We stayed from 5th to 15th February 2012.

On arrival at avista from Bankok we were presented with welcome fruit juice drinks and advised our room would be ready in 25 minutes... in actually fact it was ready in 5. Helpful reception staff gave us a quick tour of hotel and room and explained how everything worked, breakfast times etc.

Rooms were impeccable... 5* luxury all the way.. bathroom had giant window in to bedroom so all appeared as one. Fresh towels and beach towels daily. The only thing I could minutely complain (and it really isnt anything serious) about the rooms is there isnt much drawer space to store your clothes etc and we probably could have done with a few more coat hangers... But to be honest it didnt bother us and im sure if we would have asked our wishes would have been met immediately.

Big flat screen tv with digital channels in several different languages, and dvd player. You could rent films at recepion for 50BHT (we didnt spend much time in our room so didnt use this service). Iron and ironing board all in room with dressing gowns and slippers/ flip flops in cupboard too! Even a choice of 4 different types of pillow if you wanted - but again we were happy with whatever we were given. Mozzy plug in already in room.

Our balcony overlooked the pool and was lovely.

Breakfast was great.. plenty of choice and all very tasty. Restaurant staff all extremely pleasant with great English, which was helpful as we only knew a few words in thai.. The hotel even provides you with a little translation book on arrival which is great to carry around with you.

My husband had lunch a few times by the pool and again - lovely food, and to be honest the prices were pretty reasonable as well.. For evening meal we ate out in kata/karon/patong and food is just so cheap... The most we paid was equivalent of £20 for starter/main drinks etc all in.

Hotel pools were lovely with amazing water features.... only gripe here was that the lower level pool had morning sun and then shaded in pm, and the higher level pool had no am sun and all the pm sun. So if you managed to get a sun lounger (and after 10am this was unlikely) you missed out on the sun either in the am or pm depending on where you were situated. Anyhow...we preffered to go down the beach most days anyway so it really wasnt a problem.

Kata beach is literally 5 minutes walk from hotel and Karon beach 10 minutes walk. The hill up and down to Avista is extremely steep, but didnt cause us too much bother as we are both young - and it was a bit of welcome exercise to be honest.

Night life is fab around Kata, but if your looking for something a bit more lively you can hop in a tuk tuk/ taxi in to Patong.. dont pay more than 400BHT (one way) The taxis just outside Avista will take you for 400BHT no problem (saves walking the hill too). Thai people very helpful so just ask them to point you in direction of Bangla Road - eye opener to say the least!

With regards to trips out and about and must do's..... Phi Phi and James Bond island are brill day trips but you must knock them down in price... and if you book in evening they will knock more off to try to fill up boats. Do it through one of the many trip booking stalls in Kata - much much cheaper! By like 50-60%!!!! One day we hired a moped for 300BHT (24hours) and visited Big Buddha and Siam Elephant Safari (which in on big hill on right side on way down from Big Buddha)... Both very worth doing!

For evening entertainment Fantasea show in Kamala Bay is AMAZING! Never seen anything like it!!! We just drove there ourselves and paid on door, but you can do it through trip booking also. Also really recommend watching Thai Boxing at Bangla boxing stadium in Patong... again price Negotiable on door!!!

All in all Lovely stay At Avista, Kata Beach.

We are staying fr 11 to 15 Feb, while we were swimming,we put four books at the chair besides the swimming pool, and then we went to the gym and then got back the books and found that one of the books was missing. Therefore, we asked the counter, and the staff replied that no one picked it up. The next day, we asked the Singapore couple whom we remembered, were also swimming, if they had taken our books, and they said yes, and "thought" that it belonged to the hotel, and put it back at the library, but apparently not because we could not find it anywhere! When we said that we would ask the counter for help, the Singapore couple suddenly ran away from the restaurant, and we even did not know their room number. We asked the hotel to report a theft, or even asked if there was a need to call the police, because apparently, the Singapore couple was stealing our book, and ran away, and did not want to be caught! We suggested the hotel to take a look at the CCTV, but there was none at the pool side or even library (the place where the thief claimed that he had placed the book into). And it took a long time for them to find out the room number of the Singapore couple. And that day was their check out day, luckily, when they checked out, they suddenly agreed to give back the book when they were asked by the hotel manager.
It seemed to us that YOUR PROPERTY IS NOT PROTECTED IN THE HOTEL. YOU CANNOT CALL THE POLICE TO COME TO THE HOTEL, EVEN THOUGH YOUR PROPERTY IS MISSED IN THE HOTEL PREMISES, AND IF THE GUEST (THIEF) DID NOT GIVE YOU BACK YOUR PROPERTY, you can just say to yourself that you are not careful enough. Luckily, we only lost a book, if we lost a camera, or something that was expensive, the hotel cannot do much for you, even to look at the CCTV, because there were only a few in the public area, and the IT staff was not always there to look after the CCTV. And DO ASSUME THAT THERE MAYBE A THIEF STAYING NEXT TO YOU IN THE HOTEL, AND BEWARE OF YOUR PROPERTY!

We had a marvelous 7 nights here. The staff were great and and the head chef worth hi weight in gold. Admittedly, we had a Grand Deluxe room on the top floor with a superb view of Kata Beach but I've never stayed in a better hotel. They had celebrations to mark the Chinese New Year whilst we were there and a buffet night and I can't remember better or a more comprehensive choice of food to eat. The hotel pools and sun loungers also excellent.

Great rooms, shower went hot and cold though.
The hill you walk up to the hotel is nothing if you are fit.
Breakfast could be improved as there was little choice re cereals and dried fruits. Sometimes bit slow at topping up the coffee.
Lunch was excellent value especially on the set meals.
The pool area and water feature are very nice.
We had a nice balcony with very comfortable furniture that you could instantly fall asleep on!