Apsara is set on the beach - miles of white, sandy, beautiful beach! And if that's not enough for you there's Coconut Beach very close by; we hired bikes from the hotel and cycled in 10 mins. The hotel is wonderful, the service excellent, breakfast is a massive, freshly presented/cooked buffet of choice and the rooms are comfortable and well appointed. We were visiting with our adult sons (20 and 21yrs). They hired mopeds from local shops (5mins up the road) and we all had regular massages there for £7.50. There is an ATM at a hotel just up from the shops (10mins walk). The taxi's from the hotel are good and not a bad price but you can also barter with those just outside the hotel entrance. We were bed & breakfast so a major plus was Memories Bar, an authentic beach bar located along the beach from the hotel selling great value tasty Thai food and drinks/cocktails - happy hour 5.30-6.30pm! Memories can be accessed across the sand or by walking across the hotel's own bridge. Naturally the hotel whilst it houses all the services you might require, is more expensive than venturing out and about the area. The local water falls, Elephant home (rescued elephants 5 mins walk from Memories bar), many markets and trips to the Islands are amazing. We went to the Surin Islands for the snorkelling and the sea was the bluest I could ever have imagined. Taxi ride to Khao Lak shopping/restaurant strip on the other hand left us cold, not our thing. Quite the most wonderful holiday ever!