Stayed 8 nights @ the Chedi in my honeymoon, and we enjoyed it very much. Our room was 331, near the beach, with a beautiful sea view. Please note that the higher you stay in this hotel, the worse wiew you get :). If possible, book a room near the pool, or near the beach restaurant.

The restaurant prices are ok, but you may also have dinner in the lemon grass restaurant, just outside the hotel. It was my number one choice, great food there!

The beach is by far the best one in Phuket...and the black pool is great ( and it's very easy to get a spot too - in 9 days i always choose my place..)

The staff is very thai. Friendly and polite.

PS: The Chedi looks like the United Nations. If there are 10 couples in the beach, they will probably be from 10 different countries...

We stayed at the Chedi for 8 nights over Easter and overall found it to be a wonderful place to stay.

We read plenty of reviews on here before going, and peoples moans about the steps, moans about insects, moans about the dated rooms etc etc. Most people know about the steps issue before booking. So why moan after the event. Of course there'll be insects. Its a tropical country. Some people should stay at home. But we never found anything dead in the room, which was thoroughly cleaned by the dedicated staff every morning.

The room itself was excellent. If people complain that they're dated, or the shower wasn't the best they'd experienced, then they live in a different world to me. As a former backpacker used to living in squalid conditions, this was paradise. The shower was fine, beds very comfy, and the fan/air con worked a treat. Plenty of towels/soap/shampoo etc provided daily, and an abundant supply of free bottled water.

The breakfasts were fantastic. Loads of fruit, cereals, yogurts, breads, cakes, juices plus bacon and eggs for those that wanted. Lunch and evening food was expensive compared to restaurants down the road so we only ate there when we couldn't be bothered moving. The Terrace down toward Surin Beach is recommended.

The pool was nice, but why swim in the pool when you have the fantastic beach and sea on your doorstep. Snorkelling wasn't the best, too stirred up, best to try a trip to one of the nearby islands. While on the beach, don't get drinks from the hotel. The locals who run the drinks stalls at the end of the beach will be there to sell you drinks at a much cheaper price.

The hotel staff were very friendly and helpful, until checkout time, when, as others also experienced, they would bring a phantom mini bar bill as we were getting into the taxi. This must be their latest ploy at getting extra cash. Don't pay it. We didn't. This did leave a sour taste after 9 days of paradise, but it wouldn't stop us going back again.

The place is great, unless you're the sort who expect the staff to wipe your backside for you.

The location is superb and the beach is beautiful.

The staff are lovely, charming and friendly.

The hotel looks and feels like it was built twenty years ago and never refurbished since. We stayed in May so also took advantage of the pay 3 nights stay 6 nights promotion so ended up paying around $200 per night. Also we booked a bottom-end room and got upgraded to a top-end room (hotel mostly empty) so the price ended up being almost fair but still too much for the hotels shoddy state of repair!

We arrived during a huge rain storm, got tld we'd been updgraded and were shown to our cottage. Within the first ten minutes we found: very large dead cockroach fell out of the mosquito net bounced off the bed and onto the floor, the toilet stank of sewage (i assume due to the heavy raining), one of the airconditioners was broken and when someone came to remove the cockroach we found the bed to be full of ants. To the hotel's credit we were swiflty moved to a new cottage (with yet a further upgrade to beachside) and within an hour received a kind note of apologies and a gift of a bottle of wine. The new room was essentially fine except that given the general state of disrepair, most windows did not shut propperly and the door (even when closed) had a two inch gap between the door and the wall. As a result we had ants all the time, at least one cockroach in the bathroom on most days, and a lizard scuttling around on the last day. All of these are not a problem on their own but add them alltogehter for a room which under normal circumstances costs upwars of $850 a night and you've got a problem.

Breakfast was nice. The staff prompt and friendly. We never ate at the hotel as it was relatively expensive and the athmospehere really quite grim on a low-season evening. One point which really got on my nerves is that during our six day stay the huge windows of the breakfast room never ever got cleaned. You could hardly see through them. Fair enough it rained most days but these looked like they hadn't been cleaned in weeks (at two nearby hotels we notices the windows in the lobby areas being cleaned on a daily baisis). This in addition to beachtowels to stop the rain from coming in under the windows/doors of the breakfast room added to the general shoddy feeling.

True some cottages were being repaired, though little attempt to hide these works away allowd for us to walk past a colleciton if discarded toilets every time we walked towards our room.

We ended up paying around $200 per night for our stay and i feel it was still too much for the quality of the hotel. The official price for our beachside cottage is (low-season) over $850 which is a total outrage.

In my view the hotel should shut down completely for six-twelve monnths and get itself a complete makeover!

we have just returned from our stay at the chedi hotel 5th to the 15th may. we booked via trailfinders and found them to be very good. they had a promotion on, stay over 4 nights and receive the same free. therefore our accommadation was £750 for ten nights for a superior room.

the rooms:

all the rooms are almost identical whether it be superior or standard hillside. all you pay extra for is the location of the room. superior is closer to the restaraunt, pool etc while the hillside ones are up quite a lot of steps. i do reccommend paying the extra for superior as you get a sea view and there is less steps to deal with. we paid an extra £250 fot the ten nights. it would have been £500 with a standard room.

they are individual cottages with double bed and mozzy net and bathroom with shower. come with tv, dvd player and minibar, fridge. nicely finished and they are doing a lot of refurbishment in low season so i give them credit for that.

keep your doors closed at all times as it is thailand and you get cockcroaches, lizards and locusts making appearances.

food

breakfast is excellent, thats all i need to say. food and drink inside the hotel is expensive at maybe four times the price then down the road at surin bay inn

service

the maids are excellent, we left a lot of valuables including money about and everything was fine. kept really tidy.

minibar

dont touch it, we had already paid our bill when checking out and when we went to get into our taxi for the airport, they ran after us looking another 500 baht for drinks we had not taken. cause we were in a hurry to go we just had to pay it.

the beach

it is a private beach and really really nice. you get drinks brought to you by people not working for the chedi. a beer about £1 in an ice bucket

Here is some information about prices you should expect to pay when staying around the chedi or shopping in patong which is the best for it

60 baht is equal to £1GBP

taxis

get one at the bottom of the hill of the chedi. they have set prices so they wont budge
450 baht to patong which is a half hour drive, ask to get dropped at beach road for shopping. dont go to phuket town, it does not have much at all.

restaraunts

the surin bay inn is the best, walk down the hill from the chedi, turn right and its a few minutes from there. staff are great and so is the food and really cheap. also twenty of us ate there and not one had a dodgy tummy after so i can say its definitly safe

average main course with rice or chips 140 baht
beer 60 baht
coke 25 baht

shopping

when bargaining divide the price they give you by 4 and aim to get it for a third is a good rule of thumb

go to patong beach road for handbags, trainers, jeans shirts etc

all types of designer hangbags,expect to pay between 600 to 1500 for top designer labels like jimmy choo etc, be prepared for the shop keepers to originally ask for outrageous prices

trainers
i got a pair of air max 97 for 1500 baht
energie trainers 1200 baht

t shirts
quiksilver and billabong 150 baht. this seems to be a set price round all the shops, dont pay any more unless they are the golf t shirts or lacoste ralph lauren etc, they are 200 baht

shorts

250 to 400 baht

sunglasses

200 baht

tailor made suit £90 for my hugo boss from "surin armani" at the bottom of the hill from the chedi, really good tailor

cigarettes

£1 per packet

jeans

about £15 a pair