Sincere Guesthouse, Koh Lanta

The Sincere Guesthouse is located in Ban Saladan, which is the main town on Koh Lanta. The Sincere Guesthouse is a budget hotel with a ‘million dollar view’ from the rear of the property and an excellent place to stay if you are a short visit to Koh Lanta because of its proximity to the island’s main transport links.

Good points about the Sincere Guesthouse

The Sincere Guesthouse is 210 metres walking distance from Saladan Pier on the same road. Saladan Pier is the main long distance ferry terminal on Koh Lanta with direct services to and from other popular destinations on the west coast of Thailand such as Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Krabi and Koh Lipe. If you are planning to come for a few nights in Koh Lanta on a short break or as part of an ‘island-hopping’ tour of the Andaman Coast then the Sincere Guesthouse is a really convenient place to stay because you have a very short walk to get there after you disembark from the ferry allowing you to drop off your bags and get on with enjoying the island.

The other benefit of the location is that you get really good views from the restaurant area at the rear of the Sincere Guesthouse. The rear of the the guesthouse has a platform overhanging edge of the mouth of an estuary near to the open ocean. This is a pleasant place to sit and eat breakfast, and also to chill out in the evening. The Sincere Guesthouse closes to people who aren’t staying there after 18:00 which means those people who are staying overnight get the area to themselves at sunset, which is very nice. I enjoyed sitting there and watching the boats slowly cruise past before picking up speed when they reached the open sea.

The Sincere Guesthouse is not expensive. A standard double room with private bedroom and breakfast in the morning costs around 600 THB a night. This really is value for money. The Sincere Guesthouse has a few deficiencies but at 600 THB a night these minor problems are easy to overlook. 

Rooms at the Sincere Guesthouse

The Sincere Guesthouse is located within a wooden shop house building converted into a small hotel, which has only a handful of rooms and a large dining area. The rooms are about big enough to fit in a bed, table and small wardrobe and nothing else. 

The beds at the Sincere Guesthouse are comfortable enough and the air-conditioning works as does the free WiFi, if at times slowly as is common on Thailand’s islands. You don’t get a view from the bedroom except into the kitchens of the properties on either side of the guesthouse. 

The private bathrooms at the Sincere Guesthouse are ‘adequate’ and I seen a lot worse in hotels which cost more per night in popular coastal areas in Thailand.

Rooms at the Sincere Guesthouse come with a fridge and a TV. The fridges work but the TVs do not, and if they did you would have domestic Thai channels to watch because the Sincere Guesthouse does not have a satellite dish. Perhaps it’s not economically viable to provide cable TV in every room at a rate of 600 THB per night, although actually cheaper hotels in other parts of Thailand seem to manage it.

Facilities at the Sincere Guesthouse

The only facility at the Sincere Guesthouse is the restaurant area at the rear of the property. The food is little bit expensive, but it’s actually very good and better than standard budget hotel restaurant food. The Sincere Guesthouse has a healthy turnover of people not staying at the in the guesthouse coming in to eat at the restaurant.

The breakfasts included in the room price are nothing special but some of the dishes on the menu are really good. The chicken massaman curry pictured above cost 150 THB but was superb, and bear in mind that in the past decade I have eaten this dish hundreds of times in restaurants and private homes across Thailand and this was one of the best. 

Even if you don’t eat at the Sincere Guesthouse you really should sit there and a have drink. If the evenings after the restaurant shuts it appears to be fine to bring your own drinks if you are discreet. The owner probably won’t like it but is unlikely to say anything if no aren’t too noisy. The rooms at the hotel open onto the top end of the restaurant area and if you are too noisy at night then there is a good chance you will disturb the other guests.

Location of the Sincere Guesthouse