A small paradise with a luxurious flair: Cape Kudu on Koh Yao Noi impresses with stylish rooms, great inclusive services such as massages and boat tours. Although there is no direct hotel beach and the second pool could do better with a little more love, Cape Kudu is definitely worth a recommendation for a relaxed hideaway with unbeatable value for money!
What’s it like here and what really impressed us? Read here.
Review #53
Content
Location
The Small Luxury Boutique Hotel Cape Kudu is just over a 10 minute ride from the public jetty on Koh Yao Noi. Everything on this more northerly of the two Kho Yao islands can be easily reached by scooter or cab.
Getting there
Ideally, you will land at Phuket International Airport (HKT), from where you can order a cab, for example via grab or bolt, which will then take you to the Cape Kudu Hospitality Lounge within a good 20 minutes. From there, an arranged transfer will take you to the island by speedboat. At the hospitality lounge you can refresh yourself, have a little snack and relax after your flight.
How to get to the resort
However, since we are traveling to Cape Kudu from the Anantara Koh Yao Yai, our journey is a little different. The public speedboat takes us from Kho Yao Yai to Kho Yao Noi in only 15 minutes for 150 THB. Various cabs are already waiting at the jetty on the more northerly of the two islands to take you to your desired location on the island. It only took us a few minutes then to get to Cape Kudu by cab.
Check-in
After getting out of the cab at the lobby, we were greeted with a cold, refreshing towel, a delicious drink and a small snack. Very cool!
In the open-plan lobby, the French general manager didn’t miss the opportunity to greet us and invite us to the evening management cocktail. That was great! A first wow effect right away.
The last time we had a management cocktail was at the Alila Villas Uluwatu and we always think it’s great when time permits and you get the chance to meet the management in person for a nice chat.
We booked this rate through Hyatt and Mr. and Mrs. Smith Hotels so this booking included not only the overnight stay and breakfast, but also a 60-minute Thai massage and, what I personally found my personal highlight, a half-day island tour. This is actually worth a whooping 1400++ THB here at Cape Kudu (according to the Cape Kudu homepage).
Cape Kudu at a glance
The hotel was opened in 2015 and offers 56 rooms and villas. A distinction is made between the normal standard room and the standard room with sea view on the upper floors. Cape Kudu also offers one-bedroom villas and a two-bedroom villa.
Room
We had booked the deluxe room and to get there we first had to walk through the small complex past the densely built-up villas, lush trees and gardens towards the houses. The deluxe rooms are located on the top floor and therefore logically have the best view.
If a good view is important to you, then it is better to book one of these deluxe rooms, because in the villas you will have your own small private pool, but unfortunately no view. The surcharge from the standard room to the deluxe room is usually only marginal, so you can already get real added value here.
So room 3301 it is today.
Welcome
When you enter the room, the vouchers for the boat tour and the two massages are beautifully laid out on the table next to the room card.
Living Room
As you enter the room, you will find a cupboard containing a beach bag, two kimonos, slippers, flip-flops and a safe.
In addition to tea, coffee and water, which are offered free of charge, there are also spirits, but these must be purchased.
There is also a TV in our room at Cape Kudu. Above it is the air conditioning unit, which blows directly onto the bed, but I can tell you it wasn’t bad and definitely bearable.
There is a couch next to the desk and opposite the bed.
Bathroom
As soon as you walk in, next to the entrance, you enter the bathroom with a washbasin and a scale. There are also various amenities, a toilet and of course a walk-in rain shower, even if it was a little calcified.
There is also a bathtub in our deluxe room at the Cape Kudu.
Turndown
An evening turndown service with a small mini snack is also available here, nice!
View
And the reason why we prefer the deluxe room here at Cape Kudu rather than the villa is: the view. And it’s fantastic, isn’t it?
Resort activities
Pool
From the lobby, it’s a good ten steps up to the main pool, which also includes a whirlpool. The pool here at the Cape Kudu may look small, but you can easily swim one or two laps here.
And if you take a seat on a lounger here, you can easily order something by pressing a button.
The whole life of the small resort takes place here at the pool area, as the bar and the resort’s only restaurant are located next to it. There is also a bistro further down the road, which also belongs to the hotel. As the area of the resort is, as I said, not really large, most guests are either here by the pool, in the restaurant or staying at their room.
Otherwise, the sun loungers are spread across the different levels with a view of the sea – albeit across the road. Personally, I don’t think that’s great, especially when the sea has just disappeared due to the low tide and all you can see is rocks.
Adult only Pool
From the actual pool, a few steps lead up to the second pool, which is reserved for adults. Unfortunately, none of the sun loungers were in use, although they could have been used in October 2024 given the occupancy rate. This was a bit of a shame, as it would certainly have been a bit quieter up here than at the lower pool. Nevertheless, you could still get into the pool here, but obviously you couldn’t lie down.
Beach
Unfortunately, I have to say that the beach is rather not the best we have seen so far. The Cape Kudu has established an alternative lounging space opposite the lobby just across the road, but in my opinion this is no substitute for a beach. It offers a great view of the many small islands, but a little further down the road there is a real beach. This is the public beach area, which no longer belongs to the hotel, but you can also swim here with only moderate waves, but beautiful water.
Gym
The in-house gym here at Cape Kudu is located in one of the hotel’s room blocks and is only open from 7 am to 9 pm. There’s not that much choice here, but you’ll find everything you need for a short and intensive workout.
Spa
To redeem our massage vouchers, we went to the spa, which is not located on the actual hotel grounds. Instead, you have to walk a good 100 meters up the hill taking the side street to reach the spa, which is open from 10 am to 9 pm.
Here we were given a delicious juice with a refreshing towel in the arrival pavilion before going up to the treatment room. Our feet were washed there and then, of course, we had a massage. Finally, we had another ginger tea. A great experience – and all for free!
Lounge (but not a club lounge)
Attached to the lobby, there is a kind of lounge in a small house. If it rains all day, you can play a game of pool here, watch TV, read something or just relax.
Tours
As mentioned above, we and a few other guests were invited on a boat trip. You can also book this tour privately without the larger group. But then you have to pay 4000++ THB for 1-3 people.
The tour first stopped at a small grotto where you can explore the turquoise blue water and then we went on to the big tree, which is located in a national park and costs another 300 THB entrance fee, but was definitely worth every penny.
Last but not least was the real highlight: swimming in emerald green waters, which was not only beautifully clear and warm, but also somehow gave us a feeling of the Avatar movie. A great experience.
All in all, we can definitely recommend this little morning tour to you!
Specials
As already mentioned above, there was also a so-called management cocktail here at Cape Kudu, where some other guests unfortunately filled their plates so much that there wasn’t much left for us, so we didn’t get much of the food. The drinks though were very tasty and highly recommendable! Just like the conversation with the general manager or the friendly reception staff.
Restaurants
Hornbill Restaurant
The Hornbill Restaurant is the only restaurant in Cape Kudu that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Breakfast
Breakfast here at Cape Kudu is only available as a buffet and without an a lá carte selection. Actually, we would have liked had Cape Kudu offered an a lá carte only breakfast due to the size of the hotel. But as it was, we felt it was okayish to good. It’s not a five-star breakfast, but it was still delicious and varied. Although the space here is not that big and limited, they still managed to establish an egg station and got our respect for that.
But if you can’t find a place to have breakfast in the restaurant in the morning, that’s no problem. You can also have breakfast outdoors by the pool, at the bar opposite or in the open air to get your day off to a good start.
Check-out
We checked out around noon and took our suitcases to the lobby ourselves, because sometimes it’s just quicker to take your luggage with you rather than waiting for staff. The bill was printed straight away and we were given a small farewell snack, which was the same snack as at check-in – just nicely packaged as a souvenir. Quite a nice idea, right?
Costs
We had costs of 9675 THB, which was about 270 euros for two nights at the beginning of October 2024 – and that included breakfast, massages and a boat tour! Wow. That really is unbeatable value for money.
However, early October is still the rainy season in Thailand. Please bear this in mind when booking, as prices here are sometimes more than twice as expensive per night during the peak season from the beginning of November to the end of April!
Departure and onward journey
We took the cab ordered at check-out to our next hotel, the TreeHouse Villas, by land for a fixed price of 800 THB.
Conclusion
Cape Kudu on Kho Yao Noi is a really great Small Luxury Hotel of the World, which can definitely score points with only a few rooms in the upper four-star range. We were particularly impressed and pleasantly surprised by the services that are included free of charge when booking through Hyatt.
Our recommendation
We can recommend Cape Kudu not only to single travelers, but also to families and couples.
The Cape Kudu is an upscale four-star hotel and receives the Lifestyle label from us in our ranking.
Hotel Homepage
Points
For this stay, we give the Cape Kudu nine out of ten possible points.
Let’s say half a point is deducted for the fact that the second pool was unfortunately rather neglected in terms of sunbeds and cleanliness, and another half point is deducted for the fact that there is no direct beach at the hotel.
This is somehow sold differently in the marketing photos on the internet and certainly not in such a way that there is a road between the not-so-real-beach and the hotel. Now that’s really complaining on a high level, because maybe 20 cars go down that road throughout the day and as I said, there’s not that much going on on the island. But somehow that destroys the illusion. Well. But that’s why we’re here – so that you don’t just have to rely on the photos you’ve taken, but also see the things that might not be so great.
Go there?
Definitely. If you’re looking for a slightly cheaper alternative to the Six Senses next door, you’ll definitely find it here.
YouTube Review
For even more impressions with original sound and moving images, why not take a look at our YouTube review?
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