Second time in Phuket

Written: 3 april 2014
Travel time: 17 — 30 march 2014
Who does the author recommend the hotel to?: For a relaxing holiday; For business travel; For families with children; For recreation with friends, for young people
Your rating of this hotel:
8.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms: 8.0
Service: 8.0
Cleanliness: 8.0
Food: 8.0
Amenities: 8.0
Were in this hotel from 17 to 30 March 2014, operator Sunmar/Odeon

Location .

The hotel is located on the third line of Patong, a little in the back of the block, which provides peace and quiet at night. Quite far from the sea. We didn't go there on foot, but there is a shuttle from the hotel and back every hour.

There are cafes around the hotel, but there are not many of them, mostly cafes of other hotels. But if you walk left down the street for about ten minutes, you will reach the Jung Ceylon shopping center and the market, where there is plenty of all this, you can go there to eat or buy fresh food and ask to cook. Also, if you go to the left and turn to the first street to the right, you can find in the evening rows of macaroons with various food, which is fried on braziers. In general, the location can be called successful, since the hotel is close to Jung Ceylon and Bangla Road, and there are no problems with moving to the beach. The hotel is located in the northern part of Patong, it is good to swim there - the water is much cleaner than in the south.
Accommodation.

We arrived early in the morning, at eight o'clock, reached the hotel quickly, the guide accompanied us to the reception and handed us over to them. Check-in at the hotel from 14-00. When asked to settle, they immediately asked to wait a bit and then refused, explaining that all the rooms were occupied. Therefore, we changed in the toilet, left things under the supervision of the reception and went for a walk.
We returned at 13 o'clock, sat down to rest in the hall, but less than five minutes had passed, as they noticed us and invited us to move in. We got a room on the seventh floor (721), to the left of the elevator (the elevators are silent). The view from the windows is towards the city and the sea.
This turned out to be a plus, because in the morning the sun did not shine through the windows and you could safely sit and drink coffee and smoke on the balcony. Showed up around 13:00.
Upon check-in, they take a deposit of $ 100, which they seal in an envelope and issue a receipt. When you check out, you get this particular banknote back.
Tipping was not given upon check-in, only to the guy who was dragging the suitcase. This is generally a vicious practice of Russian tourists, corrupting the staff. You still won’t get the best number right away, so if you change it later, then you can sweeten it.
At the reception during the day, a girl who is not from the locals works, normally, not “Thai” speaking English.

Number

The soundproofing in the room is normal, the noise penetrated only through the front door from the corridor, when the Chinese passed there, of which there are a lot in the hotel.
Air conditioning built-in, well located, the bed is not blowing. Works very quietly. The outdoor unit is installed between the balconies and also makes little noise, the hot air from it almost does not get to the balcony (I compare it with our friends' hotel).

The room is spacious, bright and in excellent condition. Light furniture, soft warm light. The light on the balcony turns on behind the curtain, at first they did not find the switch.
The toilet and shower are separated by a glass partition, the shower is non-removable. The water flows well, so that it goes hot (and it is really hot! ), You need to wait half a minute. There is a shower for a bidet and a hair dryer.
Some wrote about the smell in the shower. Yes, a couple of times it smelled of swede. We found out that it smells from the drain next to the toilet. The problem is solved by installing a trash can on the drain. The drain itself does not smell.
Towels: two large ones and two for the face, which were subsequently removed by the staff and we struggled for a long time to have them returned to us. It turned out that they cleaned the entire hotel for unknown reasons.
Beach towels are issued at the reception under the signature in the magazine. The towels are good, they even smell nice, not dry cleaning like in Egypt.
The closet has automatic lighting, a pair of bathrobes, and a pair of women's-sized flip flops. Also there is a safe of decent dimensions with an electronic lock.
To set your code, you need to flip the switch on the inner far end of the door.
There is a kitchen corner: an electric kettle (metal, does not stink of plastic), two cups, spoons, a set of tea, coffee and sugar bags, which are replenished when the room is cleaned. The refrigerator is traditionally small, it cools rather weakly. Ice cannot be made. The drinks were cold, but not icy. Watermelon, left for two days, sour. After I unwrapped the fridge and cleaned the vents in the back, the cooling was noticeably better.
There is a minibar in the refrigerator, the contents of which we immediately pulled out onto the shelf and did not touch again. Prices for drinks - almost like in a store. The bar comes with a booklet of receipts with prices. Two bottles of Evian belong to the minibar, two bottles with Andakira black stickers are free. The stock is replenished when cleaning, or you can catch the maid and take it from her.

The bed is a hefty, made up of two. The mattresses are quite hard, but I slept well, my back did not hurt and the mattresses did not move around at night.
Linen is clean, soft, not torn. Changed with every cleaning.
The TV is large, modern, showing three channels of Russian TV. There is also a DVD with the ability to read memory cards and USB flash drives.
There are enough sockets, but the voltage in the network, apparently, is slightly less than normal, because our iPad did not start charging from a non-original charger, from which it was perfectly charged at home.
Not a single insect and other living creatures were found in the room, but mosquitoes pestered the reception in the evenings.
A decent-sized balcony, a table, two wicker chairs. It is convenient to dry wet things on the side fence of the air conditioner, having previously wiped off the dust from it.
You can't smoke in the room, on the balcony - please, but there is no ashtray.

Nutrition.
Dining room - on the ground floor, behind the reception, on the terrace under the roof. Sometimes they wrote down our number, sometimes they went through without recording. I worked until 10-30, as it is written, and not like others, who folded at 10.
The food is excellent! (compared to other hotels)
In addition to the standard set of any traveler - eggs in different types and ham sausages, every day there were dishes of pork, chicken and fish (cooked differently each time). There was delicious local Pad Thai noodles, stewed vegetables, beans in sauce, thin rice porridge, cereals with milk, fruits of various kinds, fresh croissants, white and gray bread, jam, muffins and other tasty treats. Lots of different vegetables and sauces for them.
In general, the food turned out to be varied and for the first time I never got bored in two weeks.
After breakfast, the dining room turned into a paid restaurant mode and you could have a bite to eat there without leaving the hotel.

It was also possible to order food in the room, but we did not use it. It was amused that for some reason the menu hung in the elevator, but it was not in the room. And it also turned out that it is far from complete, and you can see the full one at the pool bar.

So the pool!

The swimming pool in this hotel is what pleased us the most!
At the level of the third floor, it encircles the facade and is conditionally divided into several zones: on the left - a children's splash and a "jacuzzi" (turned on by a round button on the side), the central part (1.3 m deep) and the right, private part, into which the numbers of expensive rooms open. These rooms were not occupied, you can safely swim up to their steps, in which there are also “jacuzzis” and enjoy.

pool bar
Officially, the pool bar is open until 21-00, where you can also order food from the lower restaurant. The choice is extensive. But I don’t advise ordering cocktails there - they don’t know how to cook them at all, thrown away money!
There is billiards, you can play until the bar closes. You need to insert a coin into the receiver to get the balls.
At 21-00 the bar closes, sometimes the lights go out in the lobby. After that, the most pleasant thing begins: you can come with your drinks and even food and spend time there quietly, at least all night, if you don’t make noise. What we regularly did! Our friends from another hotel came to us, they didn’t drive anyone, although according to the rules of the hotel you can’t bring your own and driving guests is also not welcome.
The water in the pool is clean, warm enough, almost no chlorine is felt, so every evening we enjoyed a pleasant evening water after hot beaches, sitting with a bottle of cold beer for a friendly conversation.


Motobikes

If you are young, brave and reckless, you should definitely take a motorbike in Tai! Otherwise, this is not a vacation in Thailand.
There are motorbikes in the hotel, and a lot, but they are given strictly if you have a category “A” in your driving license, you are asked to present them.
The cost is -300 baht per day, which, in general, is a little expensive.

Since I didn’t have this category, we turned to the hotel opposite and there we calmly took the bike, leaving the old expired passport as a pledge (it was taken from us just in such a case and was not cut, like many others, when replacing).
The hotel has a large covered parking area for cars and bikes, so safety is guaranteed.

Cleaning (if anyone is interested)

Unobtrusive if you put up a “do not disturb” sign. If it doesn't hang, they can come early in the morning. They clean normally, I liked that they didn’t touch our bottles, combs, etc. , which was annoying in the hotels of Egypt (they always lined up everything according to their height and beautifully in their opinion).
They came, swept, changed the linen, washed the cups and left.
Tipping was left a couple of times, but this did not affect the quality of cleaning.

Tours .

Since we are in Phuket for the second time, we took only one excursion - to Phi Phi for two days, which we later regretted.
There is nothing to do there for two days, one is enough. There are no special beauties there, two islands are interesting - comrade Bond and comrade DiCaprio, who starred in the movie "The Beach" on one of the islands. There is also nothing special to do on snorkeling, there are fish, but this is not the Red Sea for you.
We spent the night on the main island in a guesthouse, proudly called a “hotel”, but in fact it looks a lot like a pioneer camp hut, although with all the amenities.
At night, the island has a cool party like Ibiza, cocktails are sold in liter buckets, dances and fire shows all over the coast. The sea there is dirty and smelly, it does not pull you to swim in the evening. Young people will enjoy the party, the older ones the first day and overnight on the island seemed like an unnecessary waste of time and money.

Internet and communication

He was terrible! If in the lobby Wi-Fi was still running pretty fast, then in the room …
It connected everywhere and the reception showed full, but it slowed down terribly, and even worse, it just hung and had to constantly reconnect. Skype ended after a minute, the pictures were unloaded for a very long time. It worked best in the early morning, which is natural, the load on the network is low.

There was one computer with wired internet in the lobby, we didn't use it.
But in general, the Internet is everywhere there, in any cafe and massage parlor. The password can be asked from the staff or it is written on a sign, napkin holder or on the wall.
Upon arrival, you can take a free SIM card in the airport hall at a special counter after passport control. Tour operators also, as a rule, give an envelope with advertisements and sim cards. But there is a caveat - it is very difficult to connect a mobile Internet package to these free travel SIM cards. It is better to contact the communications department in Jang Ceylon, buy a normal SIM card and they will connect it to you there. The cost is around 300 baht for 500 GB.
By the way, they already have 4G LTE.

Departure.

We had a departure at 07-30 in the morning, they took us three hours before departure, exactly at the appointed time. The day before departure, a fax from the tour operator came to the hotel, it was slipped under the door of our room.

Outcome

Pros: - quiet, calm, without strain;
- a magnificent pool that takes pleasure to a new level
- great breakfasts
Cons: - slow wifi
- motorbikes are given only if there is a category

We really liked Andakira. This was our best hotel we have ever been to. If I go to Patong again, I will stay here!
I strongly recommend it for all categories of vacationers.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original

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