We spent 3 weeks (!!) at the Royal Bangsak Resort. We have small children (2,5 and 4,5 years old) and found the hotel very pleasant and peaceful. Perfect if you travel with small children, and don´t mind spending your holiday with Scandinavians.

We enjoyed the quiet location and the amazing stretch of beach with so to speak no people. The swimming pool located just by the beach was a big plus for our little family: we could switch between "pool life" and "beach life" as we pleased with no extra effort.

Nice and friendly staff. We ate only twice at the hotel during our stay; preferred the beach restaurants Coco Beach and Khai both for lunch and dinner. Good food and reasonable prices.

Rooms are spacious, and traveling with small children the room was very ok. Nothing fancy, but just what you need. Fridge and TV, and bottles of water delivered everyday. Also fresh beach towels when you need it.

Drawback: internett access was not good. Small "internet room" with to PC´s for the guests. First two weeks we got a poor connection now and then - third week we had to pay to access the internet. As an "online" family trying to combine holiday with checking work related stuff in the evenings it would be a really big plus if there where free broadband connection available in the room/public area. Not a big cost - but means a lot.

All in all we where very pleased with our stay. The beach is great! Can recommend this hotel to families who wants something comfortable and not looking for "too fancy". Prices for drinks, ice cream etc. is 1/3 than what you pay at more upscale places such as the Meridien for instance.

After having island jumped we spend one week at The Royal Bangsak Beach Resort. And it was an anticlimax. Maybe the experience was coloured from the beautiful islands and nice bungalows, but the feeling of not being wellcome was strong. No personality and no Thai spirit. The rooms were nice and big and had a good bathroom with a great shower. Unfortunately they were so humid that it was unpleasant to stay there. Went to bed with wet hair one night, and it was still wet in the morning! All our clothes were moist. We started in a room on ground florr and moved to one on first floor, as they ment it would better the problem, and maybe it did a bit, but I would recommend to ask for a room on the top floor.
The food is like the hotel, without personality, pretty much tasteless and about double the price compared to Coco Bar and Khais rest. on the beach. Would highly recommend to eat and drink at those two places. Good basic thai food, cheap and really cosy surroundings! But don't expect a lot of beach restaurants as in other areas, there is only a few within walking distance.
BUT the pool is great (even though they play the same music from morning till night everyday, which drives you crazy!) and the beach beautiful! Had some great walks and found a small bay shielded by big rocks in the water, where the children could swim and play without worrying about waves. Had some wonderful walks on the beach and nice swims. The water is not crystal clear, but still nice and warm, and without jellyfish which was a problem in central Khao Lak.
Book daytrips from Coco Bar or agents in Khao Lak. They're just as good and more resonable priced.
Would I recommend this hotel? Not really. Didn't like the atmosphere and would prefer a smaller resort. But if you don't mind a standard resort adjusted for europeans you might just like it. Did enjoy the beach very much though!

This hotel is quite pleasant and probably meets all the expectations of all the Scandinavian package tourists that stay here.

If you want to use this as a travelling base and reach the Khao Sok national park from here you may be disappointed.
The hotel is < 5km away from the rainbow falls - and you can rent free bikes to get there. However there are only standard day tours on offer to Khao Sok - which are Ok but somewhat bland ( i suspect our tour did mainly activities around the park to avoid paying the entrance fee - but we got our elephant ride) . We could not get to the Cheow Lan lake - despite being only 60km away. The tour operator at the hotel did not really want to search for an independent taxi driver ( coco Beach and Khat Seafood next door on the beach offer these services but we found out too late -- you can communicate with them via FB cocobeach Khaolak thailand should you decide to stay here to organize things in advance)

Positive:
+ fun beachwalking , pretty relatively remote location
+ really pretty rooms - well designed hotel
+ you can book it independently via their web / paypal and this process works well
+ Coco Beach next door is good food / cocktails / service

Not perfect:
- chaotic and staff a bit stretched in the XMAs period
- the food is not that great if you are not a meat eater ( they had a very limited choice of fish eg on their XMAS buffet and ran out )

If staying here at XMAs, there is the mandatory XMAs party - which is aimed at families with (small) children - which is fine as it is their audience - but if you are forced to pay 4400Baht to join in you may not be satisfied.

I love this hotel and the wonderful setting with the white sandy beach with cristal clear water on one side and the green beautiful mountains on the other. This middleclass hotel has the potential to be a real gem and we have been here 4 times the last couple of years. Nice to be alone in or to bring your family. This hotel is located a bit outside Khao Lak in a calm area and you could walk on the long amazing beautiful beach for hours without any disturbance of jetskis or parachuters or salesmen offering their gods. Often you have the beach all to your self and that is an fantastic and unusual feeling these days. The staff are extremly friendly and eager to help you at all times. There is daily transports to Khao Lak if you want to and the hotel also arranges trips to Similan Island or othter islands for snorkeling etc. This is a must see retret and i could really recomend everyone to apent some time in this friendly beautiful place.