My Friend’s House Karon

We had a spacious duplex family unit with separate bedrooms and a bathroom, and it was good value. There are nice restaurants nearby, and we appreciated the free beach towel and mat. The walk to Karon or Kata beaches is about 30 minutes, despite what Google Maps or Agoda suggest. The reception could use more ventilation. Coffee and tea were available there, but the hot water wasn’t ready, apparently with energy savings in mind. There’s no elevator, so getting large suitcases up the stairs to the second floor was tricky.

It takes about 25 minutes to walk to Karon Beach, along busy roads, which is why I’ve given four stars. The place was excellent value, though. We enjoyed the pool and the shaded seating area out back, and they put out free coffee and cookies during the day. Beach mats and towels were available too, and the service was excellent.

The reception staff were mostly kind and helpful, and the hotel itself is clean and reasonably well maintained. But my stay was easily the worst I’ve had in Karon or Kata in ten years. I paid about 1,600 baht a night through Agoda for a single room, which isn’t cheap for this area, and got one with no balcony. A high window facing a traffic road doesn’t count as a balcony, and the traffic noise was awful. The photos online looked completely different. There were apparently empty rooms by the pool, but an upgrade wasn’t offered. The hotel is on Patak Road, the noisiest street around, with only a few low quality restaurants about 200 metres away. Agoda listed the sea as 850 metres away, but I checked: it’s 1,300 metres on foot toward Kata and 1,600 toward Karon Circle. The road is dangerous and has no sidewalks, so even getting to the livelier area near the temple and its good restaurants feels risky. The pool is nice, but much smaller than the photos make it look and doesn’t get much sun. The coffee and tea area by reception was depressing. The biscuits were stale and chewy, and the sugar jar was full of ants. They should use individual portions. One receptionist, a thin woman who looked Indian, quoted me a flat 700 baht for a taxi to Phuket Town when I asked on departure day. I declined politely because the Blue Bus costs 40 baht and a metered taxi should be no more than 300. It felt like she wasn’t choosing what was best for me and wanted a commission from a local taxi operator. Same old shameful scam. I’ll report it to the TOURIST OFFICE. It says a lot about how a hotel treats its clients. This one treated me very badly.

There are a couple of good restaurants nearby, and the staff were very good. For the price, the stay was okay, though our shower leaked water all over the bathroom floor. If I could do it again, I’d probably choose Patong or the other side of Phuket for convenience, since it’s about an hour’s drive each way to either place.