JW Marriott, Khao Lak, Thailand

Following our stay at Trisara in Phuket, we had to decide where to travel with APL. We had toyed with the idea of flying to Hong Kong, but our departing flight for our return to Los Angeles was from Bangkok and could not be changed. It did not make much sense to travel 1000+ miles when we had barely seen anything in Thailand. The question became where to go in Thailand. Choosing between vacation areas in Thailand is like trying to nail down the root cause of the financial crisis - it is overwhelming.

We first decided to skip the north - we can consider Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai when APL is older. We then had to decide on where to go in the south. I had spent time in Koh Samui in the 90's - and loved it. I had a bungalow on the beach for $10/night. I knew it had developed considerably over the past 20 years and I was hoping to find something less developed... and I did find it in Yao Noi. Yao Noi was everything I was looking for: beautiful, relatively undeveloped, not too far away... Unfortunately, it was also completely sold out. There are just a few resorts on the island and it was Easter. A lot of Thailand was sold out.

We did manage to secure rooms in Yao Noi but we had 5 nights to fill in the interim. I returned to my research. I was doing much of my hotel research using an Asian site called wotif.com. Wotif has an awesome matrix layout for hotels. And, for the most part, the prices wotif came up with were the same or better than anywhere else. What the matrix showed was that a lot of great places were completely booked for some or all of those 5 days.

In the end, I chose the JW Marriott in Khao Lak. It sounded pretty ideal for us. The area itself was on a very nice, sandy beach, and it was near amazing jungles. There was also a lot of scuba diving and snorkling available in the area. What really clenched it for us was that I currently have platinum status with Marriott - which meant we would get any available upgrade, in addition to a few other perks. I booked 3 nights... just in case it wasn't all that great. We could always move to another hotel in the area.


I then had to arrange transportation for the hour drive. The easiest thing to do was to just add a car from Trisara to our bill. But Trisara was asking 6,000 Baht for the trip ($200). That seemed steep to me. I called the Marriott and they said they would send a car to pick us up for 3,000 Baht. That was certainly better... but I wasn't quite done comparison shopping. I recalled reading about a couple of drivers in Phuket and Khao Lak on the TripAdvisor website when I was researching where to go. I ended up emailing 2 services. Both emailed me back within an hour - 1500 Baht for an air conditioned car. We had a deal.

We were picked up at our hotel in a modern Civic with tinted windows. It was a very comfortable ride. The driver even stopped on the way to buy us each a bottle of water. In the end, we used both of the services that I had emailed and I can recommend both. Very professional. Very nice cars (the other company sent a Lexus). And very reasonable. Here are their email addresses: cheaper_khaolak@ymail.com and aoy@khaolaktaxi.com (the 2nd one is more Khao Lak oriented).




The defining feature of the JW Marriott Khao Lak is their enormous pool system - over 3km of pools snake through the property. It really is impressive. And for a 4-year-old, what more is necessary for an ideal vacation?

APL was in those pools from morning until evening. We bought him a set of water wings in the hotel shop and he was instantly independent. Being independent in a deep pool was a very exciting development for APL.

I should mention that our first day and night at the JW was not perfect. Initially we were given a room near some construction and with a citronella smell that was making Karin gag. We moved to room 3121 - the only room we could find without an overpowering citronella aroma. Room 3121 had kind of a musty smell.... which I didn't really like... but we went with the musty smell over the citronella smell.


That night, I deeply regretted our decision. In fact, when I woke up at 3 AM, I actually considered waking up my roommates to move them to another room. In the end, I let them sleep. But first thing the next morning, I arranged a new room for us.












One of the staff - Kiril - went out of his way to make sure we were comfortable after that. And when we happened to meet the General Manager, Ty Collins, on the last night, he decided to refund that first night for us. He also extended an invitation to us for a future stay. So,  we ended up being treated very well, notwithstanding an initial annoyance with 3121.





Overall, it was a great stay for us. APL absolutely adored those pools. He even had a continuously-flowing hose to play with on a couple of occasions - the equivalent of pool nirvana for this 4-year-old. And they had good options for him in the eating department, including a pizza and a very solid quesadilla (this coming from someone who lives in a quesadilla-centric town).

Here is part of what I wrote in my tripadvisor review:

Your experience at this hotel is going to depend a lot on how you approach it. If you are looking for a reasonably-priced hotel in Thailand with a ginormous pool (over 3km) and a nice sandy beach, this will fit the bill. Our 4-year-old loved it. He spent the entire day in the pools... and there was plenty of variety in terms of pool options. There were also good food options for him. We really liked the quesadilla. And there's a great chocolate milkshake available.

If, on the other hand, you are attracted to this property because it is "5-star" or because it is Marriott's luxury flagship brand "JW", it depends on your definition of "5-star". I found it to be crowded - the 292 rooms and 3km of pools are spread over a good sized area - but that's a lot of rooms and a lot of people. You are always in sight of other rooms. And the cleanliness of the pools varies. If you want a very clean and quiet pool, I highly recommend the "Main Pool". 

One odd thing about the hotel were the giant pillows on the bed. And I mean GIANT. But a call to the front desk produced smaller pillows immediately. 



So... if you are looking for decent value and an miles of pools, in this area of Thailand, the JW Marriott will probably be perfect. 

In terms of food, breakfast is included for everyone. So breakfast is a huge, high-traffic buffet affair. There is an excellent egg station and they bake their breads on the premises. There are also Asian and Indian options. And a fresh smoothie bar where they will put together anything your heart desires. I would rate the breakfast a solid 8 out of 10. As for lunch, we ate primarily at the Infinity Bar. Avoid the burger. Everything else was very good.



We ate most of our dinners outside the hotel. There are restaurants on the beach both to the north and to the south of the hotel. We did not love the beach restaurants. We tried 2 of them and were surprised that neither one lived up to our local favorite Thai restaurant in San Diego - Siam Nara.

I was disappointed at not having great Thai food in Thailand. When I was there in the 90's I remember eating street food that killed anything I ever had in North America.

The beach in Khao Lak was great. Very nice sand, warm water, and miles to walk. Since APL was not into ocean play, we tended not to spend our days by the ocean. But I would head to the beach for an occasional ocean swim. It was beautiful. If APL had not been dictating where were were spending our days, we likely would have been on the beach.

Overall, Khao Lak ended up being a great stay for us... but primarily because APL loved the pools. I have to reserve judgment in terms of how it would be for us without a 4-year-old keeping us busy. We definitely would have done more in terms of excursions - and we would have spent more time at the beach. If I were choosing a hotel just for myself and my lady, I probably would choose somewhere with more seclusion.  On the other hand, if you have children, or if you like having people around, this is a fine choice.