Arrival
Our first time in Thailand and we loved every minute of this holiday! Would highly recommend this hotel and staying in Karon. Arrived at the Centara Karon Resort and was greeted with a welcome drink. The hotel reception staff don't speak great Engish but enough to get by. On arrival they asked to take credit card details and passports but don’t worry about this, you don’t get charged for anything. The reception was very impressive and it didn't take long to get sorted and escorted to our room.

Rooms
I was pleasantly surprised with our rooms as they didn't look anything special on the Trip Advisor pictures but they were much nicer than expected. Nice modern rooms, Panasonic flat screen Tv, a few decent channels,clean comfy bed, marble bathroom and plenty of space. We upgraded to the lagoon rooms and we are glad we did although I don’t think you would have any problems in the terrace rooms we just preferred the look of the lagoon wing. We were very close to reception and the center of Karon, it only took us a few short minuets to walk to the restaurants, shops and bars from our room.

Pool
Although we stayed in the lagoon wing we preferred the terrace pool because it was quieter and there were not as many kids. The pool area was lovely to relax, no problems getting sunbeds and towels always available. The surrounding gardens were immaculate.

Breakfast
The breakfast was nice and varied. There was something for everyone from pancakes, waffles, toast, beans, egg, omelet ect. There were so many fantastic, cheap restaurants in Karon that we never felt the need to eat in the hotel restaurants.

Weather
We stayed at the end of rainy season – October 23rd – November 6th, w had 7 days of constant sunshine and no rain, the next 7 days were still lovely but we had a bit of rain in the morning and in the night. Don’t worry though, there is so much to do even when it’s raining!

Hotel Prices
It is true that the hotel charged about double the price for everything compared to eating out locally. A bottle of beer was about £2.60 however outside the hotel a beer was between £1.20- £2.00 depending on where you go. This was not a problem for us we just decided not to buy anything from the hotel. If you take advantage of the money offer then it probably works out the same price as eating locally.

Eating out
Karon has plenty of places to eat great food. We tried different restaurants every day and always had a fantastic meal. Good places to eat include Bamboo, Two Chefs, Demarios, Papaya, Karon Seafood, Angus OTools, Karon Pizza (best pizza I have ever had), Green Chillies and the list goes on. My favorites were Bamboo & Two Chefs – they were very classy, amazing food and Two Chefs had the best entertainment in Karon. The Thai food is unbelievable – green, red, yellow curry, rice, pad thai, tom yum soup, deep fried prawns!... Also try the banana pancake stall, they are very cheap and delicious. Food is very cheap usually about £5 each for lunch/dinner. Drinks were more expensive however local beer (Singa, Chang, Tiger) were very cheap (60baht-100baht) and even cheaper at the supermarkets (30baht). Two Chefs did a fantastic frozen Margarita for 95 baht (less than £2). Good Tip - Eat at places that look busy! We didn’t go to Patong as we had heard it was not very nice but we did go to Kata (via Tuk Tuk 200baht) which I would highly recommend.

Karon Beach
It only took a few minutes to get the beach from the hotel and the beach was beautiful! I have read mixed reviews about the beach before I came and wasn’t sure what to expect but after seeing it I don’t really know how anyone can complain. Crystal clear water, white sand that squeaks when you walk on it and fantastic scenery – what more could you ask for? It was very clean and sunbeds were reasonable (200baht a pair for the day - £4). At the end of October the sea was very calm and we were able to do some good snorkeling at the end of the beach near the rocks.

Trips & things to do
There is soo much to do in Thailand. I would highly recommend Ko Phi Phi, James Bond Islands, Elephant trekking and our favorite Similan Islands where we swam with sea turtles. If the tour guides are a bit late picking you up don’t worry it seems to be the norm, we waited 45 minutes one morning but the hotel staff assured us that this was normal. We also had a thai massage but be warned this is not like a western massage and we were a bit surprised that we were being walked on and pulled to pieces, it was defiantly an experience. We also tried the feet fish which was good. Don’t miss the temples that are literally a 5min walk from the hotel just up the road from red onion. Good tip – book trips at the local stalls, preferably ones that look busy. We booked all of our trips via a stall ran by a group of girls across the road from karon sea food but a bit further down towards the beach and had no issues.

To be aware of
Thailand has a lot of power cuts and whilst we were there we experienced 2 separate power cuts that affected the whole of Karon including the hotel, this was not a problem just something we didn't expect. .

Overall experience was unbelievable, loved Thailand, the people and the food. Felt very safe in Karon as it was filled with tourists from all over the world. Will definitely return but will go backpacking next time as would like to see more of Thailand.

The centara karon was the best holiday and kids loved it no complaints where are going back next year. The staff are very friendly and the rooms are kept very clean. The location is perfect if you have kids not to busy and only 5 min to the beach

well we finally arrive at are hotel the centara karon at about 7.30pm are first impressions were wow this looks nice, we were greeted by the bell boys out front and they took are laugage out of the minivan for us and kept an eye on it whilst we checked in, we went up the steps to reception and told them that we would like to check in,the lovely staff promptley showed us to some very comfertable chairs and brought us all a nice cold towl and a drink as it was increadable hot even at that time of night, i was called back to the desk and asked for my voucher i didnt know what they were on about but when we worked it out it turned out that i forgot to print one out so i had to use there computer to do so this took abit of time and we were very tied, anyway apart from that the check in was very good and as much as other people have said that there was a bad languge problem i didnt find this i was expecting this to be a problem but as far as im concened all the staff under stood and spook very good english all be it with a bit of eye squinting but we got there in the end, anyway we were shown to our rooms we asked for top floor interconecting rooms over looking the lagoon pool and that was excactley what we got, the rooms were very spacious and very clean and tidey my first impression was omg they are lovley if not perfect in every way,again all those that dare to run this hotel down dont deseve to take a holiday, the lovely lady bow i think her name was sorry if i got it wrong, she show every thing along the way to the room and showed how to use the safe wich was also included in the price of the room not extra, and she took her shoes of when entering the room as did all the staff that had to go in the room, i thought this was very respectful and was much apprecated, anyway we were left to enjoy the hotel and are holiday and every aspect of it was fantasic, we were treated exseptionaly well buy all the staff, from cleaners, to resturant to reception staff, we had lots of big smiles and sawadee ka/krap, from all staff, it was my wifes 40th birthday whilst we were there and the hotel put up balloons around are table for breakfast, total memerable and nice i almost started crying my wife was very toutched all day long people were saying happy birthday to her, but that might have something to do with the huge great badge i made her wear all day funny though, the grounds to the hotel are huge and very well maintained by the ground staff who worked very hard in the heat to keep them looking that way thankyou to you for that, as it was very hot there,the cleaners done a exceptional job every day cleaning are rooms all ways left water, and on my wifes birthday they put happy birthday on are bed in petals, lovely the breakfast was outstanding every day there was something different and the omlets that was made to order were fluffy and very tastey, as was all the food that we had there, the hotel i found was centraly located to the beach and all ameantys, i.e shops resturants, and such like, the two weeks that we spent in karon and the hotel we ate at various resturants, and not once did any of us have a upset tummy in any way, my hat goes off to all the hotel and all the resturants that we ate at, the three pools at the hotel were cleaned every morning by the pool cleaner we watched him working every day as we awake early we didnt want to miss a minute of this holiday, so much i did go to bed till about 1am and was awake by about 6am nearly every day but worth every second, im sorry to go on abit but this hotel deserves the best i can give it, any way im sure there is alot more i could write but i cant think but i think ive given you all a good idea on what to expect here, and please dont listen to the moaners on here as like i said, if they moan about a hotel like this in a tropical country they dont deserve a holiday any were to me and my family this hotel was a 4 star hotel when i think it should be a 5 star because that is the service we got and ive stayed at a 5 star hotel and didnt get service like this hotel gave us. so id like to say a BIG thankyou to all the staff at the centara karon and i will deffinetly be back in the future, and again that means something as i have never stayed at the same hotel twice, we were very sad to have to go. highly recomended A1 hotel, oh and sorry about the spelling mistakes. :):):):):)

We booked April for November stay in Superior Oceon View Terrace but on arrival at 1.30 am we were told we had been given upgrade , very nice we thought until daylight arrived and we were in a tropical setting overlooking pool and no oceon views .We live in Australia we have a tropical backyard but we dont have oceon views that is why we book oceon views .Went to reception to complain and were told no other room available until next day so really they did not have the room available that we booked when we arrived and the next available room wasnt even the one we had booked .We were really dissappointed as we had stayed at the Centara Grand Karon in March and no trouble with our booking .We are in our sixties and although fit we were having to climb 48 stairs up to the room .The staff however were very pleasant and helpful and the room was pleasant but I think whoever deals with bookings should get their act together.