We chose this hotel because of its reputation for a great family hotel and we were not disappointed. It’s about 20 mins from the airport (500 Baht by Taxi) and the welcome was very warm. The reflection pool at the lobby made the whole place look bigger and exclusive. The rooms were nice, spacious – with large king-sized bed and a small balcony (Deluxe Sala Garden facing room). The bathroom was quite big with good amenities – however, did not match the other J W Mariott hotels worldwide.
The resort is very large and beautifully maintained… especially the walkway through the garden. We stayed at the south block and the beach and pool was right next door. The main pool with the kid’s pool was excellent and my daughter had a blast. The baby elephants make it a sheer delight for the kids every day around the pool / beach area…
Truly, the best part of the hotel was the kids area – with toys, videos and other attractions thrown in. We got some free time for the Spa and Bars thanks to this for they had baby-sitters!!! Extremely safe. The Mandara Spa was good but very expensive… problem with this isolated hotel is that there are not many options otherwise.
The Cafe was average – good breakfast, but very poor pastas (lunch). A nice touch at the restaurant was child safe crockery and spoons. Food was quite expensive in the restaurants and most people went to the English Pub / Cafe at the Turtle Village nearby (free shuttle). The food there was excellent and very reasonably priced. We had at least one meal there every day.
Overall a good stay… only drawback was rooms were not cleaned on time and we had to remind the staff on both days @ 3pm to do that. The hotel is also far away from Patong and other areas and a pick-up / drop costs about 1000B min for any tours. The beach is also not suitable for swimming as it is steep and dan
gerous in rainy season.
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- Feeding a baby elephant in Phuket, Bangkok
Also read about our experience at hotel Hansar, Bangkok