Report on our time in Phuket

Old Feb 9th, 2007, 02:42 PM
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Report on our time in Phuket

We stayed in the 2 BR 2 BA Villas (Beach Club) on the site of the Marriott Resort and Spa. Even if you are not a Marriott or Interval International time share owner you can rent the villas by the day. We love all the extra room and the villas are very nice.
We were there last year also, and remarked that one week was really not enough so were fortunate enough to get two back to back weeks this time. We flew over from BKK on the discount Thai Air Asia and the flight over was delayed an hour but we wont complain as the prices are very reasonable, though it's a bit of a free for all especially as we flew over from the US to BKK business class.

The day we left the Phuket Marriott last year was the day they opened their 3rd and very fantastic new Blue Pool. Also new to this venue is that the Marriott have adopted a baby elephant and he walks up and down the beach path with his Mahout every day. He was rescued from some place and was an orphan, they are also planning to get another elephant who is a bit older to keep him company. It was a real delight to see this little chap every day.
The Beach massages are still 400 BHt an hour and pretty darn good.
The grounds and the entire resort are really wonderful and I have no complaints at all.

The Marriott Resort though is all on it's own and there is nothing else close by that you can walk to, however, we did find this one option for not paying Marriott prices.

If you exit the Marriott at the beach and walk along the sand to the right of the property there is a guy with a Bar about 1/4 mile along the sand. You can relax in a deck chair with a Singha for 40 Bhat. He also does a seafood feast at sunset with tiki torches on Fri and Sat nights if you reserve at least a day ahead of time. We didn't do it but heard it was pretty good.

We rented a car for 3 days one week and 2 days the 2nd week. We rented from BUDGET who has a facility right outside the airport gate and they will deliver the car to the hotel and drive you back after you drop it off. We made the reservation in the US and found it was cheaper than any of the other International rental companies. The manager there spoke excellent English and was very nice to work with. Having the car, Iloved going to the markets and buying lots of fruits and veg from the vendors for pennies, and getting gaboons of fresh orchids to fill the place with flowers.
Having the car we had lunch at Ny Yang Beach and a beachside place called Lindas. Pretty good, very innexpensive.

We also ate at Surin Beach at a place called NOK Restauraunt and Bar. This was good - A whole BBQ Snapper, Prawn with ginger, Chicken Basil, rice and 2 LARGE Chang Beers, all for 770 Bhat ($22)
Our fav place to eat we visited 3 times was LOTUS at Laguna Beach. At the far end of the beach in a real bricks and mortar building with great views (romantic at night esp at sunset) Really great food Highly recommended and extremely affordable prices for a huge feast. Of all our dishes there the only one we were dissappointed in was the Mantis Shrimp which we had grilled they were dry and expensive, simply every other dish we ordered was scrumptious.

We decided that as so many people had told us how beautiful the scenery was on PHi Phi Island we should see it. We took a speed boat day trip. I'm a total non swimmer and didn't like the speed boat at all - Very fast, noisy and rough and it took a good hour plus to get to the first island. We made several stops, monkey island etc and had lunch on Phi Phi, but this was a thing we were glad we did it just to see it, but it had been totally ruined by all the tour operators and gaboons of speed boats everywhere. Of course we were adding to the spoiling of it. We were told that the only time to really see it and find it in good shape is early in the morning and I wish we had done that.

We drove all around the Island and saw some really fantastic views high off the cliffs/hills.

I wondered if Phuket had been doing a lot of promotions in Russia as there were lots and lots of Russians on Phuket. We talked to some Australians staying at a hotel in Laguna Beach and they said that over 80% of the guests were Russians. We noticed several at the Marriott too.

Next time I post I'll tell all about our 2 weeks in Bangkok.
Sue

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Old Feb 9th, 2007, 06:44 PM
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thanks sue....glad to hear about the elephant addition...

we loved it there...if we were to ever return to phuket i think we would head back to the marriott....would love to try the time share....we did tour it..

we had a car for only one day but we felt that was enough... budget also..
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Old Feb 10th, 2007, 07:07 AM
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Welcome back.
My family is traveling to the Marriott next month and would love a bit more information:

How was the food at the Marriott?
Best and "not best" restaurant at the hotel?
Best dish?

How was the beach? Swimmable or more "just look at it and stick with the pool" because it is too rough to swim?

Regarding Budget rent a car, about how much is a daily rental? Perhaps we can call them once at the hotel instead of reserving ahead, since we won't really know what days we want the car for. Alternatively, is there a car rental desk at the hotel?

Concerning Lotus restaurant, which looks great, about how long does it take to get there in the evening from the hotel? And, assuming we don't have a car for that, is it easy (or expensive) to get taxis both ways or ask a taxi to wait?

Finally, I aslo see that some nearby beaches, Nai Thon in particular, look beautiful. Is it feasible to take a taxi there from the hotel, stay a few hours and then catch a taxi back?
Thank you.

PS: the baby elephant sounds terrific. Believe it or not, my 10 year old son is mumbling "I don't want to go to Thailand" but, the idea of a wandering elephant may get him there easily. My 12 year old daughter, in contrast, will go anywhere any time and can't wait.
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Old Feb 11th, 2007, 11:57 AM
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Hi tengohambre
The BUDGET car rental was just under $40 (US) per day, including all taxes etc. It was a bit more with all the rental places if you booked once in Phuket. I believe there is a rental desk at the Marriott, if not they will call one of the companies to come out to you with the car.

With regard to getting to Lotus it's about 3/4-1 hour drive away. Getting a regular meter taxi at the Marriott was a problem for us, that's another reason we rented the car. However if you are firm about it they will call you a meter taxi but it will take about 20 mins to get there. The Marriott has cars/drivers but they are quite expensive. You can try to find a driver for the evening or several hours so that you can shop, then do dinner and the charge is about the same or perhaps a little more than a daily car rental, if you can find one that is not attached to the Marriott. Last year we had a real nice chap who had a nice SUV and he was fairly reasonable. Ask the bellman if he can reccommed a local driver for you.

The beach at the Marriott is spectacular. It's about 8 miles long, the water is very warm and you might be lucky to see say 20 people on the whole stretch of beach. It's swimable and my husband prefers the ocean to the pool. There are trees at the edge of the beach so you can get good shade in the mornings. No chairs are on the beach.

We didn't do our main eating out at the Marriott 'cause we had the full kitchen in our villa and I cooked some of the time. The Siam Delli and shop are now open 24 hours a day and every day they offer a Thai special which we found to be pretty good taste and value. They also offer an afternoon tea which looked very good. The Italian Restaurant was quite good,though we just had Pizza but with two children along you may be having some of that too. Also, the charge for room service was very affordable and we ordered Pizza from that one evening which was great. They recently opened a new Thai Restaurant which I heard good reviews about. We also ate at the Marriott Cafe which has breakfast lunch and dinner buffets every day, they also serve ala carte. The A LaCarte dish I had was terrible. Supposed to be red chicken curry over thai noodles. It was one tiny, miniscule drumstick leg of chicken (no thigh or anything else) rather tough with maybe two mouthfuls of meat and some good flavoured sauce over noodles. I did tell them I was not too happy with my meal and they offered me free dessert, which I didn't want. My husband however, had a nice salmon meal which was very good. Another time we went to the lunch buffet which was all Asian and vey good.

As you have children with you it might be of interest that another new addition is that they have a Circus program for children there. They have trapeeze and tightrope all set up and trainers to help young ones learn to do all kinds of circus tricks.

The serenity pool discourages children, also the new blue pool does not allow jumping in, splashing or inflatable pool toys as it's trying to be calm and peaceful. The main pool has a fantastic kiddie area with water spouting elephants and all kinds of slides etc. The children will love it there.
Sue
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Old Feb 11th, 2007, 04:21 PM
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Sue,
Thank you very much. Your information and advice is very helpful and appreciated.
We are very excited about our trip.
Robert
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Old Feb 18th, 2007, 07:23 AM
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I have to say I love the Marriott, we went last year and we are going again in April for a week, I cannot wait. My two boys had a great time and are looking forward to it.
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Old Feb 18th, 2007, 12:12 PM
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Am interested to know what kind of weather could be expected at the Marriott Phuket in say April or November. Is the ocean still nice?.

We have stayed there 3 times now, but always in Jan or Feb and the weather has been super.... Mid to high 80's with a nice ocean breeze.

I did hear of one woman who was there in October and it poured rain every single day, all day long.
Sue
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Old Feb 18th, 2007, 12:27 PM
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The end of november will have very pleasant weather. we've been to that area three times in Late November and sunny every day. No rain at all.
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