phuket holiday

[Scooby NLI]

Adding my two cents here.  The Sheraton Grande Laguna was a bummer.  Over priced, food was lousy, too far from everything.  The Canal Village didn't have much to offer but there is a Jim Thompson outlet that was fun. The service was good though and while the kids club didn't seem to do much, my kids liked it. When we went to Phuket town, our choices(as we knew them) were to pay about 35 sgd per person one way on their shuttle to town or rent a private car for $35 sing per car.  We tried to find out about a simple taxi and got no where. I'm not sure if they don't come on the Laguna property or if its a way to hold on to all the customers by Laguna.  Either way, won't go back.  Can anyone tell me what the deal is on taxi's?  Could we have gotten just a regular taxi from the hotel?  To walk to the edge of the property would have been a hike.

I may not have gotten a fair picture of Phuket, but based on what we saw, it won't be high on the list to visit again.  I'm curious about the people who really like Phuket.  What is it that makes you like it?

[NMS1]

We've just come back from Phuket. One driver that we used told us that several of the big hotels, Laguna included, will not allow private cars in to pick-up passengers so you either have to walk out or take the hotel transport.

If you are going with young children, look at the hotel location in relation to the places you want to visit. After being in Singapore, the travel times in Phuket may seem long so be prepared to spend a lot of time on the road.

[seaweed]

The Sheraton Grande Laguna was a bummer.  Over priced, food was lousy, too far from everything. 

Yes, one of my friends stayed there once and said the same.  They felt cut off from everything else on the island.

Resorts like that want you to stay at their place and not go out to spend money anywhere else.  You might as well stay on Coral Island - there's nowhere else to go but at least it's a nice island (fairly cheap too considering you can't go anywhere else).  I actually prefer staying on Phuket itself though as there's a bit more to do and if I go out for dinner at night and haven't been hassled by at least 10 tailors en route, I feel like my holiday hasn't really got going!


We usually stay in the south - Nai Harn is one of the beaches I like the best followed by Kata Noi.  The main Kata beach is OK but Club Med dominates that beach and it kind of ruins it for me - I like a beach with a bit of life; restaurants and shops along the road and interesting things to look at; Club Med is like a condo - just a fence all along one side of the road.  But that's what places like the Sheraton should do if they want people to stay there all the time - advertise is as an all inclusive place instead of trying to imprison their guests!

But Kata is once of the more interesting places to stay around Phuket.  It's full of small shops and restaurants - it's busy and fairly lively without the seediness of Patong at night. 


Koh Lanta is a nice island though - try that one next time.  The beaches as I remember them aren't that great for snorkelling (too sandy, not enough rocks) but very nice sandy beaches.  You can can get a speedboat trip to Koh Rok and that's got the most beautiful snorkelling and beaches I've seen around Thailand so far - clown fish, loads of coral, sugar white sand and no resorts on it so very unspoilt (or at least it was!).  We went about 6 years ago so things will no doubt have changed but unlike Phuket, on Koh Lanta I believe they're not allowed to build higher than the height of the palm trees so it's mainly small bungalow resorts right by the beach (and you don't get many of that kind of resort in Phuket sadly). 

It was the kind of place where you didn't really need to wear shoes - you just walked along the beach barefoot watching the sun set over the Phi Phi islands while you chose which place to go and have dinner.  It was a very relaxing holiday and hopefully we'll go back there again one day.

[scoobydoo]

I think what we learned is that we are not resort people.  I booked the Sheraton because of the kids club and the baby elephants.  The elephants were cool.  We also went too early in the season.  We were hoping we were close enough to the end of the monsoons that we'd be okay but it rained the first couple days and intermittently after that which put a damper on things.  Phuket didn't even come close to the sheer physical beauty of Railay.  We would go back to Railay in a second.  Next time we will go to Lanta or Phi Phi.

We talked to the concierge about laundry.  The guy showed us the rates and said that some larger families like to send laundry out and showed us a whole different set of rates that were much cheaper.  We took the laundry back for that service only to find out when it was returned that it went through the hotel's laundry at hotel laundry prices.  When we questioned it, they said it couldn't have happened that way.  Maybe it was a true mix up but it left a nasty taste in our mouths.  After that we just went to the little shop on the beach(where we should have started).  We talked to some people from Singapore who had rented a car and drove themselves around.  I wish we had realized that was a workable solution.  All in all a disappointing trip.

[Sheraton or Marriott?]

I was just about to book the Sheraton, is it better at the Marriott?  I was also drawn to the 2 elephants at the Sheraton, thought my kids would love it.

Our last trip to Phuket was at the Holiday Inn, so we don't mind staying at a resort this time.

[IMHO]

Marriott wins hands down for us.  Both are purpose-built resorts, but I much prefer the Marriott than the plastic Laguna area.  Marriott is newer and significantly less run down than the Sheraton.  We prefer the apartments than the hotel rooms at the Marriott though, because we have a few children and it gives us more freedom.

Marriott does not have elephants anymore though, if that is really important to you.  Also, Jim Thomson by the Marriott is a regular store, I enjoyed shopping at the outlet near the Sheraton. 

[Is Marriott]

Is Marriott the one in Patong?

[IMHO]

I mean the Beach Club up north of the airport.  Have never been to the Patong one.

[Frequent traveller]

The deal about Taxi. There is a group of "secret society" that controls the taxi supplies within Phuket. This is why, the only place you can get a meter taxi is from the Airport. Sometimes, the cabbies will offer you a name-card so that they can do the return transfer, but the price will be an inflatted rate instead of meter rate.

My fav option is to take a meter taxi to whichever hotel I am staying, rent a motorbike to get around (Around S$5-7/day) and arranged for a taxi back from one of the travel agency. You can take the bus as well. However, the time taken to reach the airport is twice the time taken via a taxi because the bus have to go around picking everyone up before heading to the airport.

If you choose to stay in a remote resort (around Laguna area), you pay for the higher price resorts and the transportation. Most people visit the remote resorts to get away from the crowd. Plus, if you can afford paying $500/night, what's $25 for taxi?