Thailand: Koh Tao - Toscana Hotel Review

Long await post i know! Just got back from Tokyo + Okinawa trip 3 days ago and i got no mood to blog because its Raya holiday! 

Alright so i have Taiwan, probably 2 locals retreat reviews, Thailand and Japan trips to be blog and i'm 1 & half year delay muahhahahahahahaha.

Ok where we stayed in Koh Tao, the diving heaven? 

I dislike somewhere crowed so i have chosen the bay where less popular, which is Chalok Bay. 

So after researching and i decided to go for Toscana Hotel, where not exactly in Chalok Bay but very close to it. 

And that choice turned out to be my biggest regret in the whole trip.

Don't get me wrong, the hotel itself is okay, but the information posted in Agoda and hotel's homepage are misleading.

I will go into detail after the review of the hotel condition and facilities. 

Again, my priority in choosing a hotel is big bright room + low density.

Toscana has fulfill my requirement. 

But the club just across the road didn't. 

The club right in the opposite named The Castle, and having party couple of nights in every month, so the first day we stayed in also the first night of the month they had the whole night party, very loud disco music and that disturbed our sleeping, the rest of the nights are just fine, quiet and comfortable. 

Alright lets scroll down for some picha. 

Hotel signboard by the road side and you won't missed it. 

the outdoor breakfast area and you can see the club is just stone throwing distance. 

mini bar in the night time.

the lobby on the left and bar on the right

only 2 levels and we got the room on the 1st floor 

Toscana only has less than 30 rooms, and a small but refreshing pool which look over some mountain. 

nice to swim in the evening. 

great place to chill  if you don't like the noisy bar in the front.  

I love the design of the hotel, and this is one of the biggest reason to made me choose Toscana. 

I didn't try the food here after reading all the review from Agoda and trip adviser that breakfast is simple and pricy, while lunch / dinner taste awful and pricy. 

Alright lets see some photo of the room. 

right size bed and nice old piece of cupboard. 

water pressure is acceptable but wasn't the best.

love the balcony the most although less privacy. 

and yea i know picha of the room cant present the whole thing, so i got a short clip.

if you see a huge-black-human-look-alike thing in 0:32, that is John.
And you didn't see him in 0:34, because he has been chased away by me hahahahaha.

Overall, bedroom is good, clean and spacious, worth the penny we had paid for. 

But still, i wouldn't recommend this hotel, because of the location and dishonest of the management. 

The first reason to not stay in Toscana: The hotel provided false location and misleading information. 

Location is my 3rd priority of choosing a hotel room.

I dislike tourist area yet the place has to be convenience enough for eat and attraction visit. 

But, Toscana in actually located in the middle of no where, which is totally different with what stated in the homepage and hotel booking website, even Google Map. 

So Sai Ree Beach (blue circle) is the main tourist area.

Mae Haad Bay Pier (red circle) is where the boats stop and depart.

Chalok Ban Kao Bay (red circle) is where the place we wanna stay (or we thought we will stay).

Black circle is where the homepage stated the locations they were. 

and the Yellow circle is where the hotel really were!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

= Toscana . is . in . the . middle . of . no . where. 

and they said they are 5 minutes walking to Chalok Ban Kao and 3 minutes to the nearest 7-11......

John and I weren't fit but average (Do consider we have been taking the Everest Based Camp trail), but it still took us 15 minutes to walk to Chalok Bay, and 15 minutes to Mae Haad bay pier, aka the nearest street with shops from Toscana.  

right of the hotel to the Chalok Bay = nothing on the roadside, not even small shop for food and drinks.

left of the hotel to the pier, only local houses along the road. 

On the 2nd days, we forced to rent a ATV with 1500bath / days because we couldn't go anywhere without transport. 

You may ask what about Tuk-Tuk, taxi, motorbike?

* No tuk tuk in the island, at all.
* Taxi driver asked 200bath from hotel to Chalok Bay, which is only 5 minutes driving distance.
* We have very limited motorbike riding experience (and hell yea we don't even have a license LOL) and the road / traffic condition wasn't safe for newbies.

So we just have to paid for ATV to visit the other part of the island and bring us to food place. 

Alright, reason 2 to not stay in Toscana is dishonest of the management. 

I made double confirm to the hotel for free pick up in the pier, but when we reached the island, no one from Toscana is there for us. 

Taxi drivers approached and offered the ride to the hotel, i insisted to wait for a while but the sun was killing us, so we paid for 200bath (we thought it was alright because the hotel SEEMS far from the false location) to the hotel and only find out the ride ended in 5 minutes, and no smell of sea at all. 

So the first thing i asked to the manager is why no pick up, he said because the car is in use, but later only i realize their car is in front of their hotel (we saw the car in the day we check in but wasn't sure it was their car, until i saw some staff hop on the car for picking up customer in the pier). 

Bullshit. 

He is just a manager so he cant decide on paid us the taxi fare, but he made his promise to give us the free ride to the pier on our departure, and he did.

I took the offer because i don't want to ruin my holiday mood. 

But shit keep coming back to us. 

I let the hotel to help us  to buy the boat ticket to Suratthani in the very first day that we arrived, the same manager promised to get us the ticket in the next day, but he never did.

He only gave us in the last night aka the 3rd night we stayed with them, and told us no more express ticket, only combine boat ticket. 

That took us good fine 6 hours to reach Suratthani, because the boat stopped in Phangan and Samui to pick up passengers and changed bigger boat before back to Suratthani. 

And the best thing is the boat is overload, more than 30 peoples has to sit on the deck with cold wind chill and RAIN. 

I felt like refugee who escaping from war place, really. 

If we took express boat, we could just skip all the other island and back to Suratthani straight from Koh Tao. 

Oh, did i told you the motherf*cker charged us 650bath each for the ticket, while the pier counter is selling at 500bath?

I'm leaving you to judge to stay in this hotel or not.

here is the website: http://kohtaotoscana.com/

More review on the Agoda or trip adviser. 

I mean, if you can ride a motorbike and you book your own ticket, i cant deny, based on the facilities and condition of the hotel itself, this is a pass level hotel.

But for me, i will never ever go back to this hotel. 

I'll give a hotel a second chance if facilities are disappointing in the first experience, but i will never forgive the dishonest from the management, because you choose to upset your customers who trusted you.    

Alright next post will be island hopping of the trip, and that is probably the end post of the trip, and started Taiwan trip! Yuhoo!







Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20140728, 1121pm
Rach in stomach pain mood.