David Beats Goliath: Red Ginger Chic Resort, the Most Fun Hotel in Krabi’s Ao Nang
There is a particular hour in southern Thailand when the day seems to exhale. The heat that has gathered since morning remains suspended in the air, but the hard brightness begins to soften, the shadows beneath the trees lengthen and the world acquires that slightly languid quality that makes an afternoon by the Andaman Sea feel less like a period of time than a state of mind. At Red Ginger, it is around three o’clock that the pool begins to draw people towards it, when the sun is still warm on the skin but no longer quite so insistent, and the loungers beneath their umbrellas become occupied one by one.
The pool is framed by flowering trees, their foliage giving the water a little shade and privacy, while steps descending into it have been designed almost accidentally as places to sit. There are Jacuzzi jets here too, and sitting in the water with one’s back against the current, allowing the pressure to work into shoulders that have spent the day carrying bags, climbing into boats or simply absorbing the heat, is one of those small, almost inconsequential pleasures that begin to define a stay. At the pool bar, cold drinks appear with little ceremony. Somewhere beyond the hotel, Ao Nang continues with its usual energy, but here the pace has changed.
This is Red Ginger’s particular charm. It does not attempt to separate itself completely from Ao Nang, nor does it need to. The hotel sits between Ao Nang Beach and Nopparat Thara Beach, approximately 200 metres from the centre of Ao Nang, close enough to the town’s restaurants, shops and easygoing bustle to make exploration effortless, yet sufficiently removed to provide a welcome sense of retreat once the day’s heat has begun to fade.
Nopparat Thara is around ten minutes away on foot; Ao Nang Beach takes perhaps 15 to 20 minutes, and the surrounding coastline naturally lends itself to the pleasures for which Krabi has long been known — snorkelling, scuba diving, sea kayaking and rock climbing, with the limestone landscape and islands beyond providing the kind of backdrop that makes even a simple boat excursion feel cinematic.
Across the road, a tour agency makes arranging those excursions straightforward. Two ATMs sit nearby. Grab cars are plentiful in this part of Ao Nang, and the journey from Krabi International Airport takes roughly 35 to 40 minutes, usually costing around 357 baht. None of these details sounds especially glamorous, and that is precisely the point. There is a particular form of comfort in arriving somewhere and discovering that almost everything one might need is simply there.
There is no elaborate choreography.
You arrive, and the holiday begins.
A Colourful House in Ao Nang
Red Ginger has a personality of its own. The aesthetic is colourful and distinctly chinoiserie-inspired, tempered by the cleaner lines and practical comforts of a contemporary hotel. Rather than pursuing the anonymous beige-and-stone language of so many modern resorts, it allows colour and pattern to enter the conversation, giving the property a sense of playfulness that feels appropriate to Ao Nang’s relaxed, tropical character.
There are only 63 rooms, and the scale matters. The hotel never feels as though it is trying to absorb a small city of holidaymakers. Instead, there is a more intimate rhythm to moving through it, with the pool, restaurants and bar all close enough that the question of where to go next rarely becomes a question at all.
The duplex room on the fourth and top floor is particularly well suited to families or small groups, with the master bedroom occupying the upper level and the living space below containing another double bed, allowing up to four people to stay without everyone being confined to one room. There is a separate shower and bathtub in the bathroom, a private balcony and complimentary Wi-Fi, but it is the sense of having different spaces for different moments that makes the arrangement appealing.
Morning belongs to the balcony. Late afternoon belongs to the pool. The room becomes the quiet space between them.
After a day outside, there is something deeply satisfying about returning to a room where the air is cool, slipping into a bath or shower, and then stepping onto the balcony as the heat begins to lift from the day. The distinction between indoors and outdoors feels less pronounced here, as it often does in tropical places, where doors and windows seem less like barriers than invitations to notice what is happening beyond them.
The Long Afternoon
At Red Ginger, the best hours may be the ones in which there is nowhere particular to be.
The pool is at its most inviting from mid-afternoon onwards, when guests begin to return from the beaches and excursions and the hotel acquires the mellow atmosphere of a place settling into evening.
The umbrellas cast deeper shadows across the deck; the flowering trees become more noticeable against the water; conversations drift between loungers.
And then there are the days when the hotel decides to entertain itself.
The complimentary programme changes each day, with activities ranging from recycled-plastic keychain making and fruit and vegetable carving to basic Thai-language lessons, folding fish and making flowers from plastic bags. Fridays bring a complimentary coffee scrub, while Saturdays belong to the pool. From four in the afternoon, foam begins to fill the water and music rises from the pool bar, drawing guests into the sort of spontaneous holiday amusement that is difficult to manufacture and even harder to resist.
There is something charming about the absence of pretension in it. Children join in. Adults join in. Nobody appears particularly concerned with maintaining composure.
BBQ skewers of seafood and vegetables can be ordered and cooked live beside the pool, so that the afternoon develops almost imperceptibly into dinner, with smoke, music, water and the last warmth of the sun mingling together.
It is not sophistication in the formal sense. It is something more useful on holiday: atmosphere.
Mornings at Ginger Café
Morning begins more quietly at Ginger Café, where breakfast unfolds at an agreeable pace.
The buffet offers toast, muffins, fresh fruit and salad, while an egg station prepares omelettes, scrambled eggs and sunny-side-up eggs with toppings including cheese, ham and capsicum. Coffee is self-service, with Americanos, cappuccinos and lattes available from the machine, which means the first cup need never be the last.
But the more interesting detail is found beyond the buffet.
Guests can order small portions of Thai dishes directly from the kitchen — fried noodles, stir-fried chicken with basil and rice — and continue ordering them alongside the buffet as often as they wish. It is an unusually generous interpretation of breakfast, and one that feels particularly right in Thailand, where morning food need not conform to the sweet pastries, cereals and eggs that dominate so many international hotel breakfasts.
There is pleasure in sitting down to a plate of something fragrant and savoury while the day outside is still relatively cool, with the prospect of the beach, the sea or absolutely nothing waiting afterwards.
Later in the morning, Ginger Café settles into its daytime identity, serving Thai favourites including pad Thai, tom yum, papaya salad and spring rolls, alongside pasta, sandwiches and burgers.
Authentic and delicious.
And then there is the tom kha gai.
Some dishes are technically accomplished; others simply make you want another mouthful. This one belongs to the latter category. The soup arrives with the characteristic richness of coconut, but the sweetness never becomes heavy, while the aromatic and sharper notes keep the palate awake. It is creamy without becoming cumbersome, fragrant without becoming perfumed, and deeply comforting in the way that only a very well-balanced bowl of Thai soup can be.
It is, quite simply, the dish that I would return for.
When the Sun Goes Down
As evening approaches, the hotel changes register again.
Ginger Bar becomes a natural place to linger, particularly after dinner, and every guest receives a coconut during the stay — a small tropical ritual that seems almost inevitable in this setting.
Food from Ginger Café can be ordered here too, which removes the need to make any decisions about where to go next.
On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, live music begins from 8pm. Saturday brings two guitarists, while the other evenings favour pop music, and the effect is less that of a formal entertainment programme than of a pleasant soundtrack to the final hours of the day.
There is something appealing about a bar that does not demand an entire evening from you.
One can have a drink, listen for a while, order something from the café, and eventually walk back upstairs without ever needing to summon a taxi or consult a map. For travellers who appreciate the luxury of not having to organise themselves constantly, this kind of proximity becomes surprisingly valuable.
Indeed, Friday and Saturday make a particularly pleasing combination at Red Ginger: the coffee scrub on Friday, followed by the Saturday pool party in the late afternoon and live music after dark. The days begin to acquire their own gentle architecture.
Dinner, With Steam Rising
At night, Ginger Café takes on a more convivial character with its shabu buffet, which has become popular enough to attract diners staying at other hotels in Ao Nang.
The classic option brings pork collar and pork belly, accompanied by free-flow vegetables and mushrooms. The premium version shifts towards beef ribeye and beef tenderloin, with salmon joining the selection, alongside the same abundance of vegetables and mushrooms. Two broths can be chosen from four, and an assortment of dipping sauces allows each mouthful to be adjusted according to taste.
Shabu has its own particular rhythm. The table becomes the kitchen, ingredients moving in and out of the steaming broth, meat changing colour almost instantly, vegetables softening at different speeds, conversation continuing between mouthfuls. It is an especially satisfying dinner after a day outdoors because it asks very little of the diner beyond appetite.
By then, the heat of the day has finally disappeared, the air is softer and the hotel feels pleasantly removed from the activity beyond its gates.
The Body Finally Slows
At D’aura Spa, the atmosphere becomes quieter still.
The spa offers foot massage, Thai massage, manicures and pedicures, and there is an evident attentiveness to the environment: during a Thai massage, the soundtrack includes the gentle sound of flowing water, a detail that seems minor until one notices how effectively it changes the room.
The owner’s Thai massage is particularly deep, working deliberately through the areas where travel tends to leave its residue — the neck, shoulders and upper back. It does not shy away from the places that need attention most, and the treatment has a grounded physicality that suits the destination.
Afterwards, the body feels different.
The shoulders sit lower. The neck feels longer. The day’s excursions, heat and movement seem to have been absorbed somewhere into the mattress of the treatment room and left behind.
Outside, Ao Nang continues.
The Art of Staying Put
There are hotels that encourage you to leave them, and there are hotels that encourage you to remain.
Red Ginger does both.
Its position makes the beaches and excursions of Krabi easy to reach, and there is little difficulty arranging a day on the water or walking into the centre of Ao Nang. Yet the hotel itself offers enough small diversions to make staying in feel like a legitimate choice: the late-afternoon pool, the bar, the spa, the changing daily activities, the easy pleasure of dinner arriving at the table while steam curls from a pot of shabu.
What distinguishes the experience is not any single grand gesture. It is the accumulation of smaller ones — the availability of a car when you need it, the short walk to the beach, the coolness of the room after the afternoon heat, the Jacuzzi jets working into your back, the smell of BBQ smoke beside the pool, the first cold drink of the evening, the sound of guitars after dark.
This is a hotel that understands something fundamental about a tropical holiday: after a certain point, more is not necessarily better. What matters is having enough.
Enough shade. Enough space. Enough food. Enough water. Enough time.
And perhaps, above all, enough reason to stop looking at the clock.
In Ao Nang, with the Andaman waiting beyond the town and the limestone islands dissolving into the horizon, Red Ginger offers a more intimate pleasure — not escape from the destination, but the rare luxury of settling comfortably into its rhythm.
Red Ginger Chic Resort
168 M. 3, T. Ao Nang, A. Muang, Krabi, 81180 Thailand
Phone : +66 (0) 75 637 999,
