Lovely hotel but underwhelmed Bang Tao Beach

The hotel itself is lovely - very new, clean and it was not at all crowded. We went at the end of May for a long weekend as a group of 6. The 3 bedroom apartment was absolutely huge! It was very high spec and really felt like we were in a villa. The staff at the hotel were absolutely superb - very attentive and incredibly friendly. Overall, we really loved the hotel. The beach is a very short walk (50m) from the hotel back entrance, where you have to cross a quiet road. The beach area was very small and the sea is quite murky and the waves were ferocious – I wouldn’t let young children in the sea by themselves. The spa in the hotel was great – especially when they presented us with a buy one get one free massage voucher. However, I would have been very bored had I stayed much longer than 3 days / 2 nights. It’s fine if you like lazing by the pool or by the beach but I personally like to do something during the day. The hotel beach restaurant (there are two) was only ok, whereas the Lotus restaurant and bar next door was simply fantastic. They have a very modern, chic bar and the food in the restaurant was amongst the best I’ve ever had – a dozen fish tanks with lobster, prawns and several varieties of fish. Walking down the beach was also pretty underwhelming – the rival restaurants were shabby but we ate quite well at the first one after Lotus (turn left as you face the sea). There is a taxi rank right outside should you want to get out of the resort and they are much cheaper than the hotel taxi (800 Bhat vs. 2,200 to the airport), which is about 25mins drive away. Overall, we enjoyed our time at the hotel but I couldn’t imagine spending a week or longer there, as I would have gone stir crazy. The hotel can lay on excursions, but they are all at least 30 mins – 1 hour drive away. So in short, a really lovely hotel but if you are after a more authentic Thai experience, I would consider going to a different resort – Phuket just felt like a poor man’s Krabi.