evor1

Traveling to phuket next month and looking at places to stay. I see some dirt cheap places. They look nice in the pictures but are they any good in reality?

anyways if you have any recommendations regardless of price i'll check it out. thanks

obscure2k

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Obscure2k
Moderator-Luxury Hotels

bwiadca

What's your daily hotel budget and which area are you trying to stay?

evor1

an area with night life but i dont know if we will choose patong. is it worth going for a first timer? seems thats the typical tourist spot. leaning towards karon. up to liek 400 per night would be fine. what would be the beneefits over a 200 per night place though?

Schweden

Yikes, 14,000 Baht per night during the rainy season? The only hotel in Thailand that I'd pay that much for is the Four Seasons Chiang Mai.

BigE

Evor1: I'm try to figure out whether you meant 200 vs. 400 Baht (i.e., $6 to 12) or 200 vs. 400 dollars. The former seems a bit cheap, whereas the latter is ridiculous even for high season. Normally, the choice is between $20 guesthouses vs. $60 resorts (independent) vs. $90 resorts (Novotel, Pullman, Grand Mercure) vs. $120 resorts (JW Marriott, Renaissance, Westin, etc.). Tripadvisor will tell you most of what you need to know.

You can find many clean, well-located, spacious A/C rooms in Patong this time a year for $20 a night all-in (maybe as low as $11), if you don't need a pool or fancy soaps. Many guesthouses don't show up on internet searches, but many do.

Patong is much better for nightlife than Karon or the other nearby small beaches, but the latter are more peaceful. Most things in the Phuket touristy areas are way over-priced compared to other places in Thailand, even the beach towns (Hua Hin, Samui, Pattaya, Koh Chang, etc.). I think there are better choices of destination, but Phuket is fine if you're not price sensitive. It is relatively easy to get to.

SK AAR

September would be low season for Phuket and hotel rates will be very reasonable. Here are a few tips - in addition to Tripadvisor which will provide all the info that you are looking for.

For Patong try the Holiday Inn Express which is quite new, and has very good rates. The breakfast could be better though. For higher quality, try The Nap on the same street, which is a great hotel; one of my favorites in Patong. The Millennium Patong is also very good, but a bit pricy; ambience is very good though and great sw.pool and gym.

For Karon you should stay at the Hilton; a huge but very nice property with several swimming pools. Near Karon beach (but be careful swimming in the ocean this time of the year; treturous currents)

RustyC

I liked Patong Resort at $60-ish in high season. It's one of the long-running older places and therefore one of few with a prime location AND enough land for garden wings, outdoor pools and stuff like that. It's also only a block from the beach and a block from Bangla Rd. Newer places in that area don't have the land, and many of them are too far inland, IMO.

You could also do like the Kardashians and get some 5-star place on a cove beach and rent some SUV to get around. September is definitely not the greatest time of year to go, but at least crowds and prices will be down.

Kagehitokiri

must be $400 right? which is only just shy of amanpuri/trisara, unless free night offer

sri panwa may start around $400

many on FT value luxury properties, and many do not (similar to valuing F/J or not)

where kardashians stayed can include SUV in rates, and at least 2 on FT stayed there