As I may have mentioned previously, my arrangements for our trip to Krabi had been made in secret so that Eloise didn't know exactly where we were going. Naturally, she knew we were going somewhere special - it's impossible to arrange any sort of trip without the person you're travelling with wanting to know where you're going - but I'd had to tell her only that there would be a surprise in store and insist that she didn't push me for more information.

Krabi is a province of Thailand, containing eight districts and calling itself home to over four hundred thousand people. This often causes confusion because many tourists have a tendency to visit a pretty town or village in Krabi province and then immediately forget its name, show their friends back home the photos and tell them they've been to Krabi - giving many people the mistaken impression that Krabi is a resort or a small town. The same thing has started to happen to Phuket, with many visitors being surprised to find that it's an entire island province rather than just the beach resort of Patong. To me, this is quite disrespectful to the people at the places you've visited, who have probably gone to a lot of effort to draw in the tourists - it's a bit like going on holiday to Wales, a beautiful region in it's own right, and telling everyone back home that you've been to somewhere called Yookay. Eloise and I were staying at the exclusive Rayavadee Premier Resort, set in Phranang Bay on a peninsula overlooking the Andaman Sea and surrounded by the crystal white beaches of Railay, Nammao and Phranang. The resort is almost a private paradise, with beaches which can only be accessed from the sea. There are no roads to the resort and, although all beaches in Thailand are public and the ones on the Phranang peninsula are quickly being discovered by tourism, most of the big tour boats choose to stay away, preferring instead to visit the more well known islands such as Phi Phi. Looking over the photographs on the website before booking, my jaw must've been almost touching the floor - and I have to say, the reality more than lived up to the pictures.

We were collected from our hotel in Phuket and driven for over two hours before finally arriving in Krabi province and being dropped off at the pier, from where a speed boat was to transfer us to the resort. This wasn't a major tourist pier like the ones in Phuket - in fact we came across it quite suddenly after driving for the last few minutes on country lanes, and our boat hadn't arrived yet so we were directed into a private reception building where we were offered tea and coffee and given a television to watch. I was rather glad to find that the staff hadn't felt the need to paste photographs of the Rayavadee all over the walls, as this would've lessened the surprise somewhat for Eloise - but the fact that they had a building on the mainland specially set up for people to wait for their boat was probably a bit of a giveaway that we weren't going to Butlins.

We didn't have long to wait before our transport for the remainder of the journey arrived, and we were quickly speeding through the water towards a distant beach on the back of the Rayavadee's speedboat. The scenery on the way was as spectacular as we had become used to, the sea all around us being full of imposing limestone stacks and small uninhabited islands covered in deep forest. The water was calm enough to be able to stand on the deck and take it all in, and as we rounded the end of the Phranang peninsula and headed into the bay I think I could clearly hear the sound of jaws clattering to the floor around me. The smile on Eloise's face told me I'd made the right choice.

We arrived at Nammao, a crescent shaped beach seemingly surrounded by dense vegetation and tall tree covered mountains. In fact, both ends of the beach are dominated by towering limestone cliffs and forests of thai palms while the beach itself backs onto the reception, restaurant and beachfront villas - but all of these are carefully tucked away within the trees so that, from our boat, all we could see before we arrived was a beautiful stretch of sandy beach surrounded by almost prehistoric scenery. We were helped down from the boat by our pilot - some of us not stepping down quite so gracefully and managing to get our feet wet in the warm water - and were met by a group of smiling Thai gentleman who bowed politely, took our names and then led each couple off in different directions. Eloise and I were led through the large main restaurant into reception, where we signed into the resort before being escorted through the forest to our villa by the guide.

The Rayavadee really is a luxury resort, far beyond anywhere I had stayed before. All the villas, or pavilions as they insist on calling them, are two storey freestanding round cottages each surrounded by woodland or vegetation and with enough space between each to create a sense of having your own private piece of paradise. A winding pathway makes its way through the trees, branching off to each of the villas, eventually leading to Railay Beach at one end of the resort and the Rayavadee Villa at the other - a grand palace of a residence built around its own private swimming pool with built-in Jacuzzi, master bedroom with built in bath, guest bedroom, poolside dining room and kitchen for those who have a penchant for throwing money about. It seems to me that staying at the Rayavadee Villa or its sister the Phranang Villa would be a little like living in the Big Brother house. At the time of writing, staying at the Rayavadee Villa would set you back a mere one thousand four hundred UK pounds per night - so obviously, I don't think I'll be staying there anytime soon! I might have been thinking with my heart when I booked to stay at the Rayavadee, but there's romance and then there's having altogether more money than sense! Eloise and I were staying in a more reasonably priced Deluxe Pavilion although today, I'm stunned to see on the website that even this will cost you upwards of three hundred pounds per night - so I suppose that if a group of four stayed in the Ravavadee pavillion it wouldn't end up costing much more overall. If we hadn't had a long trip in front of us to pay for, I could've chosen to upgrade to a spa or hydropool pavilion - we passed them as we were led to our lowly deluxe one and they all seemed to be surrounded by their own high wooden fences to keep nosey neighbours out. Eloise pointed to the first one we passed and said "That's where we're staying on our honeymoon!"

Our pavillion was almost too perfect for words. From the outside it looked endearingly like a sort of little hobbit house. Inside, the downstairs area consisted of a large round living space dominated by a swinging hammock seat hanging from the ceiling on the end of sturdy metal chains. Other than this the living room was pretty basic, a small sink was inset into one wall and the only thing standing on the tiled floor was an old fashioned television cabinet opposite the hammock - but we didn't plan to spend much time sitting in front of the telly anyway so that wasn't a problem. A doorway led to a staircase which wound around the perimeter of the pavilion and took us up to the bedroom, which was almost entirely taken up by a giant superking bed which, again, had been lovingly made up and left with a flower on the pillow. By the window was a small occasional table and two wicker seats against a large picture window which looked out onto the gardens and the nearby swimming pool. Even the bathroom was large and ornate, with a huge circular bathtub bordered by every manner of free beauty product the management could pack in.

Waiting for us on the bed was a thick welcome pack, detailing all the facilities we could expect while staying at the resort - most of them naturally included in the price - and containing a detailed map which really did make it seem as though we were on Treasure Island. All of the places of interest were carefully marked with crosses, including all the small secluded lakes and caves which we might want to visit during our stay. We decided almost straight away that we were going to try to find our way, with the help of the map, to a place called Sra Phranang - the Princess Lagoon - which was situated well away from the resort and seemed to consist of an inland lake with a cave in a large clearing surrounded by forest. Princess Lagoon seemed to be the stuff of dreams, and I believe that this inland piece of paradise must have been formed by water flowing under the peninsula through a cave and rising to fill the lake rather than simply by rainfall. We were assured by the receptionist that Sra Phranang was about the most romantic place in the whole universe, and I'm sure she was absolutely correct... but we never found it. According to the map, we had to follow a jungle trail from behind the reception building - this would lead us through the forest and up into the surrounding mountains where we would suddenly come across the lagoon and go "Wow!".

All set for a hike, we found the start of the jungle trail, and tried to follow it in both directions - one way led us onto the beach and then into the sea, and the other meandered into the forest for about two hundred yards before it seemed to head up an almost vertical cliff face which was so covered in impassable undergrowth that it was clear nobody had been that way for decades. On the other hand, I suppose anybody who does manage to find the place will have the lagoon entirely to themselves as it would appear that you have to be a skilled mountaineer and tracker to find it - but I'm not quite so sure I'd still feel so romantic after fighting my way through the jungle anyway.

Besides Nammao, there were two other beaches at the Rayavadee, but only one which we really spent any time at. Railay Beach was pretty much right outside our pavilion but since the swimming pool was between the two and had the advantage of having a vanishing point so that it seemed to disappear seamlessly into the ocean, we would mostly just walk out of our front door, slap a towel down on a sun lounger and spend our time lying by the pool. Railay is the main beach on the peninsula and tends to capture most of the attention from incoming tourist boats, so when we did feel like going to the beach we usually preferred to walk through the resort to the other, smaller ones. At the other end of the resort was Phranang Beach, which quickly became our favourite spot both to soak up the sun and to explore the locally famous Princess Cave at the far end, which can only be reached at low tide. The cave entrance consists of a wide stone archway, worn away by the sea, between which numerous rock formations and jagged boulders create a sort of artistic beauty which only nature can provide. Eloise and I spent a lot of our time clambering over the rocks, taking photographs and wading into the shallow water to find our way between the various sea-worn passages. Around the entrance, the walls are used by trainee rock climbers, something which came as quite a surprise to us when we first entered the cave and found a Thai man apparently glued half way up the wall like Spiderman. Beyond the archway, a huge mound of rocks leads up to the main cave, from where it is possible to get some of the most stunning views of the Phranang peninsula from on high.

About Simon and Burfords Travels:

Simon Burford is a UK based travel writer. He will be re-publishing his travel blogs, chapters from his books and other miscellaneous rantings on these pages over the coming weeks and months, and the entry on this page may not necessarily reflect todays date.