On arrival hotel is exactly the same as brochure, staff helpful and check in quick. We had nice room on 3rd floor, plenty big enough and well appointed bathroom. I was initially pleased with pool as it was very long and as I like to swim lengths, however due to the design of the hotel being 3 large long blocks of rooms with identical pools in between each, one side of each pool sun bathing area never got any sun and although its so hot in Thailand at this time of year its not really a problem if you want to have sun the opportunity is limited, theres not a lot of sun beds, we always managed to get one but not always on the sunny side, also if you have very young children theres no dedicated very shallow pool, though there is a smaller pool at the end of one room block its still 3ft deep.The pool was tiled in dark turquoise tiles so looked quite dark. Breakfast is served in a breakfast room near the front of the complex and is rather cafeterior like although there were some nicer tables outside. Breakfast was plentiful with virtually no queues for eggs, omlettes etc and there were 4 coffee machines, and the faster bread toaster I have come across. It was not the best buffet I have experienced but really no complaints, lovely fresh fruit salad, bacon eggs cooked to order, fruit smoothie...yum! danish pasties etc. The hotel had its own restaurant at the front of the hotel which fronted the road opposite the beach, (as most of the beach front hotels seem to have) the food not the most reasonable in price but good quality, during every evening there were two bands playing alternately all evening and they were both exceptional, we went all over the city during the evenings and although quite a few eateries had live music it did not compare to the bands playing at the banthai, it was well away from the rooms so there would be no disturbance, drinks quite expensive though. Patong itself is absolutely manic with a thousand art shops, a thousand massage parlours (not sexual) millions of bars and restaurants etc. We had several massages at £4 for an hour but be warned they are not like massages in other places where you practically fall asleep, made the mistake of having a thai massage - an hour of torture, but an oil massage much gentler but still a pretty rigorous work out for the muscles, but my back and shoulder pain much much better, dont know how those small thai girls can keep working their hands for the 13hr day they do. The beach is lovely, soft white sand and very safe shallow water. Plenty of beach activities going on. The art shops are brilliant and I bought 3 pictures one painted to order from a photograph of an artist I particularly like and they are great value and can be rolled up to bring home. I would say that we revisted Karon resort which is 25 mins tuk tuk ride away and do prefer that resort its much much smaller and slightly more up market and would suit a family with young childrenfar better, its also a shorter ride from the airport. We hired a tuk tuk for the day as I wanted to go to the jewellery factory (absolutely amazing the quality, choice, designs unbelievable but as its gold and diamonds pretty expensive) if you are in the market for a quality piece of fine jewellery go.the driver waited for me for 2 hours, then we wanted to stop and do other things etc, he waited each time and all in all we had him for 5 hours and it was £20!!! So all in all the hotel is very well placed for the area, good quality rooms and food friendly, helpful staff and overall good value for money.
Room Tip: Ask for sunny side of the pool
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
