Having to attend a wedding in Phuket I made my home for 3 days at Le Méridien Phuket Beach Resort. A very short stay but still allowed me to enjoy some of the hotel’s facilities.
- Booking
- Location of Le Méridien Phuket
- Arrival and Check In at Le Méridien Phuket
- Le Méridien Phuket Junior Suite
- The general style of Le Méridien Phuket
- Fitness, swimming pool, beach
- Restaurant and bars at Le Méridien Phuket
- The staff and the service
- Check-out
- My opinion on Le Méridien Phuket
Booking
I booked as usual on the Marriott app for convenience and to get the best price guarantee. I booked a standard room.
A few days before my departure I saw that the reservation was updated and that I was upgraded to a junior suite.
Location of Le Méridien Phuket
Le Méridien Phuket Beach Resort is located in the southwestern part of the island.
It is located just south of Patong, in the Karon area, a very lively area by day and by night, but you will need a means of transport to get around outside the hotel. I would add that you have to appreciate the type of animation in Phuket, which is far from my cup of tea, but the hotel is relatively isolated and it is pleasantly quiet.
It is located about fifty kilometres from the airport which, with the local roads and traffic, means a good hour of driving which can be a bit of a pain when you’ve been flying for hours.
Arrival and Check In at Le Méridien Phuket
In order not to waste unnecessary time I had asked the hotel to organise my transfer from the airport. So they were waiting for me at the airport when my flight from Istanbul arrived.
It is a beautiful and very comfortable Mercedes. Inside there is plenty of fresh water and refreshing towels. It feels good.
I insist on the comfort of the car because after 10 hours of flight (without counting the connecting flight before) and with the difference in temperature in the middle of winter one is in a hurry to arrive and change.
Given the length of the journey from the airport to the hotel, if you can’t get there quickly you might as well get there comfortably. But how long and boring it was…
We finally arrive at the hotel. The bellman takes my suitcase and I head to the counter.The hotel is modern but local in style….the reception is therefore in a large open lobby.
I am immediately taken care of and offered a welcome drink. It is too early (11:30 am) and my room is naturally not ready. So I am invited to wait on one of the sofas in the lobby until they come to pick me. It won’t take more than 20 minutes, I’m promised.
20 minutes pass, which becomes 30, then 40… Because I don’t have a room, I can’t connect to the wifi…fortunately I have my skyroam to pass the time on the internet. I really start to find the time long and go to the counter…where I learn that my room is ready but that they forgot to warn me.
I wait a good 5 minutes until someone is available to take me there (I could have gone by myself but that’s the protocol) and I’m finally ready to take possession.
Le Méridien Phuket Junior Suite
From the entrance, on the left, there is a large bathroom with a shower and a bathtub.
However, there is only one washbasin and no separate toilet.
As it is more and more fashionable, the bathroom is open on the bedroom (but you can of course block the view with a curtain…).
We move on to the room itself with a large comfortable bed. Standard Le Meridien bedding in fact.
Opposite is a very nice sized desk. Very pleasant and convenient to settle down and work a bit.
Another nice touch is that the room is very well equipped with multi-standard power outlets and USB….
When you say suite, you say lounge. It is an extension of the “night” part. It has a sofa, coffee table and TV.
Nice but disappointing. There is no real separation between the two rooms, which is a shame. The advantage of a suite is that it separates the day and night areas, especially when there are several occupants, one of whom can watch TV or work while the other rests. Nothing like that here…I have the impression of a “grand deluxe” room with a lounge area disguised as a suite.
Then there is the small terrace with a nice view on one of the pools.
On the other hand, it was noisy at certain times of the day, the junior suites being on the lower floors of the hotel and therefore close to the leisure areas (the other rooms, which are smaller, being logically above to accommodate the slightly deeper suites). In the middle of the afternoon, even with the windows closed, I had to endure the music and noise of the aqua gym classes! It’s a good thing that the hotel was almost empty compared to its capacity and that there were few children, otherwise I don’t know what would happen.
In short, a well decorated room, sober, perhaps even too much so. I have seen things with more identity at Le Meridien. I won’t go back to the fact that it is more of a superior room than a suite in the strict sense. If the bedding is, as I said, very comfortable, the noise of the air conditioning was a bit too much.
So satisfactory but not much more.
A video visit anyway…
The general style of Le Méridien Phuket
As I said before, Le Méridien Phuket is a modernly designed building with a locally inspired style. This results in large open spaces, even the corridors leading to the rooms are open.
Apart from that, it is a large resort covering 16 hectares.
It’s clean, it’s not nearly as impersonal and without identity as the many low-end resorts you can find not so far away, it’s very well equipped but… But it is still a resort designed to accommodate a large number of guests. I was lucky that it was not very full when I was there (we were starting to feel the effects of COVD-19 at that time in Thailand whereas it was taken lightly in Europe) but it must be so full that it must be unbearable.
And while some effort has been made to give the hotel a modicum of style, don’t look for any charm or personality…but it is 100 times better than many resorts in the area. This is a very nice hotel for Phuket. The problem is Phuket.
And at night it’s very pretty.
Fitness, swimming pool, beach
Let’s start with the beach. Very large and beautiful, with good facilities.
But then again I don’t presume what it must be like when the hotel is full! If it was 20% full, that was the maximum.
The hotel also has three swimming pools.
The first one is a real swimming pool, with water lines, which is rare enough to be highlighted in leisure-oriented properties.
Next to it is another swimming pool dedicated to children and families. It is more playful than sporty.
Finally, the highlight of the show is a third huge “U” shaped pool surrounding an island with restaurants.
It looks better from the front with a wide angle.
I can confirm the visual impression: it’s really gigantic, I don’t remember ever having seen such a big pool. But don’t imagine that it’s for everyone to have a lot of room, it’s just to fit the capacity of the hotel. Imagine when it’s full…
This pool is up to 2m deep in some places, which is also to be commended. Another consequence, which I think is intentional, is that you won’t find any children there, they are on the other side in the “play” pool. Moreover, this one is referenced as “Adult pool”.
Le Méridien Phuket also has a gym, a very nice gym.
In terms of space it is one of the largest I have seen in a hotel and it is very well equipped. A real pleasure but once again, beware: when the hotel is 3/4 empty it’s fine, when it’s full …. But on the other hand I have never seen gyms so little used as in beach resorts and hotels….
I didn’t have time to try the spa.
Restaurant and bars at Le Méridien Phuket
The hotel has no less than 10 restaurants and several bars. Given the shortness of my stay, the discovery was limited…especially as the lack of customers meant that the service was minimal.
Light and quick cocktails, I don’t recommend. At least with beer you are never disappointed. Fast and friendly service.
I only tried one restaurant: the Japanese one where I had a very good Teppanyaki, but not at the level of the Westin or the Prince Gallery in Tokyo. But it’s not the same price.
The staff and the service
My contact with the staff was quite limited and in a property of this size you don’t see them very much.
In my experience friendly and efficient in general, very good in the Japanese restaurant, a bit sloppy at the reception.
Check-out
I asked for a late check-out which was of course granted. I checked out online on my mobile phone as usual so I didn’t have to go through the reception again. Smooth and seamless.
My opinion on Le Méridien Phuket
Le Méridien Phuket est pour moi un très bon resort. Nice facilities, everything is in excellent condition, service is good…
After that it’s a matter of choice or rather of preferences. If you like very large resorts, families with children, places full of activity and almost exclusively leisure-oriented stays, then this one will satisfy you.
Otherwise you have come to the wrong place. If you want a more premium service and especially quietness and privacy this is not the right place. But why do you go to Phuket and especially to this part of the island?
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