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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
I'm a bit out of my depth here, but this suite resort was a joy to stay in: most of the restaurants were a 7/10, though this is a joy to spend a few days in |
4.5
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In February 2024, I had a family trip in Phuket, where we stayed at the JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites. The rest of my family (my parents and sister) arrived a day before I did, and they checked into our Two-Bedroom Loft Suite and settled in. I thus wasn’t able to comprehensively review the room I stayed in, though Hailey was kind enough to take some photos for me to use in the review.
I can’t compare this hotel to similar resort hotels around the area, especially since this was my first time in any beach resort since pre-COVID. However, I can share the experience that I had, which was a great one that I’ll treasure. So this is a brief review of my experience at the JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites (if you’ve just stumbled upon this blog, I specialise in airline and airport lounge reviews), though I’m hoping that some of the pictures and descriptions will speak for themselves.
Booking The JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites
My rate was £608.09 (HK$6,230) per night including breakfast, which was decent, considering that our family of four could stay in one penthouse suite. I booked through Avios hotels, giving 10 Avios per £1 spent, meaning that I got 30,400 Avios back for our five-night stay (I considered this to be better value than the returns I’d get with Marriott Bonvoy).
Arriving at the JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites
The JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort and Suites shares hotel grounds with the JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort and Spa. The latter is a hotel mainly featuring rooms, with a couple of very premium suites. Meanwhile, the former is an all-suites property, though they’re located in older buildings on the perimeter of the hotel, and suites aren’t as expensive.
The resort has a shuttle to Khao Lak’s city center, and you can arrange an airport transfer from Phuket Airport – however, a Grab was far cheaper, so both my family and I elected for this instead (separately – they flew in on Sunday in Cathay Pacific business class, and I flew in on Monday in Singapore Airlines business class). There’s a cluster of resorts near this area of Khao Lak.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort and Suites Exterior
We walked to the hotel a couple of times since, and the outside area has quite a few palm trees. There’s a good Thai restaurant within walking distance, though you’ll have to take a taxi or other form of road transport to eat at other restaurants, or see lots of the more touristy attractions.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Exterior
After heading into an entryway, we saw the cool main entrance, which housed the hotel’s lobby and concierge.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort and Suites Exterior
The lobby itself is expansive with lots of seating. Reception was located on the right side, and I was handed a cold towel and welcome drink upon my arrival (despite the fact that I wasn’t actually checking in!).
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort and Suites Lobby and Check-In
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Two-Bedroom Loft Suite
I’ll show you around the room that we booked, before bringing you around the property.
Our Two-Bedroom Loft Suite was located around a 5-minute walk from reception – it was easy to get lost, though we got the hang of it after walking the same way a couple of times. The Loft Suite itself was a really great size. Downstairs was the master bedroom and the living room, with also included a dining table.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites Two Bedroom Loft Suite Living Room
The master bedroom itself featured a bed and balcony, though no desk.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites Two Bedroom Loft Suite Master Bedroom
The bathroom featured a partitioned glass toilet area, as well as a walk-in shower and tub. Water pressure was awesome across the board.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites Two Bedroom Loft Suite Master Bathroom
There were wooden stairs pointing up to the top floor. Our room was situated on the third floor, so the upper floor of the duplex functionally was the fourth floor of the building.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites Two Bedroom Loft Suite Stairs
The upstairs bedroom was cute and sizeable, with a very tall ceiling and a slanted window. The beds were very comfortable as well.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites Two Bedroom Loft Suite Upstairs Bedroom
This room also featured a bathroom, complete with a walk-in shower and Aromatherapy toiletries.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites Two Bedroom Loft Suite Toiletries
The room also featured a balcony, where I spent quite a bit of time people watching and working on my laptop.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites Two Bedroom Loft Suite Balcony
The balcony overlooked the main resort. As you can see, there was a “river pool” that snaked along the resort, which would sure be fun for younger children with floaties!
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Hotel Grounds
The hotel grounds were absolutely stunning. Mainly, days consisted of walking around the hotel and getting to jump into any of its pools, or just sitting in a deck chair next to one with a book or a laptop.
There were two main pools on either side – a shallower one for kids closer to the lobby, and the main one was closer to the sea.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Pools
Then as aforementioned, there was a river pool that passed by some of the pool-facing rooms, and snaked around the property.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Pools
I’m not going to go through all of the restaurants in detail. All of the restaurants were good, but not great – Western options included Drift (a beach bar serving seafood) and Italian restaurant Olive, then there were Thai and Japanese options as well.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Restaurants
One of the evenings we had a Valentine’s day menu at the Italian restaurant, Olive. I got a chicken roulade, which cemented my “7/10” view of the hotel restaurants – they were all fairly good, though nothing to write home about.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Dinner
There was also a deli that served coffee and pastries, which was open from 8 AM – 7 PM daily.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Deli
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Breakfast
While I won’t detail the dining options, breakfast was a standout for food options, both in terms of quality and variety. It featured a plethora of different cuisines, and had different “stations” of Chinese, South Asian, and Thai cuisine.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Breakfast Spread
There were a few made-to-order stands. I decided to get myself a “Thai omelette”, which had Thai basil and was made mostly of egg white.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Breakfast Spread Made-To-Order Omelette
The meal was served at the high-ceilinged, expansive Waterfront restaurant.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Breakfast Spread Waterfront
Do note that with most rates, breakfast is included with your Resort Suites room rate.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Beach
The resort opens out to the island’s west coast, so naturally there’s a beautiful beach. At no point did the beach feel overly crowded, and there were also great local restaurants (and other hotel resorts) a short walk away along the coastline. There’s a beach bar here
JW Marriott Khao Lak Beach
One night I went down to watch the sunset, and there was a wedding nearby, so I got to see some of the fireworks that they were throwing.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Sunset and Fireworks
There’s a beach bar as well open from 9:30 AM to 11:30 PM, with QR code ordering. I frequented their fresh coconut juice, though for some reason never took a photo (this went for about £5/HK$50). This is a photo my mom took of her pizza and mocktail.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Beach Bar Pizza and Mocktail
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Service
Most of the staff we interacted with at the JW Marriott Khao Lak were delightful. For example, housekeeping made some “towel art” for us on the second afternoon. I made a brief comment to housekeeping that the towel art was cute, and they continued to make us different animals every day.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Towel Art
The rest of my family had some issues checking in due to the previous guests checking out later than expected, so the hotel sent free coconuts as an apology to them as well. For the record, these were the same coconuts available at the beach bar downstairs.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Coconuts
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Other Facilities
The gym is quite impressive for a resort hotel, and featured lots of weight-training equipment, treadmills, and weights.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Gym
Additionally, there’s a separate area for classes. I also saw that there were bikes, presumably for riding around the area (I didn’t see anyone ride a bike within the property, and there’s also a fair amount of stairs and steps).
JW Marriott Khao Lak Gym
Close to the gym is a business center, in case anyone wanted to have meetings here.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Business Center
There’s also a kids’ room, including a pool table.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Pool Table
JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Late Check-Out Lounge
While I didn’t take advantage of this, there’s also a late check-out lounge in the same “complex” as the above facilities. Now, I don’t actually know whether I’d want to spend an afternoon relaxing in a sofa room that’s visible by all passing hotel guests, with no option for privacy. The small room with sofas also didn’t look very comfortable, and I’m not sure if there’s food or drink on offer. However, it’s good to know that there’s some option of accommodation if someone’s departing on a very late flight.
JW Marriott Khao Lak Late Check-Out Lounge
Conclusion: The JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites
The JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort Suites was such a great way to spend a few days with family. I’m not sure how hotels around the area compare, as I haven’t stayed at a beach hotel in a long time. I’m sure that neighbouring hotels could have cheaper accommodation options, or better food (we did go to a couple of neighbouring resorts that had better food options). However, I was definitely happy with my stay at this hotel, thought it was a good value, and would definitely recommend it.
Khao Lak is also a great area, with many delicious local food options if you’re keen.
