Originally Posted by
pentiumvi
Looking to visit Phuket in May next year for the first time, starting to do rough planning on hotels.
Wanted some suggestions as to where to stay in Phuket, as the hotels seem to be pretty spread out, in different regions...
We're mainly looking for a nice hotel to stay at, but will be mostly out during the day. Plan is to do some day trips to Phi Phi, Phang Nga Bay, go on a dive trip, visit city/old town if time permits. Given what we're doing, I imagine we'd want a location that's within the tour pick-up region (so I think the Renn and JW or out?).
Also, will be Plat at the time, are there any properties that provide better elite recognition?
For reference, I was initially gravitating towards either the 4P, LM, or Marriott Merlin Beach, not sure if I was on the right track or not. Although the Patong beach area.... doesn't seem like the nicest place to be.
The only other alternative Bonvoy property I see is the Marriott Nai Yang, but that looks really far away from all the activities?
Does it make sense to consider the Courtyard or the Westin instead?
Appreciate any feedback and assistance from all those that have more experience with Phuket.
We just got back home to Samui after five nights last week at the Marriott Phuket Merlin Beach. We didn't mind at all that it was stormy and sometimes torrential rain each and every day because (a) we live on Samui and have just suffered three months without a drop of rain; and (b) we were on the all inclusive rate which meant we were there to eat and drink for five days solid. I did feel for the Europeans though who had travelled long haul for their annual holiday-of-a-lifetime and were met with this weather for the week.
The view from one of our balconies
The private beach in the brief moment it wasn't actually raining
So, this is your worst case scenario next May. On the positive side, the fact it's like this meant we (as Titaniums) got a rare upgrade to one of the beach-front suites (there are only six of them IIRC) which will never happen in high season. Regarding hotels in Phuket, we were really impressed with the Marriott Merlin Beach and their all inclusive rate. I would choose it over the nearby Le Meridien as it offers a lot better value and I've never had so much as a category upgrade at LeM on the two times I stayed which admittedly were some years before the Great Plague. The FP in Patong is a nice hotel but small rooms and it's more a city/resort hotel that you'd choose if you want the kind of Thai holiday where you go out in Bangla Road every night (but then, shouldn't you go to Pattaya for all that). Merlin is close enough for the hotel to offer a free bus service to Patong (we went once this time and the taxi back was about THB300 late at night) but sufficiently far out of town with its own semi-private beach that you feel like you're in a resort away from it all in Thailand. I've nothing against Patong and it's got some decent malls for shopping so the proximity is also attractive for me.
Regarding elite recognition, we were personally greeted by the Director of Rooms when we arrived, got a free Chang beer as a welcome drink at check in, a voucher for two cocktails at the beachfront bar (which we didn't need because we were on the all inclusive rate), upgraded to the beachfront suite, and attended the weekly Bonvoy Elite drinks on the Wednesday night where they served free booze for an hour to (seemingly) all categories of elites and held a raffle in which we won an extra 4000 points that were credited immediately. We didn't ask for and weren't offered a late checkout as we were flying to Bangkok in the afternoon so 12pm was fine for us. We've had 4pm check out at the LeM Khao Lak both times we stayed there on the all inc rate so I don't know what the policy is on this at Merlin. Being a resort, it's not guaranteed.