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mike a
Auckland, New Zealand

great hotel

5.0 of 5 bubblesReviewed Aug 31, 2012
From the start to the finnsh we loved our stay, the staff were the best i have come across, so helpfull and attentive. If you want a hotel on a beautifull beach then this is the place.the Thai restaurant was the best on the island.Were else do the staff bring you fresh fruit when you are lying beside the pool!
Date of stay: August 2012
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
5.0 of 5 bubblesValue
5.0 of 5 bubblesRooms
5.0 of 5 bubblesLocation
5.0 of 5 bubblesCleanliness
5.0 of 5 bubblesService
5.0 of 5 bubblesSleep Quality
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Reviewed August 31, 2012

Stayed there for 5 nights with family (wife and kids aged 6 & 3)
The GOOD: Excellent nanny service...very friendly easy to get along with. The nannys catered to every whim of our fussy kids. Good childrens play area and kids club. Good Japanese restaurant...the wagu beef is quite special. Breakfast was good.... bacon was crispy. Excellent landscaped main pools all three of them, two of them have water falls and the bubblies, one can find privacy despite the hordes of guests in any of the pools. Probably one of the best Spa's amongst the resorts in Thailand (dare I say Asia), but make sure to make a booking as soon as you get there. Facilities are endless.
The BAD: The hotel's service was quite slow....even by Thai resort standards. Beware! it can be an overpriced money trap if you are not careful. JW is one of those corporate vacation sites that delivers on the relaxation level...sure. However, its no different than any other corporate asian resort in format. Calculated and serviced. An all encompassing safe bet...which keeps you in.
The UGLY: At our only meal at their Italian restaurant, 2 out of 4 adult seafood main courses were returned because the mussels were bad. The chef acknowledged that the mussels were bad and proposed to serve us another meal which we politely refused. At the end we did not pay for our meal, no scene. Even though the scenery was picture pretty, the beach was rough and steep. Even if the sea were calm, the gradient of the beach was not pleasant....at least not for young kids.

Room tip: The hotel rooms are sprawled all over this huge property. Everything is within a short walk.
Date of stay: June 2012
  • Trip type: Traveled with family
    • Value
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    • Sleep Quality
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    • Service
5  Thank Supershahram
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed August 27, 2012

This resort reminded me of the Hilton Hawaiian Village in that it's a huge property that makes it hard for you to leave. In many ways you're not even in Thailand. The prices are closer to Tokyo prices than to Bangkok, and everything is made big Texas style.

If you are travelling with young children (in our case 0 and 2), you have an excuse to stay at a place like this. If you're on a romantic holiday or honeymoon, please, and I say please, do not waste your time here. There are so many romantic boutique hotels and smaller Thai resorts that will offer you much better holidays.

Positives:

1. Great pool for kids, playground and other stuff for them to enjoy
2. Great breakfast, probably pricey if you don't have it included in your room price though
3. Clean rooms and overall gorgeous property, though your room may be quite a walk from where the action is

Negatives:

1. This is not Thailand. If you want to experience Thailand, stay somewhere else.
2. To leave the hotel to eat somewhere else (or to do anything not arranged by the hotel), you need transportation
3. Service is sketchy. We requested a baby seat and a child seat for the car that picked us up at the previous resort, but they brought just two child seats. Several times we were told we'd be called back about different things, but on a few occasions this did not happen.
4. Tons of kids around. If you don't like them, don't come :)

Room tip: If you turn left on the beach and continue walking for a little while, there are a few local restaurants there. They looked sketchy though even by Thai standards, so we decided not to try them out. However, might be nice for a drink or two.
Date of stay: August 2012
  • Trip type: Traveled with family
    • Value
    • Location
    • Sleep Quality
    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
    • Service
4  Thank Jantaro
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed August 27, 2012

This was our first trip to Thailand, Phuket and there were many hotels to choose from. We settled on the JW Marriott as the 'JW' series are the best Marriott hotels and it looked good online and was a long way from places like Patong Beach given that we just wanted a week of rest and relaxation at a nice resort.

We used the hotel limousine service from the airport to the hotel at a cost of 1400 Baht. The limo was a Mercedes sedan and the driver was pleasant and had a fresh bottle of water for each of us. (A taxi from the airport to the hotel is 500 Baht, but we didn't realise that until we were at the hotel. Hence when we left, we just got a taxi back to the airport.) The hotel is about a 20-25 minute drive from the airport.

The hotel reception area is a very busy area. Upon arrival we were greeted and given a drink etc and a cold towelette which was nice. Throughout our stay we went back to the reception area on a number of occasions to enquire about different things and they have about 5 counters. There is no easy way to queue to be served and we found that other guests would often push in front to get served etc. The hotel needs a formal queue system etc in order to get served at reception.

We had an Ocean Front Suite on the first level of the hotel (room 276). The room was very large with a large walk-in wardrobe area and a very large bathroom area and a second toilet just near the entrance to the suite. The bed was extremely hard, and whilst we like hard beds, this was particularly hard. The room was well appointed with a very large TV (we didn't use it), a small fridge (mini bar), writing desk and chair, lounge, outdoor patio with sun lounges and jacuzzi (spa). We used the spa on a number of occasions and it was nice, despite not all the jets working.

Overall the room was nice, but the furnishing are a little 'tired' and the room and indeed the whole hotel needs some reinvestment and updating.

Each day a fresh tray of fruit was left in our room which was very nice.
The toiletry items in the bathroom were of poor quality (ie shampoo, conditioner and liquid soap) and I would have expected a name brand for a JW Marriott.

During our stay we experienced a few problems with the room including the toilet not flushing properly on a couple of occasions which required maintenance. We lost all power in our room one afternoon. It took them about an hour to get it working again. On one occasion we tried to get into our room and neither of our electronic cards would allow us in. A maid was nearby and her card couldn't get us in. Maintenance was called about we waited outside our room for about 15 minutes and they took about 45 minutes to solve the problem.

There are 3 pools at the hotel. We were staying in the southern wing and hence near the souther pool. This is the pool with the swim-up bar. Whilst the pool is nice, it is in desperate need of updating. The pool furniture is old and paint/stain is missing from most of the wood. It was also often hard to find vacant sun lounges and guests would just claim luonges and leave their stuff there all day whilst they wandered around the resort. The swim-up bar is very dated and needs to be completely re-done.

We found this pool very noisy as there were many young kids with their parents etc. Whilst the main pool is really the family pool, obviously this pool is also highly popular with families. Not a great place to relax and read a book due to all the noise. We have children (who didn't join us on this break), so we are certainly not anti kids, just wanted a place of peace and quiet to relax.
We didn't use the main pool as it was a family pool and looked like a great place for kids to enjoy.
There is a pool on the north side of the resort. When we arrived the person who showed us to our room told us that the north pool was for adults only and kids were not allowed in that pool. In search of a quieter pool we went to the north pool on a couple of occasions, however there were always kids in that pool as well, alas, no peace and quiet. :-)

The hotel has a happy hour at the Rim Nam Pool Bar next to the main pool from between 5pm and 6.30pm. We went there most days and enjoyed a drink and chatted to other guests. The service at the bar was good.

Breakfast was included in our room rate and was served in the Marriott Cafe each morning. I would describe the cafe as a hive of activity and noisy. All the food was very good, but certainly not a place to relax and enjoy breakfast. Because the cafe was always very busy, you had to be careful whilst walking with a plate of food. I found that the staff would never 'give way' to guests and often pushed in front of you as they were moving about the cafe, clearing tables etc.
We ate all our meals at the hotel and here is my take on the restaurants:-

Ginja Taste – this is the hotels Thai restaurant. You need to make a reservation as we just turned up one night and couldn’t get a table. The food was certainly traditional Thai, but from our point of view, no better than any Thai restaurant that we would normally eat at back at home. It was very expensive for Thai food.

Cucina – this is the hotels Italian restaurant. It was a pleasant setting and the food was reasonably priced but really only average Italian food.

Andaman Grill – this is the steak and seafood restaurant that looks out onto the beach area. Very pleasant setting however underwhelming food.

Kabuki – Japanese restaurant. We had the teppanyaki and it was sensational. We ate here on 2 occasions as the food was so good. Excellent service and excellent food.

Siam Deli – this is a deli style shop that sells not only food, coffee etcs., but also alcohol, snacks and other goods. The food is really good and inexpensive. Indeed, this deli is a great concept for a hotel and more hotels should have them.

Sala Sawasdee Lobby Bar – nice bar overlooking the reflection pond. Has some great drinks including Grey Goose mojiotos. They also serve light snacks that looked really good but we didn’t have any.

The gym at the hotel is excellent with loads of equipment and clean and nice showers and change rooms etc. You can also hire bikes from the gym and we went on a ride organised by the hotel one afternoon. It was about 1.5 hours and was a great guided ride around the surrounding villages and area.

Just on the beach front you can get a massage (traditional Thai or oil massage) for 400 Baht. They are well worth the money.

The beach is not very nice and certainly not a beach to swim at. While we were there the hotel had red flags up on the path near the beach to indicate not to swim because of the stingers in the sea. Having seen photos of beaches further south on Phuket, if you are after a beach to lie on or swim at, then head further south.

The resort had 2 small baby elephants that would wander along the grass and path between the resort and the beach. Each had a handler and if you give them 100 Baht they will give you a bunch of bananas to feed the elephants. I found that some guests were really rude to the elephant handler and once they had given some money one chap in particular was making all sorts of demands from the handler including wanted the elephant to sit down. Other guests were trying to take the bananas from my hand that I had given money for etc. which I found particularly rude. I was happy to give the handler several hundred Baht as no doubt it is expensive to keep and elephant and feed it.

There is a small shopping village about 600m from the hotel called Turtle Village. I only went there once and didn’t really think much of it. It has a 7/11 style store, and ice-cream parlour and many souvenir shops etc.

All in all it was an ok holiday, however certainly not up to the standard that I expected from a JW Marriott hotel. We may go back with the kids in the future, but our expectations will certainly be lower than this time.

Date of stay: August 2012
  • Trip type: Traveled as a couple
    • Value
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    • Sleep Quality
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    • Cleanliness
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5  Thank Curfew156
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed August 26, 2012

We went here for our honeymoon. The hotel itself is pretty nice and relatively big....however, i would expect much more from a JW marriott. From the moment you reach phuket airport they start harassing you to attend a vacation club sales pitch. In return they promise very enticing free gifts. We finally gave in and attended their sales pitch knowing that we would not purchase. Vacation club package. Our sales guy was very friendly and helpful, and even almost convinced us to buy a package. At the last minute his manager came to talk to uus...he was very irritating and unfriendly. We told them we need some time to properly think about our decision, but he did not want to listen to us and gave us a horrible attitude. I feel bad for the sales guy because if it was not for his manager, we probably would have purchased a package. In the end we took our vouchers for th free gift and had a fantastic day trip to phi phi islands.

BREAKFAST BUFFET: there was an incredible selection of items. I would recommend going to the buffet as a brunch rather than breakfast. There really is anything and everything available. Our breakfast was included and totally worth it.

ROOM SERVICE: our room would not get cleaned up until after 3pm or sometimes later. I think they use some type of pesticide that gives a weird odor.

FRONT DESK SERVICE: the front desk staff is not friendly at all. It looks like they are so rushed, although there is no one else to attend.

CONCIERGE/BELLBOY SERVICE: these guys were wonderful, they keep good track of who you are, where you are staying, and what you are doing.

POOL: there are 3 pool areas, if you go in the morning there is absolutely no one. I guess everybody is enjoying the breakfast buffet. Some parts of the pool are really cold due to the shade of the trees around it.the sun is the only heat source. In the afternoons you may encounter a guy with a real baby elephant at the pool. For a few Bath you can purchase bananas and feed the elephant or take pictures. There were even some kids that went for a ride. This was really cool to.

BEACH: the beach was way to rough to swim in. Its also a protected area for turtle hatching, so there are no beach chairs and umbrellas allowed. At the time there was also dangerous marine life in the water, thus making it really impossible to swim.

LOCATION: very far from everything. You need to rent a car or go by taxi. no restaurants around, but plenty of dining spots on the property.

DINING: we had dinner at their thai restaurant, it was really good and worth it to get the set menu for2 rather than individual dishes. Other than that the deli became our staple for lunch. The food is very great, but perhaps just slightly americanized for taste and less spicy than the native food.

Date of stay: July 2012
  • Trip type: Traveled as a couple
    • Value
    • Location
    • Sleep Quality
    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
    • Service
3  Thank Stephanie2786
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed August 21, 2012

We stayed for a weekend at the start of our visit to Phuket and this place didn't disappoint. This place is a perfect 10 out of 10 for a relaxing couple of days. The ambience is unique and the service is excellent. The kids enjoyed the pool and the fantastic kids club (wonderful staff). The deluxe pool view room with terrace was very comfortable and quite spacious for two adults and two children. The location is remote but that's what we needed for a couple of days. The only disappointment was the beach which was off limits for swimming. We ate most meals at the hotel and found it pricey but good quality. We tried Kin Dee restraunt (about 5-10 min ride) for authentic thai food but found the food and the service disappointing, the Thai food at SeaHag restraunt in the southern Phuket is much better.

Date of stay: August 2012
Trip type: Traveled with family
5  Thank AdilMarghub
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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