I find it hard to believe that anyone would really enjoy staying here for their honeymoon for two weeks as previous reviewers have stated. It's a strange hotel on a sleepy, undistinguished piece of beach. The hotel itself has an impressive entrance with a flight of stairs that leads to reception. We arrived without a reservation and asked to see a few rooms. The hotel is a series of very long adjacent buildings perpendicular to the beach. The staff seemed uninterested in showing us rooms close to the beach. It's a far walk the clerk complained. We finally got them to show us a room in the building closest to the beach and the pool. The room was perplexingly large. There was one large bed, a desk, a chair and great deal of empty space. Perhaps for another bed or a sofa, but instead it was empty. The floor was a rather dull tile, nothing special. The bathroom had a tub and a shower but despite being recent construction already seemed faded. The room was on the ground level, thus no view. The patio doors spilled out onto the garden area with a view of nothing but some grass and shrubs. There was a set of seats and a table outside. Seemed nice enough to lounge around after a swim or a before dinner drink but if you are at all looking for a quiet spot, forget it. You can hear the sound of trucks grinding their gears up and down the hill on the main road. It's the kind of thing that drives me nuts, but other people might not notice. My feeling is why travel thousands of miles to come to "paradise" and hear trucks going by. It makes no sense.
There's a quite pleasing looking pool near the beach. But it has such odd hours. I can't remember exactly, but I think it closed at around 730 or 8. No night swimming. And it didn't open early in the morning either.
The beach is white sand and all that, but there isn't much a of a landscape to look at. The hotel provides white plastic chairs with cushions to sit on.
There was a game room with ping pong and paid internet.
The dinner seemed overpriced so we went to the little beach hut next door where the food was serviceable and cheaper and gracious service. There was nothing else to speak of along the beach. This area was devastated by the tsunami and doesn't seem to have bounced back.
Breakfast was included and that was a big buffet style affair. The food was decent, but nothing to write home about. It's served in the dining room near the reception area so far from the beach. They have a dining area near the beach but it's not open for breakfast. It just seems lazy.
The basics were fine. It was clean. No bugs or anything like that.
Bottom line, spend up for something nicer if you are staying for awhile.
- Royal Bangsak Beach Hotel
