We have visited and reviewed The Datai many times and the fact that we continue to come back year after year despite the very long journey speaks volumes. The setting is stunning and the staff are excellent, very friendly and helpful. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and were happy to chill out and relax surrounded by nature. We have visited many super properties in other countries and enjoyed them very much but The Datai ticks all the boxes for us and feels like our idea of paradise! Over the years we have stayed in most room categories and they are all great but our favourite is a Rainforest Pool Villa. Relaxing in the pool watching the monkeys, birds and butterflies whilst listening to the sounds of the forest and the stream is just sublime. We visited in April and were prepared for rain as the dry season has ended but we had beautiful sunny weather for the vast majority of our 10 day stay. We had 3 days with rain in the late afternoon/early evening but these passed quickly. At this time of the year a lot of flowers are in bloom and many trees are in fruit thus attracting more wildlife. We thoroughly recommend the Spa and enjoyed massages during one of the rain showers which added to the relaxation! The Datai is the most eco friendly hotel we have ever been to and a visit to ‘The Lab’ is well worthwhile and educational as well as fun! We also ‘learned how to be naturalists’ at the Nature Centre and placed hidden cameras in the forest to help monitor the behaviour of the wildlife. This was a fascinating experience and well worth doing! There are many other things to enjoy but we just stuck to our lovely pool and ventured out mainly to eat. We didn’t even go to the beautiful beach at all! The food was great everywhere we ate and if the hotel is busy the Beach Club is a great, peaceful alternative for breakfast although it is just ‘a la carte’ with no buffet option. As every year some old friends amongst the staff have left and we miss them, but new stars always emerge! Thanks to everyone but we must mention Yoon, Azmir, Edy, Gunawan, Shaiful, Izzie, Amelia, Wendy and the legendary Sivagaran!