Montalay was a brilliant find for us - it's perfect if you want to stay in the less-touristy side of the island away from Sairee. It's takes around 15/20 minutes by car to get to Tanote Bay from the pier but you can arrange for a free pick up with reception. It's a bit of a hairy ride over the (very) steep hills (a good proportion of the roads aren't paved) but it was good fun bumping about on the back of the Hylux and the views are stunning.

The resort itself is very well run and has one of the best restaurants in Tanote, although you do pay slightly more for the quality, as you would expect. Free beach towels are available from reception, and you can also book a taxi ride over to Sairee for a day trip which costs around 150bht pp (approx £3) at set times throughout the day, which rises to 200bht for non-scheduled outward/return trips. Staff are friendly and attentive and everything's kept clean and tidy.

There's a great stretch of beach literally on the doorstep which is brilliant for snorkelling (we saw some black tip sharks) and you can rent snorkels for the day from the diving school next door for around 50bht. The beach is gravelly rather than sandy, so it's good to make use of the resort's deck chairs. There's also a cocktail bar that pops up on the beach at night, with little citronella lamps to keep the mozzies away.

Room-wise, we opted for the slightly cheaper rooms without a/c, which I think was a mistake in hindsight as we didn't really get one good night's sleep over the five nights we stayed. The main reasons: the oscillating ceiling fan was fairly noisy and the breeze from it would wake us up everytime it brushed over us (but it was too hot to turn it off altogether); there's no way of blocking out the lights from the corridor; the bathroom windows are just mesh, so you can hear everything that goes on in the corridor as though it's in your room. Also, our room (109) was right next to the rooms where the cleaning equipment / staff quarters are, so there's lots of banging around and chatting going on from around 7.30am.

That said, others may get on much better with this arrangement, and I've still rated the resort highly because it really is a fantastic place in a great location - lack of sleep wasn't an issue when we were chilling out for most of the day anyway! And the rooms themselves were spacious and well designed, if a little bare. Bed was comfy too.

Highly recommended.

We spent a week in the resort in August and it was a pleasant experience. The resort attracts a broad range of guests from families with young children to couples of all ages and large groups of friends. We had a free pick-up after our ferry trip from Koh Samui. The final stretch of the road leading to the resort was very steep and pot-holed in some areas but the discomfort of the jerky ride was short-lived. Montalay is on the eastern side of the island, which is quiet and with few resorts. This is not the place to go to for partying but as taxis are readily available, we did not feel isolated. It’s the perfect place for a relaxing break. In general, the staff were very friendly.

We had a cottage with a/c. It was great for privacy and was immaculate. However, it was also smaller than expected with no wardrobe space. The en-suite bathroom was on the large size given the size of the rest of the room. The a/c broke down one evening and we went to report it at 10:30pm but the only staff member we could find repeatedly told us that no one was on duty and that nothing could be done. As it was quite hot that evening, we were not pleased and could not believe that no manager was contactable outside normal working hours. We braced ourselves for the unpleasant conversation we would have with Reception the next morning but to our relief, a maintenance person turned up half an hour later and all was well. The deck in front of the cottage was a welcome additional space to sit in and read. Mosquitoes were very active between 5 and 7pm and were enormous and very vindictive! The resort had only one mosquito coil to give to us so mosquito repellent is strongly recommended if you want to sit outside your cottage or the other restaurants along the beach (the communal areas in Montalay resort were mercifully mosquito-free). The area allocated to the cottages is lovely, quiet and very green. Going back to the size of the room, we were advised that the cottage had 24sq.m of floor area vs 36sq.m for the rooms in the new wing. The grounds were beautifully maintained with an army of cleaners beavering away the whole time.

Breakfast was included in our package and although the selection was decent (some cooked food, fresh fruit, yoghurt etc.), it was almost exactly the same every day so by the 4th day, we would have really welcomed new options. The a la carte menu for lunch and dinner had a good selection and prices were reasonable but again, it became a bit repetitive after a few days and we were relieved to find some other restaurants along the beach.

The resort is located on a nice beach that has a cosy feel to it but is not big enough for beach runs. The beach and the water are both very clean. The sand, though not of the white, fine talcum variety, is golden and soft enough. The snorkelling in the bay is exceptional with crystal clear water and an abundance of coral and fish. A baby black-tipped reef shark has elected residence there so divers can at least claim to have seen one shark during their stay! The dive centre on the premises is well-organised, with friendly staff and the equipment is in good order. We enjoyed diving with them even though we were disappointed by the large number of boats on the popular dive sites. We counted 8 in one spot, which would be equivalent to around 200 divers! I would have preferred to watch the marine fauna and flora rather than tanks and wetsuits but this seems to be unavoidable given the size of the island and number of dive locations.

We tried their massage services but the standard was disappointing. The masseuses turned out to be the resort waitresses! Finally, a free WIFI service is available throughout the resort but it can be a bit erratic. There were a couple of days when we had to wait for a few hours to get a connection but it was, on the whole, a small inconvenience.