how far is the beach?
Paolo
The best thing to do is to use Google Earth to look at the latest Satellite view of the Mai Khao area. The Mai Khao Beach Club lies behind the Anantara Hotel. The Anantara has the beach frontage and there is no access through the Anantara grounds to the beach other than for guests staying at the Anantara. The Anantara hotel is made up of pool villa spread over a large area.
To get to the beach the Mai Khao Concierge operates a Golf Buggy service that will take you to the beach but I think you have to walk back. i would say it is about 500 to 700 meters from the Mai Khao concierge and reception to the beach.
You must exit the resort to the road and then walk past the entrance to the Anantara and then find a small path that runs between the Anantara boundary and the boundary of the Phuket Beach Club / JW Marriott grounds. I would say it is a 10 to 15 minute walk.
Another option is to take the JW Marriott Shuttle bus which runs between Mai Khao Beach Club, Turtle Village Shopping Mall and the JW Marriott every 15 minutes and then walk through the JW Marriott grounds to the beach.
Another issue to bear in mind is that whilst guests at Mai Khao Beach Club are able to dine at all the restaurants in the JW Marriott and charge the costs to their Mai Khao Beach Club room account (and vice versa), Mai Khao Beach Club guests are not permitted to use any of the leisure facilities at the JW Marriott (pools - of which there are 3), fitness centre - (Mai Khao Beach Club has its own), Tennis - Mai Kho Beach Club guests can use the Anantara Tennis courts but I think they have to pay to use them.
These things tend to make Phuket Beach Club a more popular Marriott Timeshare since it is fully integrated with the JW Marriott and all the units have easy access to the beach and may use all the facilities of the JW Marriott.
You very rarely find Getaways available at Phuket Beach Club and definitely never at Christmas, New Year or Chinese New Year.