Holiday package in Ao Nang

I've just realised that contrary to what I wrote a few days' ago, our recent holiday in Ao Nang wasn't planned just some five months ago. It was actually mooted some five years ago, at a time when my son was still planning to enter college after his Form Five. We had bought some hotel coupons for a Krabi stay through Groupon but at the last minute, we decided to give it to his friends. So yes, my wife and I had been thinking about Krabi for quite a while.

And this didn't materialise until September last year when Firefly introduced a new Penang-Krabi route to their itinerary. I picked up some cheap fares fairly quickly.

Then came the search for hotel rooms two months later. I looked through Groupon but there weren't any deals available. This forced me to look at other sources.

There was an attractive offer of a 4D3N stay at the Aonang Cliff Beach Resort which I booked subsequently after reading the favourable reviews on the hotel. However, it left me still having to find another night's accommodation as our inward and outward Krabi flights were five days apart.

At first, I toyed with the idea about staying in Krabi town itself but somehow, after reading through the comments on TripAdvisor, I decided that perhaps staying all five days in Ao Nang would be less of a problem of moving our luggage around. I was glad to have made that decision. For that additional night's stay, I plumbed for the newly opened Ibis Styles Hotel.

But it was the Aonang Cliff Beach Resort that provided us with such good services. We were picked up from the Krabi international airport and driven directly to Ibis Styles. The next day, their transportation came to transfer us from the Ibis Styles to the Aonang Cliff Beach Hotel. And when we checked out five days later, the hotel brought us back to the airport. What a wonderful arrangement!

I should also mention here that when we checked into the Aonang Cliff Beach Resort, the hotel decided to upgrade us from their standard room to the deluxe room. As part of the package, the hotel provided us with a complimentary full-day four-island hopping tour. On top of that, we were also given the option of either a free dinner or a one-hour session at their Infinity Spa. Tell me, what more could we have asked for? Fabulous!