Just spent a week at this resort, using points. I never thought I would stay a week in Phuket but did and had a good time.

A little background first. My wife and I have been traveling through SE Asia for the last two months and never stayed anywhere more than 3 nights. Right before we came to Phuket, we were at the Hilton in Hanoi which is a nice business hotel in Vietnam. I say this because up until the time in Vietnam, we've basically been staying in $10/night guesthouses.

We booked the 4+1 points promo and quickly added another night because we wanted to relax. Spent thew first day lounging around the beach and pool. I would say this is one of the nicest beaches in Thailand and certainly Phuket. Very private especially considering that all Thai beaches are "public". The pools are very large as well and hardly anybody uses them. Virtually empty.

The rooms are very modern with 42" LCD tvs, minibars and comfortable beds. We were not upgraded though they said we could later in the week when something opened up but we didn't take them up on it. OUr room was fine though we didn't have much of a view.

We spent the next 3 days diving and so didn't use the hotel for much. but because we enjoyed the last day there so much, we went back online and booked one more night and relaxed for another day.

Yes, there are a lot of russians but other than noticing a lot of chubby and fat men with beautiful. model quality girlfriends, they didn't act any differently than any other tourist. Certainly no crazy parties. The manager said the clientele is 30% russian.

Is the food overpriced? Well, yes it is out of line with the rest of Thailand but then again you're going to LM to have a slice of home in Thailand so what do you want? Pizzas that are very good and from the wood-fired grill are $8-$9 (290-330 Baht). Burgers with fries are about $10. For somebody used to spending about $1 on food in Thailand did these prices hurt? Yes. Did I find them outrageous? No. The quality is good, especially when you consider what a normal Thai "Burger" generally is when it costs 1/3 the price. (BTW - the Hilton in Hanoi had a fabulous burger.) They have buffet dinners at one restaurant for 890 or 1400 baht based on the meal and includes entertainment - way out of our price range though so we didn't try)

The service was great all around. We were also invited to a cocktail party with the manager and other gold guests? that stayed a week or were there on a friday? It was a small group and the manager was nice and the cocktails were great. It lasted about an hour.

Re: taxi. Yes. They are expensive and like every other nice hotel in Thailand, if you go through their "official taxi service" you totally overpay...They wanted 300 baht ($8!) to get to Patong, about 2 km away. This kind of stuff happens everywhere though but Patong seems to be especially bad. We hoofed it to the road and bargained a deal of 100 baht into town. That wa the cheapest ride we took durig our stay in Phuket (which hurt because in probably ever other town in Thailand you can taxi or tuk tuk for about 50 baht for about 3-5kms. Taxis back wouldn't even talk to us for less than 200. We tried many and they weren't interested. I was surprised. So anyway, plan on 200 each eay and don't use the hotel svc.

I had two real annoyances at the hotel. They were that internet is a whopping $10/hour. Even in Patong where Internet is 1.5-2B/min, this seems a little crazy. Needless to say, we never used the internet at the hotel. The other was that they wanted 500 baht ($15!) for a deck of playing cards! We ended up paying 200 ($6) baht in town for two decks of cards.

So I recommend this hotel. We thought it was a great time and a good place for a secluded hotel (ie private beach) in Phuket. For the people ripping this hotel, I don't know what to say. You almost convinced me not to go but I'm glad you didn't. Enjoy