Our expectations were high being a Sofitel and on arrival we were utterly disappointed by 2 key things. The fact there is a road to cross to the get to the beach....not a small lane as I thought but a road full or lorries going to the tanker port and motocycles at certain times of the day. The second was the beach. At high tide you could swim, but the beach was small by the hotel the rest of beach was dirty and smelly. At low tide you cant swim due to rocks, litter and broken glass. Being far away from anything, and coming with kids there is a limit to what you can do at the hotel or without going on trips. However the hotel itself was very good....rooms and service all excellent, with a very large pool. BUT this pool overlooks the road above, and at busy times is not peaceful at all...another constant annoyance. It took quite a bit away from the place really.

Food was very good, although we had a below Thai meal one night surprisingly. But have to say our issues were treated very seriously and the Manger himself was involved. They refunded the meal and treated us to more wine. Fair enough I felt.

The staff are faultless. very customer oriented and helpful...they were also superb on the two trips we did from the hotel.

You cant really walk anywhere from the hotel , which is what we also like to do, so that was also disappointing. felt ratehr trapped at times unless I was bothered to get a taxi somewhere.

we realised just how important a beach was, but as we came from singapore for a few days was not so big an issue. If I had flown from Europe I would have been even more disappointed and a little let down. The website for the hotel builds the whole place up....including the beach and this I find misleading.

My fiancee and I stayed in this wonderful Krabi hotel in January 2012. The hotel is just like the pictures show it - big and luxurious. The pool is fabulous with plenty of deck chairs and you also have the added bonus of the beach right across the road. Given it's not the most beautiful of beaches but it certainly isn't unattractive. We enjoyed quite a few walks along the lovely foreshore (the sunsets were magnificent).

The hotel itself is lovely. The reception area is delightful and the rooms themselves are clean and large. We found the bed extremely comfortable and had no complaints whatsoever with our rooms.

Facilities were great - in addition to the enormous pool, the resort also has a gym (unfortunately only one treadmill and bike) and a small cooking school. We booked a cooking class and were lucky to have the chef all to ourselves. The food we cooked was delicious and we would definitely recommend this as a fun optional extra.

We also booked a day trip to Hong Island on the resort's own boat. It was a great day but the water at Hong Island was suprisingly dirty. We had wanted to snorkel but after 5 minutes in the water got out due to the large amount of rubbish and cloudy water (to be fair - they had had rain for the week preceeding our arrival).

The restaurants at this hotel were also lovely. The traditional Thai restaurant was our favourite, although service was extremely slow and they kept mixing up our order with that of the nearby table (not great when you had allergies on both tables!). The food was magnificent though and if they could get the service right, this would be a highlight of the resort.

Breakfast was excellent - standard large variety expected from a chain like the Sofitel.

Hotel is located about 20 minutes from Krabi Town. We liked the peacefulness and relaxing feel to the hotel. We ventured into Krabi Town once and that was enough for us!

We would definitely recommend this hotel to other travellers, especially those with children. The hotel is adjacent to an elephant refuge and the gorgeous baby elephant that they bought into the hotel grounds every few days was just divine and attracted adults and children alike whilst it played and snacked on palm leaves!

Thank you Sofitel Phokeethra - we will be back!

We stayed here for four days in July at the peak of the rainy season. We wanted somewhere to relax and swim for a few days and because we knew it was the wet season we chose this Hotel. The pool is magnificent and the Hotel was very quiet. On the down side the restaurant choice was limited in the evening and perhaps somewhat understaffed but on the other hand the staff there were extremely helpful, obliging and professional, they made every effort to make sure we were comfortable and dry! We were not able to do any trips as the sea was choppy but 4 days relaxing and dipping in and out of the pool when it was dry felt like a week.