I would love your advice!!
 

My boyfriend & I are trying to plan a Thanksgiving 2006 trip to Thailand. I'm hoping you can help us finally make some decisions! Here's the breakdown of our dream vacation:

Resort:
stylish a/c bungalows on the beach or with an amazing ocean view.
something with a rustic but upscale thai feel.

Location:
We don't want to be in the middle of a busy city, but ideally there would be restaurants within walking distance to the resort & activities such as jungle tours etc... we're not particular about which island or area.

Price Range: $100-$150 per night

These looked pretty good to us from their websites & various messageboards:

SriLanta Resort on Koh Lanta
Relax Bay Resort on Koh Lanta
Coral Bay Resort on Koh Samui
Marina Phuket Resort in Phuket
PP Princess in Krabi

I would be incredibly appreciative for any & all info/recommendations you might have for us! Any personal experience with these resorts or areas, especially post-tsunami would also be quite helpful.

Thank You!

My actual advice is to spend some time in non-beach Thailand. With your budget, you can stay at a very nice river hotel in Bangkok, e.g., the Royal Orchid Sheraton or Marriott. This can be very relaxing and there are zillions of good restaurants nearby. The pools at both are very relaxing. It would be a shame to have a dream vacation without including BKK.

I am afraid I can't comment on any of the resorts you are looking at - but I think that Thanksgiving is in November? (sorry - am English and it is obviously not celebrated in the UK!) It will be the monsoon in Ko Samui at that time so would avoid the beaches on that side of the country.

I think Krabi is a lovely area to stay in - lots of activities but Koo Lanta is v beautiful too, very quiet though. Have you got long enough to spend some time in Bangkok? It is a great city.

Hi Gpanda-
Thanks for the suggestion! We'll definitely look into spending a couple nights in Bangkok as well. We definitely want to hit the beaches as well because we are avid divers/snorkelers.

Stayed at the Sri Lanta in December of 2005. Posted a long review on Trip Adviser. Bottom line: would never stay there again.

If you go to Ao Nang, consider the Cliff Ao Nang, a boutique hotel. Pros: beautiful facility, wonderful staff, great chef. The restaurant is relatively high priced compared to surrounding places, but will do a custom meal for you. I had him prepare a steamed abalone dish. Con: It's not on the beach.

Fordido, Just stayed at Marina Phuket--posted about it on my trip report (fyi). Don't know aything about the other places you are considering so it's hard to assess. If you stayed in one of the oceanfront villas, you'd have a great view. The pool area is beautiful and the setting is lovely. However, the beach has the feeling of a large public beach rather than isolated resort area. Good snorkeling, good info center to facilitate getting a boat or going to other islands for snorkeling or scuba. Right next door to karon Beach which seemed more like a beachside motel than ocean resort (Marina Phuket does have that feeling). There are 2 restaurants on the premises and they were ok, not great. Not knowing the costs and features of the others, I'd probably give Marina Phuket a B- rating (beautifully maintained and landcaped grounds). Kathy

I hope you are not going to Thailand just for the beaches. The general consensus is that, thought Thai beaches are nice, for the most part, they are not worth traveling around the world for. If you are in Thailand and happen to also want some beach time, they are adequate. If you are just coming here to snorkel/dive, you might want to rethink it. You can do much better closer to home. If you really want to travel to the other side of the world for beaches, there are better than Thailand (Fiji, Bali, parts of Australia, etc.)

stayed on lanta island in October 2005 at Lanta Casuarina on Long beach. We loved lanta and would go back in a heartbeat. What I will say is that the beaches are not stunning but are adequate. We had bungalow accomodation right on the beach be it concrete block style. Had an awesome balcony which we sat on every night abd watched the sun set over Phi Phi island. We could not fault our accomodation had great pool and staff. Food average but we mostly ate local wich was so inexpensive and nice. We did a day trip snorkling around 5 islands to the south Ngai, Mok etc which was neat and cheap. Niether of us were divers so could not comment on this. What I will say is that Thailand is not tropical like the south pacific islands with lagoons etc however there is so much more diversity in what you can do. Phi Phi island might also be a spot for you. Spoke to some south africans on a plane who raved about diving around that area. Hope this doesn't confuse you more. Happy to answer anymore lanta questions