I have just returned from a two week stay at the Royal Bangsak Beach Resort booked via a Thomson package. Below are some comments and tips which might be helpful for others contemplating a similar holiday.
Travel:
1) The Thomson Fly flight was good. Punctual (at least in this instance), with 33" of leg room - or 37" if you upgrade. Food was quite reasonable and the cabin crew were considerate. Only real drawback is that the seats are narrow so hope you don't get a prop forward sitting next to you!!
2) The flight puts down in Al Ain for about 1 hour. This is a benefit since it breaks the flight up; allows you to stretch your legs and enables smokers to have a mid-flight light up.
3) Al Ain possesses a small but well stocked duty free shop where it will pay you to purchase your duty free supplies viz:
1 Litre Beefeaters/Gordons gin £8-50 (Gatwick); £10-00 (Plane); £5-50 (Al Ain).
400 Superkings £35 (Gatwick); £22-00 (Plane); £12-10 (Al Ain).
Hotel:
The hotel is well managed with friendly, helpful staff whose only shortcoming is a poor grasp of english. The rooms are good, spacious, well furnished and clean. It is I believe worth upgrading since it grants both a sea view and increased privacy in the form of an enclosed balcony rather than an open terrace.
The grounds are underdeveloped at present (hotel has only been open a year) and could do with some improvement - extra plants and flowering bushes to add colour.
Food is quite acceptable but (with 10% service and 7% VAT added) some 3/4 times the price of the same dishes of an equal or better quality purchased outside at independent restaurants.
Breakfasts are quite adequate with a wide range of cooked and uncooked choice.
Previous reviews of this hotel have reported a serious lack of sun loungers. This has now been largely resolved with loungers available for all comers provided they get down to the beach by 10:30
The jewel in the crown of this hotel is its location. Set in splendid isolation on a 4 mile stretch of lovely beach you can either lie on your sunbed and enjoy the view and the tranquility or you can walk for an hour and only encounter a handful of people.
There is a plentiful supply of restaurants in Khao Lak all of which seem to provide a wide range of choice, well cooked with good quality fresh ingredients. Closer to home if you turn right on the beach and yomp for 30 minutes - or stroll for 40 minutes - you will come to a beachside restaurant that serves superb seafood and Thai dishes at appetising prices. Additionally the owner - Dom -will collect and return you free of charge to the Royal Bangsak if you book with him for dinner.
I recommend that you book your trips down in Khao Lak and not via the Hotel or Thomsons. For diving/snorkeling trips to the Similan and Surin islands the best place we found by far was Khao Lak Asia Tours. For half the price of that quoted by Thomsons we experienced two superb outings that it would be difficult to better in any respect.
Overall we thoroughly recommend this hotel and package as excellent value for money.

If the whole idea of travelling 14 hours to get to Thailand puts you off, really it is so worth it.
The hotel is out of town and away from the main resorts, so you get away from all the main tourist areas.
We arrived at Bangsak in the afternoon and check in was quick the thai staff are all so friendly and smiley.
The room was lovely, spacious and clean. Though we did find that the maids standards did slip throughout our stay. There is a safe and a full size fridge in the room. The pool wasnt clean on the first couple of days but over the 2 weeks we were there it improved.
The beach where the resort is set on is amazing, it goes for miles and there and no other resorts to the right, you can walk for hours and see only a few people.
We only ate in the restaurant for dinner on our first night, the food was good, service was a little bit slow but it was busy. Beware of the 10% service charge and 7% tax they add onto the price of everything.
Breakfast was good, though i would recommend getting there before 9am, as they do not have a lot of tables and the food runs out a lot quicker.
We recommend going into Khao Lak, for the evening there is a shuttle bus which runs at 6pm which will cost 100 baht each person. If you get a taxi it cost 300-400 baht. There is a wide range of restaurants in town, we went to all the Thai ones, Dragons is the best, it is run by a family who are lovely. A 2 course meal with beer for 2 people will cost you about 500 baht (About 8 pounds).
I would recommend hiring a moped as it only cost 250 baht for 24 hours, though do make sure you take a helmet. You can get to explore the whole area (and get lost in the jungle like we did!)

We went on a liveaboard to the Similan Islands, Koh Tachai, Koh Bon and Richelieu rock for 4 days with Similan Diving Safaris, which I would highly recommed if you are a diver.

I would advise to book any excursions in Khao Lak with the locals. The rep from our hotel forgot to put us on one excursion so we were not too pleased. The companies in Khao Lak have a much wider range of excursions and they are cheaper.
We would of loved to have stayed longer as there are so many wonderful places in Thailand.

We would return to this hotel as the location and staff were what made it for us.

We recently returned from a fortnight at the Royal Bangsak Beach resort in Khao Lak, Thailand. We booked a package with Thomson which at £612 per person for flights and B&B accommodation was a real bargain.

We had seen some mixed reviews of the hotel, but were very pleasantly surprised. The rooms were large, modern, clean and spacious with a full size fridge and plenty of room to keep those beers chilled. There are natural lagoons and lots of birdlife in the gardens for nature lovers.

The pool area is nice but got a bit more crowded during Christmas week, but the beach has more than enough room, and in the first week often felt almost desterted - very nice and relaxing. Only criticism was that there could have been more loungers available.

The staff were all very friendly and did their best to help with any queries, though this is quite a new operation, and I think it will only get better with time.

There is a bar at the beach, but the hotel would have benefited from a bar nearer to the lobby area, as this would have increased the social possibilities in the evening.

We didn't eat in the hotel in the evening preferring to venture into town. The hotel can arrange taxi's for 400baht one way or 700baht return, or you can pick up a card locally.

There are a couple of places to eat near to the hotel. For lunch we would go out of the hotel, turn left and walk a few hundred yards up the road to a little place where they rustled up a good stir fry.and the best thai seafood salad in town (Yum Thalay) They speak limited English but were getting a menu pulled together. We settled for a lot of pointing but weren't disappointed. As you would expect it's all thai food but they do chicken fried rice or phad thai noodles etc if you prefer less hot food. Costs here were 30 / 40 baht for a stir fry and 40 baht for a large bottle of Chang - give it a try.

If you turn right and walk along the beach for half an hour there are a number of restaurants on Bang Sak Beach, popular with the locals. The first one we came to had a menu with English translations but otherwise thay have been known to phone a friend. A bike can be hired at the hotel for 100baht each and it
takes just 10 mins to cycle (left out of the hotel and left after the schooll) Worth a try - great food and very reasonable prices.

Favourite restaurant in town was Jai - for me the best dish was the Mussaman Curry with Squid (80baht) and they did a mean fried fish with Thai curry (200 baht for a big fish to serve 2 or 3). The Dragon and Khao lak Seafood were also very good - we didn't have a bad meal anywhere to be fair.

Of the bars in town - our favourite was the Lazy Bar (near the Majestic Shops). Be careful not to miss it or you could end up in the Lady Bar by mistake! Guy runs a very professional set up and her husband Gap keeps everyone well entertained with a nightly guitar set. They looked after us well (as did Lyn and Laura) - thanks all.

Other nice bars were the Happy Snapper - quite a backpacker scene but good band when we were there and a good atmosphere. Also worth a visit were the Tarzan Bar and D-Time.

Khao Lak is a great place, lovely people, good beaches, nice food, so all in all a good place to invest your holiday money.

Just returned from our honeymoon at the Royal Bangsak Beach Resort. Upgraded to a Deluxe room which was well worth the extra money.

If you're looking for a get away from it all holiday then this is the place for you. Hotel is situated 12km north of Khao Lak town, about a 10 minute taxi ride costing 300-400 baht. Set on a 4.5 mile stretch of beach that is virtually deserted you really can escape. Would recommend getting up early for breakfast, good selection but does run out quickly. Also, if you want a sunbed get to the pool early as there are not that many available.

Pool bar serves limited snacks, would recommend going outside the hotel and walking to some of the little local Thai restaurants, excellent value!

Good selection of bars and restaurants in Khao Lak, can highly recommend The Viking, excellent Thai and international food, if you are missing home cooking they do a wiked Aussie steak and massive pizzas.

If you're looking at having made to measure suits etc. go to see Monty the Tailor in Khao Lak, within 3 days we had our new suits ready to take home. Excellent service and value.

If you want a lively holiday and to go clubbing every night then this is NOT the place for you. If you want to relax, unwind and chill out in a 3-4 star hotel then the Royal Bangsak is a must.