Centara Grand Beach Phuket

We had an ok stay at Centara, however towards the end of our stay, a bag of duty free shopping went missing, which affected the rest of our stay. Management checked cameras and spoke to housekeeping staff who denied taking anything, but of course the bag did not disappear by itself, it would have been easy to hide in a trolley. Had left the bag outside the wardrobe. Contents were not expensive, it’s the fact our trust was broken that we were bothered by, especially being a supposedly 5 star hotel. The incident is what made this a 2 (poor) rating otherwise would be 3 (average) rating overall. The good bits… - Location is good, on a nice beach, quick taxi ride to Karon markets, 7/11 shops and spa places. Possible to walk there along the beach but there is a small section you have to walk through water. - Cocktails were good, food was decent. Recommend asking for no ice in your cocktails to be safe. - Breakfast was good, fresh omelette was the best, they use a different technique so it’s not your typical folded omelette. - Restaurant food is decent. We usually had steak or pizza. - Had a room with a plunge pool, view of the ocean was nice. - Hotel has good taxi service. We used the hotels taxi the first day then switched to a local app which was cheaper. - Spa treatment was good, had one with a hair mask, very relaxing. Had slight allergic reaction to body scrub, took antihistamines to calm urge to scratch, it went away in few days. - Bathroom and bedroom setup is nice with sliding doors separating them. The average or bad bits… - Duty free shopping bag went missing from room (see intro to review). - Hotel condition is worn out. Had read this in other reviews but decided to give the hotel a try. Tried running water in the bath and it smelt like sewage so did not bother using it. It’s a shame as it’s a nice feature of the room. - Found a cockroach in my room in the middle of the night. - Had mosquitoes in the room, most bites I’ve had on a holiday in years. Understand it’s a tropical country so can be hard to avoid. Hotel could take better measures to avoid them in the room, e.g. provide plug in repellent. - Window blinds would not close one day, maintenance came and fixed them. - The ocean tide is strong and has large waves. People were being knocked over by waves. You have to swim a fair bit out for it to be settled. Not a beach where you can walk out and relax in the ocean. This didn’t bother us much as we had plans to explore Phuket so only had a couple days on the beach. Read less

We stayed at Centara resort for 4 days in July to escape Melbourne winter. Overall experience was good - clean rooms, nice views, warm pool and decent bar. We didn't do buffet breakfast, but food ordered as room service was alright. Big plus for a family with kids under 7yo were slides and lazy river. Few negative-ish points to consider: - pools have uneven floor - something like "natural landscape" simulation with fake rocks at the edges. esthetical idea is nice, but both kids and ourselves ended up with scratched knees from day 1. - getting to Karon town on foot was not easy. it'd be a short nice walk, BUT - there is a small river to be crossed, and the bridge doesn't have pedestrian path. so the only way to get past it is taking detour through the beach - which with little kids gets tiresome. Alternative - taxi for ~8aud one way. - both kids ended up with gastro after enjoying the pool. but i guess that's expected in tropical resorts. There was one thing though that completely screwed up our experience and impressions of the hotel on the very last day. One of our little ones accidentally tripped the clay umbrella holder, and a piece of it fell off. Don't get me wrong, I understand that accidents happen, and one needs to pay for the damage. This is why we reported what happened to the reception. I just can't believe that clay tube, which frankly can be fixed with superglue overnight, costs ~400aud that were changed to our account. tldr - it was good fun, but a bit unfortunate to be left with acid aftertaste. Read less