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C D
Singapore, Singapore

Laguna Let-Down

2.0 of 5 bubblesReviewed Oct 9, 2012
We arrived at Laguna Holiday Club to find the pool with slide closed, for the duration of our stay, without any prior warning. When you have small kids, the pool with slide together with the beach are their top two highlights to look forward to! The pool had also simply been emptied without any reasonable safety measures - an empty pool makes for a deep fall onto concrete so this presented a grave safety issue.

When protesting, we were asked to wait for an hour for the manager. We requested to be transferred to an alternate resort. A room at the Best Western Allamanda next to LHC was arranged however this is an older resort, and the room fittings out of date and more basic compared to LHC. After being told the senior managers were away for the weekend, we eventually reached one of them 3 days into our trip - there was no apology, just an offer of breakfast being included for the week of our stay. Whilst we appreciated the gesture, this did not make up in our view for an inferior holiday week vs. the one we had rightfully expected.

One major drawback of the resort is that you have to take a boat to get to the beach. This sounds fine, and even fun, in principle, but in low season the boats do not run as regularly as indicated, so on several occasions we waited for an hour in the heat with two tired little kids. The beach itself is clean, however the shorebreak is so strong that few people were swimming, and it is certainly not a beach for young families. My husband took the kids in one by one for a couple of minutes at low tide, but more than that was not possible.

The Angsana next to LHC looks much nicer, and has wisely installed a pool with a bit of a sand beach for young families to use, and when crossing the Angsana on the way to the beach, we always saw little kids enjoying the facilities (which also included a far better equipped gym).

The one highlight was the daily visit of Lucky the elephant on the beach, with kids allowed to get on for a ride for free/a tip to the trainer, and able to watch the elly take a swim in the ocean which Lucky clearly relished. This feature saved the holiday for our kids, who loved this experience.

The other part of the trip that can be recommended are the food outlets - breakfast at LHC was fine, and we had one good supper after another at a variety of outlets from the Allamanda eatery (pad thai mai sai sen - yum), to the Angsana bbq dinner. The eatery at the Canal Village, as well as the Village Bakery there and the excellent trampoline for kids, were also worth a visit or two.

In summary, I would not recommend LHC for young families unless you can be sure the pool is actually open and are happy to have the kids play on the sand rather than swim in the sea.
Date of stay: October 2012
Trip type: Traveled with family
3.0 of 5 bubblesValue
3.0 of 5 bubblesRooms
2.0 of 5 bubblesLocation
3.0 of 5 bubblesCleanliness
3.0 of 5 bubblesService
3.0 of 5 bubblesSleep Quality
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Reviewed October 2, 2012

if you're my type whose idea of a vacation is something spent away from the noise and the crowd, I highly recommend the place. my family and I stayed in this resort for eight days off peak season (September 2012) and I really enjoyed it.

- airport transfers from Phuket Intl Airport can be availed until 8pm but you need to inform the hotel first for booking and to know the fee (dirt cheap anyway so might as well)

- they assigned us to a nice 2-BR family suite with balcony which is complete w/ two T&B, a small kitchen w/ basic amenities (we cooked our breakfast here), a dining area and a living room w/c was really big enough to be converted to act as another bedroom. I actually broke one of the ceramic shampoo bottles but wasn't charged a cent :P. very accommodating! Gym is available too.

- nice in-house restaurant although others are better. I highly recommend trying out the other hotel's resto/bars/cafes within the compound. We also tried the restos/bars outside the Laguna compound most notably Chaba's and Lotus Restaurant (excellent lobster). Rides to these places can be arranged by front desk.

- very nice pool w/ slide. it has only one depth though (less than 4.5 feet so diving simply cannot be done); great for kids.

- since LHC Phuket is located in a compound of around 6 or 7 other hotel resorts owned by the Laguna Resorts and Hotels Public Company Limited, you can visit some of the other hotels for free using their in-house shuttle service, w/c is literally at your beck & call (just seek help from front desk of wherever resort you are, wait for a few mins and voila! ride is there). this is impt since LHC Phuket itself is not located beach front. We had to go to Dusit Thani and Angsana (w/c are member resorts) to go enjoy Batang beach (this is free). You must get a resort pass (for a fee) though if you want to avail the other resort amenities like the pretty large pool of Dusit Thani. Another alternative to the shuttle is to take the canal ferry ride (for free as well) at Canal Shopping Village (where all the basic boutiques/cafes are). If you want to be earth-friendly, you can also rent a bike from front desk to go explore the compound.

- Not much to do in terms of watersports and other adventurous stuff inside the compound (but then again maybe it was the weather?), but they do have in-house elephant shows & rides if you do not wish to leave the compound at all. The beach was excellently not crowded when we came but since the weather was a bit of a bummer in September, swimming was not such a good idea.

- If you wish to go explore Phuket Town and avail other activities outside the resort compound, the front desk personnel will gladly assist you in booking taxis who will be at your service for an agreed upon time. We availed a trip to Phuket Town and then to Island Safari for a discounted price. You can also arrange to take a van to Ko Phi Phi or Patong bay if beach night life is your thing.

Bottomline: this place is great for families who wants a stress-free, quiet vacation. superb service in my opinion and just a great way to relax and forget real life for a while.

Date of stay: September 2012
  • Trip type: Traveled with family
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Thank gelatotskie5
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 September 27, 2012

My wife and I have been coming here for over 10 years first just the two of us and then with our daughter, husband and grand daughter. Very friendly staff and whole place kept extremely clean. Beautiful location close to beach and other hotels in the group which can be reached by boat or shuttle bus which are free. Restaurants on the all of the hotel sites can be a little expensive but eating out on the beach in one of small restaurants or going to the local town is a must. Children will love the pool area which has a slide and is not to deep for them. A must for families.

Date of stay: September 2012
  • Trip type: Traveled with family
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Thank eddavis2002
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 September 2, 2012

Stayed in a junior suite during the low season. Prices were very good and the huge size of the 2 room suite meant not having to worry about upgrading the room size. Room was quite good, kitchenette etc but one cupboard door fell off when I opened it. Lounge, dining table, kitchen bar, sink, fridge, pots and pans and cutlery for the self sufficient. Air conditioners were good but a bit noisy. Bathroom and other bedroom facilties were comfortable.

Double balcony for the smokers. Had a small view of the golf course but otherwise nothing much to see through the trees.

Food in all places at this and other venues within the resort were very expensive. Even at the Canal village mini mart. Became quite tiresome to pay 1000 baht every time the 2 of you wanted to eat, so the cheaper options on the beach or outside the main gate were more affordable.

Compared with the rest of Phuket everything is more expensive, even motorbike hire and the local restaurants. Motorbike definitely a necessity if you wanted to see the sights or have a bit of action. Try the thai shops near the Movenpick resort on the beach if you want one.

Reception staff didn't really know anything about the activities on offer - they had to keep looking them up. Almost every activity had to be pre-booked and if you weren't procative in this area you didn't get any support. No sign of the activities coordinator who was suppose to contact us within 24hrs of arriving so we had to find our own things to do. The resort is full of time-share people and compared to the other hotels in the area there is not much on offer. Even the pool is bit tired and the restaurant had cobwebs in the light fittings.

You can use other facilties of other resorts in the area but you have to pay and the prices are definitely geared toward the well-heeled overseas tourist rather than locals.

Went during the kids activity month, which would be great if you had kids, but as we didn't we found many activities we would like to do were "for kids only". Not everyone wants to drink in a beer tent every night.

A good place if you want to get away from it all and relax. Be careful if swimming during the rainy season as the red flags will be flying on the beach and no lifeguard on duty if you get into difficulty.

Almost nothing to do at night so you either bring your own laptop or tablet, watch tv or escape Bang Tao for some night time entertainament. Wireless was a bit hit and miss so you might want to enable your Thai mobile phone as a hotspot for your other devices.
Transfer service from the hotel to next hotel was easiy arranged.

Date of stay: August 2012
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Thank Jason K
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 29, 2012 via mobile

We have been coming to this resort since it opened. A nice resort which is close to the beach and also to a small village. Beach is about a 5 minute walk away. The Laguna is part of a reclaimed tin mine which now houses I think 6 other hotels who share the maintenance. The resort has won prizes historically for transforming the tin mine. There is free transport between the different hotels and boats you can use across the lagoons to get around. A really nice setting with beach restuarants and a little village with a variety of businesses inc restaurants, bars and supermarkets. Not for groups of people looking to party all night but good for people looking to relax enjoy the surroundings and be well positioned to travel outside of the are if required. Lots of taxis available. 30 minutes from Patong and a little further from Phuket Town. Nearly forgot, an elephant goes onto the beach at about 3pm which my daughter absolutely loved and so did I.

Date of stay: August 2012
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Thank David A
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

As members of timeshare we have stayed in quite a few venues, and this one rates near the top. The staff here are so warm and friendly and can't do enough to help. We have had a few confusions with their comprehension of English, but we can overlook that. The only improvement that could be done is to develop a larger range of dishes on the menu at the restaurant.
The whole Laguna complex is vast but can be easily negotiated by complimentary shuttle bus and shuttle ferry. the Canal Village shops include a few dining options, but our favorite would have to be the bakery.

Room tip: Studio rooms are much larger than you would think - the bedroom and ensuite can be closed off from the lounge/dining/kitchen.
Date of stay: August 2012
  • Trip type: Traveled as a couple
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Thank Liz S
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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