5 Best Hotels in Ao Nang, Phuket and the Andaman Coast

Surrounded by Ao Nang's lush limestone cliffs, Anana was built to be environmentally sustainable. The rooms are spacious and comfortable, the spa has a Himalayan salt chamber, and the restaurant offers organic plant-forward dishes. The well-designed pools compensate for the lack of direct beach access.

Whitewashed walls and red ceramic-tile floors give a Moroccan feel to this design hotel. The top-floor club rooms and honeymoon suite have blue wooden doors facing a two-story atrium hallway. Inside, wood-frame beds and small tables and chairs are nice, but the real treat lies up a flight of stairs that leads to a private sunbathing deck with a large, round wooden tub. The honeymoon suite has mosaic-style tile floors, bead curtains, and an atmosphere worth the extra baht. Umberto's Restaurant on the ground floor serves good Italian dishes.

The primary reason to stay here is to save money for day trips and nightlife. The large bright rooms have tile floors, and the ones on the top floor peek out over surrounding buildings for a nice view of the sea. All are available without the air-conditioning turned on for an extra discount. The hotel is close to the action in town (there's an Irish pub across the way), as well as to the minibus and longtail boat junction.

This sleek boutique hotel is in one of the busier parts of Ao Nang, offering proximity to shopping, dining, and drinking, plus swimming at the Noppharat Thara and Ao Nang beaches on either side. Some of the spacious rooms, decorated in a contemporary style with Thai touches, have direct access to a lovely courtyard pool that one can step into from a small wooden balcony-deck. There is also another small pool on the hotel's rooftop, which is great for a dip at the end of a long day with sunset drinks and wonderful open views of the sea and verdant cliffs.

On the eastern end of Noppharat Thara, Srisuksant is a short walk from Ao Nang's shops and directly across from the beach. Although that beach is not ideal for swimming, longtail boats are available to whisk you away to more suitable spots, and if you feel like walking west a few miles, you can swim or picnic in the shade by the Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park headquarters. The resort has two swimming pools for cooling off if you're too lazy to do any of the above. The clientele here is mostly Thai families, although Westerners are greeted warmly. The bright rooms have tile floors and small decks, and some have partial ocean views.