination.

Especially someplace as secluded and beautiful as Casa de La Flora.

So for us, it’s important that once we get to a property, there be enough to do so that we don’t get too bored and want to go home.

There are tons of day trips to local islands. You can visit Phi Phi, Similan Island, and all sorts of other beautiful spots, all booked through the concierge.

The only issue was based on the location, most of the islands were about 1 1/2 hours away by car.

We chose not to go on any of the trips because they were all day-long. 8:30am-5pm, and we’d rather chill and relax than be in a car for 3 hours of the day.

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The activity schedule was updated daily, and pretty fun. One night is was a cocktail reception, where they were mixing up drinks on the lawn, another night was live entertainment, and since we stayed over New Years’ there was a really fun banquet show (complete with a magician, a great band, and giveaways and prizes).

In addition to the day trips, there were a lot of daily activities to pass the time. We partook in tennis at a sister resort, did aqua yoga in our plunge pool, and kayaked along the beach. We didn’t’ get to try out the Thai kickboxing, beachside yoga, or beach jogging, but I’m sure they would have been a blast.

As far as the nightlife goes, there wasn’t much to it. Which for us was good, we didn’t want a bumping hotel bars music and patrons to be keeping us up at night, but for those of you looking for some activity past 9pm, this is not the place. There are quite a few bars 15 minutes walk from the property, so if you need to get your fix, you can get it itched.

Having spent 5 nights and 6 days on the property, we enjoyed every day and left wanting to keep exploring.

Entertainment: 25

How was the food at Casa de La Flora?

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Our table setting for New Year’s Eve was very classy.

The great thing about Casa de La Flora is that breakfast was included with your stay.

It was great to be able to roll out of bed, fix yourself a plate from the buffet, and order a la carte from the menu, all without ever having to hassle with paying the bill when you were done.

The breakfast buffet consisted of cold cuts, fresh juices (which were all quite good), a bread selection (I recommended the oat/wheat bread), and a complimentary sparkling wine station which was excellent.

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The a la carte breakfast items were a bit more hit or miss.

When we first arrived, I tried the poached egg Caesar salad, which came out with two pieces of romaine salad, some bacon bits, and a poached egg on a piece of white toast. Based on the description, I was expecting a hefty portion of greens, and a poached egg on top. Regardless, the egg had little flavor, with the best tasting part of the dish being the bacon bits.

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Our favorite drink was the coconut slushie. It was blended coconut with ice served in a coconut shell… Amazing!

@ThreadTherapy and I tried a number of other dishes for breakfast with the standouts being: banana pancakes, green salad (we specially asked for this), the yogurt with dried fruit, and the watermelon juice.

Lunch was very hit or miss as well.

The menu itself felt to me like they were trying too hard. Every dish was looking for that something “special”, and all of the dishes were catering too much to the Western clientele. The menu had the following Western options: club sandwich, ham and cheese sandwich, and 4 different types of pizzas.

Our favorite item, which we repeatedly ordered were the “chicken-chips fingers” which were chicken breast strips coated in plantain chips and fried (served with peanut sauce and guacamole).

The dish seems more Latin than Thai, so I’m not quite sure where it came from.

I would not recommend the pizzas. @ThreadTherapy described them as large crackers with melted cheese.

Dinner was more of the same.

A couple nights I ordered the chicken chips again, and also ordered the ham and cheese and the chicken club. Each of which I would describe as satisfying, really good airplane food.

On our first night I did try a scallops dish with a side of whipped potatoes, asparagus, and bacon, and unfortunately the scallops tasted fishy and I quickly started only ordering simpler dishes.

Food: 19

What was the decor like at Casa de La Flora? review-casa-de-la-flora-6

If the food left something to be desired, the architecture and landscaping more than made up for it.

The property has 36 modular rooms that look like something right out of Dwell magazine.

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Our bungalow was the Oceanfront Suite Villa and it was awesome.

Our bedroom window overlooked the beach, and directly outside our window was a 12sq foot private plunge pool.

The pool itself was even big enough for us to do Aqua yoga (which was complimentary and was a fun way to get exercise, soak up the sun, and enjoy our room).

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Abutting our bedroom was a little den with a couch, tv, super strong AC, and lead out to our private loung area.

On our patio we had a two-person lounge chair that had a retractable awning to keep us out of the sun during peak hours.

We spent almost our entire time in our room’ either lounging on the patio, swimming in the pool, or enjoying the view from our bed/couch.

The property was so beautiful, everywhere we walked was an Instagram moment.

Decor: 28

How was the service at Casa de La Flora?

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Everyone on the staff was extremely friendly and accommodating.

When we arrived, we were given two fresh Thai coconuts, and got to sip on them while they checked us in.

After dining at the restaurant a couple times, the staff started to remember our names, and our orders (“chicken chips, green salad, and san pellegrino).

Whenever the staff did something great, like fetch the kayak for us, we gave them a 20 Baht tip, and they were more than grateful. For perspective, 20 baht is equivalent to $.55.

We felt like part of the family at Casa de La Flora, and loved our experience with the staff.

The only reason I’m giving lower marks for service is that the majority of the staff didn’t speak English that well, and there were a couple of occasions when we would ask for something, and not quite sure they understood.

That being said, our car we scheduled, and anything else that mattered were all booked accurately and without a hiccup, so maybe the language barrier was on our side 🙂

In fact, I’m writing this review from the back seat of our car to the airport (which Casa de La Flora operates), comes equipped with wifi, allowing me to work while we take our trip back home.

The best part, is as we’re getting out of the car to the airport, our driver gave us two cold towels to send us off in style.

Service: 28

Overall Casa de La Flora Review

  • Location: 23
  • Food: 19
  • Decor: 27
  • Entertainment: 25
  • Service: 28

Overall rating: 24

We will definitely return to Casa de La Flora, our only wish was that they work on the food menu, and on our next trip, we’re definitely going to go on some day trips to explore the beautiful areas around CDLF.

How to book Casa de La Flora

To book your own stay at Casa de la Flora, I used Hotels.com, and got 15% my booking by using Jet.com Anywhere Cashback program, plus I earn 1 night free after 10 stays via the Hotels.com Rewards program.

Average nightly rate is $425 in off-season.

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Lifetailored has partnered with Creditcards.com for our coverage of credit card products. Lifetailored and Creditcards.com may receive a commission from card issuers Additional Disclosure: This site has affiliate links. We may be compensated when users make a purchase or register to a third party website. For more details read our privacy policy.

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