Phuket Orchid Resort and Spa

We stayed at Phuket Orchid Resort for 16 nights as a family and overall had a good stay. I’ve given it 3 stars because there is plenty to like here: it’s good value, the staff are consistently friendly, the pools are excellent and the location is very convenient. However, over a longer stay some of the hotel’s limitations become much more noticeable, particularly if you are travelling with teenagers.

Check-in was friendly but quite frantic and could have been managed more efficiently. We had booked two rooms and were disappointed that they were allocated on different floors. To be fair, we accepted this and didn’t ask to move, but given that we were staying for 16 nights it would have been nice if rooms closer together had been allocated from the start. On the positive side, our requested bed arrangements were correct.

Our room was a reasonable size, with plenty of useful shelving and storage. The fridge was fine, the safe worked properly and there were plenty of Thai power sockets. The bed was comfortable and overall cleanliness was good.

Housekeeping staff were always very friendly, although the daily clean could have been more thorough. For example, the bathroom sink was rarely wiped. The timing could also be inconvenient as on some days our room wasn’t cleaned until after 4pm, just when we wanted to come back, cool down and get ready before going out for the evening.

Our room, 4420, had a particularly poor view straight onto a large unattractive building, so this definitely isn’t a room to choose for the scenery!

The air conditioning generally worked well. We initially found that it kept returning to 29°C, although we realised this may have been related to opening the balcony door to hang out wet swimming costumes rather than a fault with the system.

The bathroom was perfectly adequate with good water pressure, although the shower temperature had a habit of suddenly changing from hot to cold or vice versa, which gave us a few surprises! A useful Thailand traveller tip: don’t flush toilet paper down the toilet. You will regret it!

Whenever we did report an issue, staff dealt with it well, and communication was never a problem. The staff spoke excellent English and were consistently friendly throughout our stay.

The two main pools are a real strength of the hotel. They are large, clean and well maintained, and we particularly enjoyed the quieter pool away from the water slides. We rarely had difficulty finding sunbeds, which was a pleasant surprise. Our teenagers tried the slides once but weren’t particularly interested in using them again; I can imagine they would be a much bigger attraction for younger children.

The pool towel system could be improved. The orange towels are linked to your room, which can make things unnecessarily confusing when you simply want to hand back wet towels at the end of a swim.

The resort itself makes a good first impression and the grounds are maintained every day. However, there are areas that are beginning to look tired and would benefit from refurbishment. Some broken or damaged areas have been patched up, including with Astroturf, rather than properly renovated. Nothing felt unsafe; it was cosmetic, but it does stop the resort feeling as polished as it could.

Breakfast was included in our stay. There was enough choice, including for the vegetarians in our family, and the Asian food was generally good. The egg stations were also very good. However, over 16 mornings it became very repetitive. The fruit selection rarely changed, the tea was weak and it would have been good to see the Western breakfast choices mixed up occasionally – something as simple as hash browns appearing from time to time would have made a difference.

The hotel itself warns that breakfast becomes very busy after around 8.30am, and they aren’t joking! At peak times it can be frantic, noisy and crowded, so going earlier makes for a much more pleasant start to the day.

We only ordered pool snacks once because hotel food and drink prices were considerably higher than those available just outside. This felt like a missed opportunity for the hotel. With more competitive pricing we would certainly have bought more drinks and snacks and probably used the swim-up bar. Instead, when good, inexpensive food and drink is literally a stone’s throw away, there is little incentive to spend resort prices.

The location is excellent for Karon Beach, which is only around a five-minute walk away – although crossing the road can sometimes feel like playing chicken with the traffic! There are plenty of places to eat and shop nearby. The restaurant immediately next door was good, and Yuma Cafe & Bar, a short walk away, was absolutely outstanding and easily our favourite restaurant of the holiday. Karon Mini Mart and 7-Eleven are also close by and very handy for inexpensive drinks, snacks and ice creams.

Getting further afield was more expensive than we expected. Grab and Bolt prices in Phuket were noticeably higher than we have experienced on previous trips to Pattaya, Penang and Hoi An, and this did sometimes influence our decision about whether to go somewhere. Obviously this isn’t the hotel’s fault, but it is worth considering when choosing where to stay in Phuket.

Wi-Fi was consistently reliable and fast throughout our stay. The hotel was also pleasantly quiet at night. It is predominantly a family resort, and although there was some music around the pool, we never had problems with noise disturbing us.

My biggest criticism is the lack of facilities for older children and teenagers. There is a kids’ club, but very little for teenagers to do within the resort. A dedicated teens/games area with a pool table, table football, games and somewhere to socialise would make an enormous difference.

This becomes particularly noticeable during monsoon season. On a wet day there really isn’t much to do at the hotel. Considering the size of the resort and its focus on families, better indoor facilities would significantly improve the experience. Our teenagers weren’t particularly interested in the water slides, so once the novelty of the pools had worn off, their options within the hotel were very limited.

One final positive deserves a special mention. We had an evening flight home and asked the day before whether we could have a late checkout. It took some logistical juggling, but the manager, Melanie, kindly arranged for us to keep one of our rooms until 3pm at no extra charge. Our airport transfer was at 4pm, so this made our final day vastly more comfortable than spending several hours waiting around in the heat. We really appreciated her help.

Overall, Phuket Orchid Resort offers good value for money, friendly staff, excellent pools and a very convenient location near Karon Beach. Families with younger children who love swimming and water slides may well rate it more highly than we did.

For us, after 16 nights, the repetitive breakfast, expensive resort food and drinks, some tired areas and – most importantly – the lack of facilities for teenagers prevented it from being a four-star experience.

Would we stay again? Probably not. That’s not because we had a bad stay – we didn’t. We enjoyed our holiday and the hotel did many things well. But the world is too big to return to somewhere that was nice rather than amazing.

With some refurbishment, more competitive food and drink prices and, above all, improved facilities for families with teenagers, Phuket Orchid could be a much stronger resort.

The pool facilities are a blast! The big slide is super fun, but the highest one is actually pretty slow and ends with a tiny splash. The kids' pool area was a huge hit for a relaxing time. My main concern is that there were no visible lifeguards on duty, even at the 1.4M slide plunge end. All the pools are really well maintained, there are plenty of sun loungers, and the staff are nice.

Breakfast isn't amazing, but there's a lot of it. Since it's outdoors, it could really use some cooling modules or heavy-duty fans.

The WiFi is just okay and keeps cutting out or saying "connected without internet." The in-room phone wasn't working and couldn't be replaced for two days.

They didn't honor our paid and requested twin room layout, and instead sent out a creaky fold-away bed. The bathroom windows don't lock, and the pillows are super high.

Check-in is slow and disorganized, with a welcome drink area that always seems to be empty and full of used glasses. They didn't even try to restock it, even after I asked and had to wait until after 3 pm to check in.

The location is awesome, just a 5-minute walk to the beautiful beach across the road.

Great location and team, nice facilities front desk and team of breakfast absolutely amazing. overall cleanness to be improved. rooms dated but functional.