To avoid disappointments and misunderstandings please read this document and pass it on to other members of your group especially if you are booking on other guests’ behalf.
Two storey's tall our Breezy Bungalows are the coolest bungalows on Koh Lipe. And the coolest of our Breezy bungalows are our Beach Front Breezy Bungalows. Right on the beach with uninterrupted views, you can't get any closer to the sea than this. The upstairs bedroom has a comfortable queen size double bed and the glass doors opening out onto a small balcony connecting you with nature. Natural breezes are funneled into the room keeping you cool, and if that's not enough there is a large ceiling fan too. In each room there's a sturdy wooden chest with a pad lock so you don't have to worry about your stuff. The large downstairs bathroom has a western toilet, cold water shower, sink and storage space. Note there is no door between the bathroom down stairs and the upstairs bedroom this might be a problem for people planning to share with friends. Some of these bungalows can sleep an extra person on a day bed. If you would like to sleep 3 people in a breezy bungalow, please e -mail us (extra charges apply).
PLEASE NOTE: Breezy bungalows have a staircase without a hand rail and a high balcony with a light rail. They are not suitable for small children without supervision. If you have a small child and want to stay in a breezy bungalow then you are responsible for supervising your child. The resort will not take responsibility for any accidents.
Not far from the beach our Comfy bungalows have garden views and a large deck with hammocks and cushions for chilling and are one story. The main room has a comfortable queen size double bed with hill tribe bedspread and cushions all covered with a mosquito net, cooling is provided by a large ceiling fan. The bathroom has a western toilet, cold water shower and sink. Between the bedroom and the bathroom is a decorative curtain offering some privacy. There is a sturdy wooden chest to lock your things in.
At the back of the resort furthest from the beach we have several houses. With 2 bedrooms, a shared bathroom and a fantastic large deck on the second floor for hanging out, this is a good option for friends or families. The upstairs bedroom has a double bed with a mosquito net and a large ceiling fan. The downstairs bedroom has 2 single beds with mosquito nets and one wall mounted fan. The large shared bathroom has a western toilet, cold water shower and sink.
PLEASE NOTE: Our houses have a staircase without a hand rail and a high balcony with a light rail. They are not suitable for small children without supervision. If you have a small child and want to stay in a House then you are responsible for supervising your child. The resort will not take responsibility for any accidents.
PLEASE NOTE: What we do provide:
What we do not provide:
Mosquito nets for all rooms. Hammocks. Beach mats available near the main deck. Extra/Beach towels at reception. Fans in every bedroom. Free Wi-Fi in the Restaurant and Bar area. Large wooden chest with padlock in each room. Hand Soup, Shower gel, Shampoo & Conditioner
.
Air-conditioning in the rooms. Hot water showers. TV’s flat or otherwise. Mini Fridge / Coffee Making Facilities. Breakfast is not included in our rates. Computers. Safe. Hairdryer.
Our Resort is rustic and trendy in style and very different from your standard hotel. If someone else has booked for you, please visit our website for pictures, not everyone's taste is the same. We understand that our resort is not for everyone, and if you feel after reading the above, that you might not be happy with your choice of room or the resort itself please contact us as soon as possible per email and we will assist in finding something that will suit your requirements better (subject to our Cancellation Policy).
Bangkok Booking Office, (Thai)+66 (0) 811 707 605, (Eng) +66 (0) 831 387 472 www.castaway-resorts.com info@castaway-resorts.com
Speed boats leave Pak Barra pier for Koh Lipe from November to May between 11:30 and 14:00 daily from June to October there is usually only one or two boats depending on demand, both leave around 11:30. Schedules may change without notice, please confirm with us a day or two before you travel.
There is no immigration on Koh Lipe during the low season June to Mid October, so you can’t travel directly to the island. You have to first travel on the 09.45 am boat from Kuala Perlis in Langkawi to Satun. There you will go through Immigration, which takes about 10-15 minutes. Once through Immigration take a taxi to Pak Bara. This will take about 35-40 minutes. You will arrive at Pak Bara about 11am leaving you time to catch the first speed boat to Koh Lipe. From Mid October to May their are several companies running Langkawi-Lipe route with both speedboats and ferries, the first leaving Malay time at 09:30 and the last at 02:00. We advise pre booking you boat tickets, Telaga Harbor
The easiest way is to fly from Bangkok to Hat Yai, then take a taxi from the airport to Pak Bara before catching the boat as described above. Although there are many airlines that fly from Bangkok to Hat Yai, during the summer you must catch the first flights leaving Bangkok arriving before 09:30 in Hat Yai to be on the pier on time to catch the speedboats (Airaisa or Thai Airways are good options).
From November to mid April there are daily boats from all locations in the north to Koh Lipe (e-mail us for more information). From May to October the only way to travel to Lipe from the Northern islands is by first travelling to Pakbara pier overland with taxi, minivan or public bus. You will then need to take the boat to Lipe at 11.30am. This is the only departure time during the MayOctober period, so you need to arrive to Pakbara before 11.30am. See above for the times of boats and please confirm the boat schedule with us prior to your travels.
The speed boats stop at a pontoon offshore from November to May. From the pontoon take one of the local long-tail taxi boats and tell them you are going to Castaway; they will then ferry you around the island directly to the resort. The long-tail boat trip is 50 baht per person. From June to October all speedboats arrive on Sunrise beach, if you turn left, we are 200 meters along the beach, our Staff usually meet all speedboats and will assist with your bags, please keep an eye out for a Castaway sign.
We can arrange pick-ups and transfers from most locations if you require assistance please email us at: info@castaway-resorts.com
For further info on travel in the area please also see our Map.
Please note that you are traveling to an Island 60Km offshore and traveling on speedboats, your luggage and you can get wet, pack you electric equipment in plastic bags and a light rain jacket would be advisable.
More important than temperature is precipitation. The rainy season is from September until mid November, during which time on average, there are about two hours of rain per day. Note that an hour of this precipitation usually comes during the night time. Even during rainy season, the mornings are usually filled with sunshine, with the rain coming during overcast afternoons. The midseason (neither dry nor rainy) is from mid April until August. The mornings are again sunny, but the afternoons can be overcast and once or twice a week, thunderstorms pass through. This is also the coolest time of the year and the island is very laidback and quiet. The dry season is from mid November until mid April, during which time there is very little rain. Temperatures on Lipe tend to be 30-32c in the day and 25-26c at night, April and May can be slightly hotter by a degree or two. From November to April we usually have an on shore wind that keeps it cool. There are speedboats running daily between the mainland and Koh Lipe all year. More and more people are starting to visit Koh Lipe in the summer, but compared to the winter it is still very quiet indeed. If you want to experience a beautiful little island and enjoy having large parts of it to yourself then June, July, August and September are the best months to come. We put out an almost daily weather report on www.twitter.com/kohlipe. Or http://www.facebook.com/castawayresort
Bangkok Booking Office, (Thai)+66 (0) 811 707 605, (Eng) +66 (0) 831 387 472 www.castaway-resorts.com info@castaway-resorts.com
On Koh Lipe there are no banks, ATMs or official money exchanges, so you need to plan ahead and bring enough cash to the island. This is because there are still no official addresses on Koh Lipe yet! There is an ATM on the pier in Pak Bara on the mainland. We accept most major credit and debit cards. Most large places on the island such as Pooh's Bar and Bundhaya do the same. If you are coming via Hat Yai there are ATMs and a money changer in the airport. Subject to cash availability, we can give you a cash back on the credit card payment at 5% surcharge.
We go to great lengths to ensure our bungalows are insect free and provide mosquito nets in each bungalow and a large ceiling fan, so normally mosquitoes are not a problem inside the bungalows. During early evenings, you should put mosquito repellent on when going outside. Most of the time you can sleep without the mosquito net, especially if you don’t leave the doors open late afternoon early evening, it also helps to give your bungalow a quick spray before dinner if you intend sleeping without the net. If you do use the nets they should be tucked in all the way around the bed to be effective. (please ask at reception if you would like some spray or would like us to spray your room.) Sleeping without the net can also be cooler, just hang the net to one side, not over the Fan.
Open all year from 07:30 till Late (kitchen closes at 21:00hrs). Our resort is on the east side of Koh Lipe towards the Southern end of Sunrise Beach. All around the resort there are spaces to chill out and relax. Each bungalow has a shaded balcony with cushions and hammocks. The front of the restaurant and bar is a large covered deck with cushions and low tables where you can sit and look out over the sea. On the beach we have salas where you can sit in the shade and be part of the beach life. Our Menu has both Thai and European dish available and lots of Vegetarian options too.
We have free Wi-Fi covering the restaurant, bar and part of the beach. Perfect for just checking your e-mail on your iPhone or doing a spot of work with your laptop. We don't have any computers to rent or borrow, so if you don't have your own device there are internet cafes close to the resort on the walking street.
All kinds of courses and fun dives available. See our dive website for full details. see website for more info. Daily trips around the national park please enquire in the dive centre on arrival. From November to May our in house spa is available, outside these dates please enquire at reception to see if a freelance therapist is available.
From November to May, we usually have a freelance tutor at the resort, please enquire at reception.
are available for rent from the dive centre.
Castaway Resort – great atmosphere, food, and right next door. Nee’s Restaurant – excellent Isan food. Sunrise Restaurant – friendly people, and an awesome big noodle salad. Oh My God – music, beer, fun and games. La Luna – best pizza around
All the above are usually open all year. Please be aware that a lot of the fish sold at the BBQ’s around the island, come from the National Park, Please don’t order these types of fish if you would like to preserve the park for future generations. Fish from the main land are available at most places please order types, such as Red & White snapper Prawns large and small, most crabs.
Bangkok Booking Office, (Thai)+66 (0) 811 707 605, (Eng) +66 (0) 831 387 472 www.castaway-resorts.com info@castaway-resorts.com
When we started thinking about building a resort, the first thought we had was that it had to be eco-friendly. We wanted to blend with the environment and not use lots of diesel generating electricity. Koh Lipe is a beautiful little island and if we are all to enjoy it for a long time to come, we need to look after it and the environment around it. Our designs have been heavily influenced by traditional Thai building methods. All our buildings are made of natural hard woods built on posts buried in the ground eliminating the need for concrete foundations. We have not used any lacquers but have chosen to use natural oils and bees’ wax for finishing the wood. The roofs are made from local thatch. The combination of natural materials keeps the bungalows cooler as they don't retain the heat. The bungalows themselves catch the winds that come in off the beach and channel them inside, keeping you cool as you sleep, even without air conditioning.
Low energy bulbs are used everywhere for our lighting to save power. For now our electricity still comes from diesel generators, but we are working with Solution Carbon, a French company specializing in carbon credits and carbon offsets, to replace our generators with clean sources of power. On average each guest uses 1.6kwh a day, the average European uses 25-30kwh just at home.
Water is also a finite resource and we have installed one of the most sophisticated waste treatment system on the island to make sure whatever we or our guests use, is put back clean and safely for the environment. We based our systems on the American national park minimum standards way above most European regulations.
All goods consumed on the island come from the Mainland with the speedboats, and we make sure all the rubbish goes back again, presorted ready for recycling on the mainland. If you purchase anything on the island, please leave your waste with us and you can be sure it will leave the island again and not be burnt or just left lying around or worse in the sea.
We don’t use chemical insecticides anywhere in the gardens, but realize that your health and the health of our staff are paramount, thus we have installed black light mosquito traps around the resort to control the mosquito population, we also make sure there are no breeding grounds for mosquito larvae, by removing anything that can collect rain water. Within the bungalows we provide plugin mosquito killers and spray the rooms regularly. Another problem on the island is the amount of unwanted Dogs and Cats, we are actively involved in a program that is trying to reduce the problem by neutering as many of the animals as possible, this is an on-going project involving vets from both Europe and Thailand coming to the island and offering their time for free and us accommodating and feeding them. We have two dogs within our resort that are friendly and well trained, but we would like to ask our guests not to encourage other strays to follow them back to the resort or feed them on resort’s premises. If you would like to help, you can donate some money and we will add it to our feeding fund, that we use to purchase food with and give to the monks for distribution.
There are three main sources of noise pollution on the island and we try our best to do our bit in not adding to it. One of the main ones being the motors of the long tail boats: sadly the locals believe the boats run faster without silencers and thus remove them the moment they purchase a new engine, our boats and the boats we hire all have silencers. You can do your bit when hiring boats outside the resort by asking for one with a silencer, this will help in the long term. Generators: a lot of the generators on the island are old or of poor quality, we have invested in modern silent running generators that are very efficient and make the lowest noise possible. The last source of noise pollution is large stereo systems used by some of the Bars especially on Pattaya Beach. Luckily this does not affect us on sunrise beach, but we try to keep our music down and play very chilled music.
We think our Guests, like us, care about the environment and we hope they understand why we have chosen not to install air-conditioning, hot water boilers and mini-fridges in our bungalows. All of these items use lots of energy, that is often wasted. If however you would like cold drinks in your bungalow please feel free to ask for ice that we can provide at the bar, if you would like to store something in our fridges, we will store it for you.
We believe that our staff deserve not to be exploited, and treat them accordingly: we pay above average wages, arrange for full health cover and provide decent, comfortable and clean accommodation.
Bangkok Booking Office, (Thai)+66 (0) 811 707 605, (Eng) +66 (0) 831 387 472 www.castaway-resorts.com info@castaway-resorts.com
60km
Lipe
40km
We would again like to thank you for choosing Castaway Resort for your stay on Lipe and hope you have a great time with us.
Your Castaway Team
Bangkok Booking Office, (Thai)+66 (0) 811 707 605, (Eng) +66 (0) 831 387 472 www.castaway-resorts.com info@castaway-resorts.com