Our family (2 adults, 2 kids) has just returned from a week staying at the Laguna Beach Resort in Phuket. We travelled with friends who also had 2 young children and we all had a fabulous time. The resort was clean, comfortable, relaxing and in a great location. Our room was beautiful with a king size bed and enough space to have a portacot at the other end of the room and the daybeds made into a special little sleeping retreat for our four year old. We had adjoining rooms with our friends so the kids were able to play and adults could catch up and make plans easily.
The resort pool was a highlight for both families. The waterslide gave us hours of entertainment (from our 20 month old to those of us over 30)! The swim up bar also served fabulous cocktails and great lunches.
The beach huts backing right onto the resort meant we were able to do some shopping for clothes, sunnies, trinkets etc without the need to venture too far and massages were also available on the beach for amazing prices ($10AUD/hr). We did take a trip into Patong one lunchtime to shop. The resort arranged us a taxi which they also did for our trip to Fantasea and Splash Jungle Waterpark. The taxi companies in Australia could certainly learn a thing or two from those in Phuket particularly when it comes to cleanliness and friendliness!
There was a boat or a bus which you could take free of charge to tour around the Laguna properties. We did go on the boat across to Canal Village for lunch and a look but never ventured further as we spent so much time in the pool and on the beach. If we had more time we would have gone and checked out the neighbouring resort facilities. There was a resident baby elephant Meena who we could feed, pat and even ride every morning which was an experience in itself. On our last day we were also able to enjoy a 15 min family ride on an adult elephant.
The breakfasts included in our package were incredible, we ate so much that we rarely needed lunch and just opted for an early dinner.
The only negative we would say is that there was very little evening entertainment or activities at the resort. We found we were in our room reading or sleeping once we put the kids to bed and there wasn't anything to go out for. That certainly made for a quiet and restful stay which we can't complain about! At times there were also language difficulties with the staff at reception but they were always helpful.
We would definitely recommend this resort to other families. It is far enough away from Patong and the busier areas that you feel completely relaxed and are not innundated by people selling their wares. By the same token everything we wanted to visit was only about a 30min taxi ride away (e.g Fantasea, Splash Jungle, Phi Phi Island Day tour, Patong shopping).

Went to Laguna Beach Feb 2011 with my two children. We were given a upgrade to our room overlooking the pool as soon as we got there. The rooms were really big and very comfortable.The hotel was very welcoming and luckily on my birthday which i do not think was by design we were invited to the Manager's cocktail party. The staff were all very friendly. It was very easy to get taxis and transport from the hotel to the nearest small town, which was where we bought lots of extras for our room. We only had band b as we know from previous trips to Thailand its better to eat out and much cheaper. We definitely recommend Lulus bar on the beach for snacks drinks, so cheap and sometimes we even ate there of an evening. Lovely place to watch the sun go down and look at the scenery. The hotel does not offer much in the way of entertainment but that suited us fine. The kids loved the two swimming pools. I would definitely recommend this hotel for caring staff, attentiion to cleanliness etc and would go back.

This review is somewhat belated as we stayed at this resort in the summer of 2011 but I was booking a holiday this year and decided to go back and do a review.

Put simply, if your going to Phuket, this is a great resort to book if you have kids. It has a great kids club and loads of other stuff to do but the pool and water slide is its big draw. There are a number of restaurants onsite that are good but not outstanding and the bar is friendly but expensive (but happy hours help). The staff are without fail friendly and good fun and the guys in the bar always made us massively welcome and I was sorry to say goodbye.

In front of the hotel on the edge of the beach were a number of hawker huts selling food, drinks and clothes with a couple doubling up as incredibly cheap bars / cafes facing the sea. The food and drink was tasty and the prices were a fifth of what they were in the hotel.

We did two tours organised by the hotel and they were excellent. Its well worth using Laguna tours - you will find cheaper but I thought that the two we did were brilliantly organised and run. Things in Thailand can sometimes get a little crazy and you want to know you are in safe, experienced hands.

Now the one big negative. The beach (and by that I mean almost every beach we saw) was nothing short of disgraceful, covered in rubbish which seemed to wash up every day and we had to walk past broken and smashed bottles on a couple of occasions. I don't why this was so bad and I have been trying to find out but I certainly had no wish to lay on the beach at any time.

The only other drawback is that the Laguna resort is kind of out on its own. Yes there are other hotels and there is a small village nearby but this was pretty quiet and there was no real nightlife whatsoever. This may have been because of the time of year.

All in all we had an absolutely fantastic holiday. We made some great friends in the resort (there were a number of different nationalities staying there) and almost everyone from guests to staff were courteous and friendly

I have stayed at the Laguna Beach Resort many many times and love it. However I have tried to make a booking for Christmas 2012 and have been advised by a Travel Agent that the resort is closed from May ? and there is no provision to book any dates in Jan 2013 either.
Does anyone know whats going on? -