MajulahMadooba

I'm in Singapore and have been testing workcations ranging from 4 days to 9 days (1 week + 1 weekend), especially in a week where there is a holiday in the middle. I put my remote work days here.

The ideal hotel for me for these workcations is a non-premium 5-star hotel like a Movenpick or Pullman that is a beachfront resort (not one near a beach but not quite a hotel with a beachfront or a usable beach, such as a number of Accor properties in Bali, Indonesia where you have to look at the photos carefully). You can get a refreshing work space near the beach for US$100-150/night, plus a Gold/Platinum room upgrade. Not looking for a Sofitel or Raffles on these stays.

Are there any particularly recommended properties in Southeast Asia that fit the above description? I say Southeast Asia because any property within a 2 hour flight of Singapore is an easy pick. Is there a way to search only beach hotels within Southeast Asia in the ALL app?

It's not so simple because, for example, the only participating Accor ALL property in the Philippines is Movenpick Boracay. It's a lovely 5-star hotel with okay restaurants (and the hotel next door has the top Argentinian restaurant in the country) and a great white sand beach. However, it's on an island with no international airport and is only feasible if you happen to be in Manila anyway for at least a couple of weeks. It's also slightly more expensive than some other Accor beach hotels. (Another Accor hotel that is not feasible unless already in Vietnam is Novotel Phu Quoc.)

Initial list would be (note a number of "beach" hotels are not directly beside the beach):

INDONESIA
- Pullman Bali Legian Beach
- Sofitel Bali Nusa Dua Beach Resort

THAILAND
- Pullman Phuket Panwa Beach Resort
- Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach
- Sofitel Krabi Phokeethra Golf & Spa Resort (limited flights)
- Veranda Resort Pattaya - MGallery (limited flights)

VIET NAM
- Pullman Danang Beach Resort (limited flights)

ruff00

Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach
Very close to the airport, which made it easy when I stayed a few months back.

Ocean side room was good, and an enjoyable view.
There are two pools, both full of children... they really need to make one an adults only pool.

The Italian restaurant was good.

The breakfasts very busy. But good selection. Just a lot of people.

The beach is a 2 min walk away.

If the rate was good, I would stay again. But, I would not want to spend too much money on it.

billabong

Vietnam:
Movenpick Phu Quoc
La Veranda Resort Phu Quoc - MGallery

Thailand:
Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach

MajulahMadooba

Phu Quoc is harder to get to if not flying in from within Vietnam right?

BinSabai

Pullman Phuket Arcadia and Sofitel Krabi: at both is a street between beach and the hotel. The former was just taken over by Accor; the latter has the largest swimming pool I have ever seen and is a beautiful colonial style hotel

you might add the Movenpick Siam Na Jomtien, which is at the beach, around 15km south of Pattaya. Nice balconies, got upgrade to suite. has a great steak restaurant. many local sea food restaurants in the area

80proofGalleyCart

If by harder, you mean not having access to a large volume of flights -- there are over a dozen SGN-PQC nonstop flights from 6am-9.30pm daily -- that are priced according to the demand for them (ie, quite cheap, even when bought last minute) then, yeah, it is. By contrast, BKK-PQC is once daily and sells out frequently.

MajulahMadooba

OK I did not understand the PQC leg. Accor does not present SEA properties in a way that is helpful to someone travelling around SEA.

80proofGalleyCart

Agree, I even find it makes selecting a property in large cities difficult unless you know exactly what area you want to stay. But they do have an excellent footprint including the best-located, best-value airport hotel for Tan Son That Airport in Ho Chi Minh City: Ibis Saigon Airport, thread on it here. While SGN is a bit of dump airside, it's a really easy airport to do overnight or extended transfers from with the domestic and international terminals quite easy to walk between --- unlike in Hanoi, where they may as well be different airports.

SullyofDoha

Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach is stunning. Unfortunately no club floor but the Italian restaurant is nice and they treat Platinum members really well.
The Movenpick on Boracay looks like it is on a beautiful beach too!

MajulahMadooba

Tried Pullman Bali Legian Beach and felt ripped off by the Accor website in the context that I was specifically looking for a beach hotel.

Property is lovely, but it arguably has everything but a beach you'd want to swim or wade in. It's across the street from a public beach where bars and surf instructors set up, and it is very different from waking up to a sunrise swim at a quiet beachside hotel. The public beach is in the most crowded part of Bali, and the pattern of currents sends a lot of garbage to wash up on the beach during this time of the year. Although the front desk said it's safe to swim in the water, my taxi driver said they clean the beach at 5:30 AM every day and there are photos on the internet of tractors pushing away literal piles of plastic and other trash that washed up.

Property has a beautiful garden and grounds where they set up an outdoor movie screening every evening. It has as relatively large gym and an infinity pool overlooking the beach from the 3rd floor. It has a beautiful, large spa (except I feel ripped off because the facilities such as the jacuzzi are all not working, just the massage rooms, and the staff said they were never repaired after the pandemic). Rooms are also larger than usual, although there is no office table and chair if you want to try to do some work on a laptop. Traffic is now also so bad to the location that instead of the claimed 20 minute drive from the airport, it took me 80 minutes.

So it's a great property that happens to have everything but the one thing I want for a beach staycation -- an attached beach to swim in! It has the gym, but the spa facilities are not working and the massage I got was pretty weak.

I'll have to check out Pullman Phuket but so far, Movenpick Boracay is hard to match for nice staycation (but for lack of a direct flight, like PQ).

MajulahMadooba

How hard is this to get to? Not hard if you fly into Bangkok?

3544quebec

I always take the hotel-provided toothbrush with me to clean the patch of sand I am going to be occupying

SullyofDoha

I see what you did there! LOL

BinSabai

easy to get to the Movenpick Na Jomtien. They have extended the highway and it is now only a 1.5 hours ride from BKK, just 5 km from an exit

kurodak

I am also looking for an affordable beach resort hotel.
The Mercure Hotel in Kota Kinabalu is a mid-range hotel, old building, not a good breakfast, not beachfront, but a 15 minute board ride to a remote island beach right on the pier. I spent a week's work vacation there and was satisfied overall because of the low cost of accommodations.
Next time I plan to vacation at a Novotel or Pullman hotel in Lombok, Indonesia.