Choosing a starwood hotels at the Beach
 

Hi all,
For those didn't see my last post (honeymoon itinerary april 08), a quick update: my fiancee and I are celebrating our honeymoon in Thailand this April (15th - 29th). After some research into boutique hotels in the South by me, the boss decided we should stay at a Starwood resort using our points.

So now I'm trying to decide which hotel to stay at. I have a room booked at Le Meridien Khao Lak, in case everything else fills up.

This might be hard to find at a mega resort, but I'm looking for the Starwood property that:
- has fewer tourist and jetskis/etc
- easy walking distance to local, off-property restaurants
- the best snorkeling day trips

We'll be spending a week in BKK and CM later, so I'm not concerned about doing other touristy/shopping stuff. This first week is for lying on the beach relaxing.

One last night: I expect to have 30-35K points by the time we leave. That makes the Meridien Khao Lak a plus, since it's only a category 2, and therefore lets us save some points for BKK. (6 nights is 22K).

Thanks!

josh

Josh-I've never stayed at the Khao lak meridien, but have stayed at the Meridien Beach resort. It's 7,000 points per night, but very nice.

on my upconing trip i am using 'starwood points and cash' at the following thailand hotels: plaza anthanee (bkk); le meridien phuket (near town and rest. and on the beach; le meridien khao lak (1600+$30 per nite) and finally sheraton krabi, also on the beach..

any starwood hotel caters exclusively to tourists...

other alternatives: the fabulous sheraton pattaya--out of town;
brand new sheraton hua hin, also on the water..

outside thailand, you might look at sheraton and le meridien in langkawi malaysia

More Progress!

I've got it narrowed down to either the Le Meridien Khao Lak, or the Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort.

My impression of the differences is that Khao Lak is a much quieter island, more isolated, and has a prettier beach. Whereas the Phuket Beach Resort is much closer to Patong (which is both a plus and a minus), but isn't as nice a property/beach.

Can anyone weigh in on this? Again, I'm looking for a quiet resort, with a beautiful beach, where it's fairly easy to get off-property for drinks and dinner, but we don't have to deal with throngs of drunk people.

Josh

i think you understand many of the differences....

k/l is quite issolated...that may be a negetive---i've decided to have a car for that reason...it is up to date however as it had greater damage in the "storm" i believe, although phuket also had damage....i think k/l looks much nicer...maybe others can tell us more specifics...

did you get cash and miles rates??

I have a reservation at KL using all points (3K per night). Don't have anything at Phuket yet.. figured I'd wait to see what the consensus was. Right now, I'm leaning towards KL, since we'll have the 2nd week of the trip in BKK and CM to eat and shop.