Lantern Inn, Koh Lipe

The Lantern Inn is a value for money guesthouse with air-conditioned rooms located on a side street off Walking Street, which is the main shopping and restaurant area in Koh Lipe, Thailand.

Good points about the Lantern Inn

Accommodation is relatively expensive in Koh Lipe because it’s a small island which attracts large numbers of visitors. The Lantern Inn offers some of the cheapest air-conditioned rooms that you can find on Koh Lipe. You can get cheaper rooms on Koh Lipe, but you can’t find cheaper and nicer rooms on Koh Lipe. The Lantern Inn is a good choice for a traveller looking for comfort on a small budget.

The second thing I liked about the Lantern Inn is the pleasant and relaxed atmosphere. The staff at the reception desk were friendly and the Lantern Inn has a large communal seating area upstairs which is a nice place to sit outside your room.

The Lantern Inn also has a convenient location. It’s 350 metres walk from the floating pier on Pattaya Beach where you arrive by ferry or speedboat boat on Koh Lipe, and 270 metres walk from Sunrise Beach which is the main swimming beach on the island. The Lantern Inn also has the advantage of being set back a short distance from Walking Street which is the liveliest part of Koh Lipe in the evenings. It’s a short walking distance to the best bars and restaurants on the island, but far enough away for the noise these places generate not to keep you awake at night. 

Rooms at the Lantern Inn

Like many of the rooms on Koh Lipe, the rooms at the Lantern Inn are very small. There is just enough room to walk around the one side of the bed. The rooms are really only places to sleep. In the daytime you would want to stay on the beach or sit outside on the chairs on the upstairs balcony area. 

The air-conditioning units worked well at the Lantern Inn, as did the free WiFi in the room. The beds were comfortable as well. The rooms maybe small but the basic things you need from a hotel room are all there. 

Like the sleeping area, the toilets at the Lantern Inn are also tiny. This said, the shower had hot water and the toilet worked so again all the basic requirements you need from a bathroom are fulfilled, it’s just a small bathroom.

Facilities at the Lantern Inn

The main facility at the Lantern Inn is the upstairs seating area which is very close to all the 10 rooms in this guesthouse. The seating area is shaded and cooled by the gentle sea breezes circulating over the roof tops of the adjacent properties, most of which are a single storey.

The Lantern Inn provides guests with free water, tea, coffee and orange juice. There is a fridge in the seating area and a water heater and you can simply help yourself at any time of the day or night. There are no fridges in the room but guests keep their own food and drinks cool in the large communal fridge in the seating area. This is a nice touch which is reminiscent of the type of guesthouses that were common in Thailand 20 years when a much proportion of the visitors where backpackers on holidays to Asia which lasted several months.

There are tables and chairs and a bar downstairs in the Lantern Inn which do not appear to be used much. There are some many bars, restaurants and shops close to the Lantern Inn that I am doubtful as to whether many guests would want to order food or drinks at the Lantern Inn because there is such a wide variety of eating and drinking options very close by.

Location of the Lantern Inn