Phuket Beach Club

[Gaff]

The bride and I just snagged two weeks (2 bdrm) at the MPBC for two studios at grande vista. :whoopie: :whoopie: We were interested in getting some recommendations on things to do and restaurants to try. We will pick up a car at the airport so any advice on supermarkets would also be appreciated.
Thanks for the assist!

Gaff

 

[Pat H]

Can't help with your question but for what dates did you get Phuket?

 

[jancurious]

Congratulations! You are going to love this resort - really the best one we have been too.

Before we went people told us that you won't really recognize much in the grocery stores. I took a cooking class while there and we went to an open market and I hardly recognized anything! Thus, we shopped a bit at the Marketplace and ate most dinners at the resort. There are 4-5 restaurants on the property and although they are a lot more expensive than elsewhere in Thailand, they are no more than a normal restuarant in the states - much cheaper than typical resort prices.

The MarketPlace is the best I have ever seen. They have a huge bakery and deli as part of it so it was just fun to pop down there even for lunch or breakfast.

Maybe others can chime in on grocery stores for you. Congratulations!

Jan

 

[GrayFal]

Can't help with your question but for what dates did you get Phuket?

Inquiring Minds want to Know!!!

 

[Hoc]

If you want groceries in your room, you might consider using www.holidayready4u.com You can shop and plan your meals online before you go, and then they will deliver to your room on your first day.

Don't use the Marriott service for the welcome package, as the prices are outrageous.

I did not see any grocery stores with many familiar items, and mostly I ate at the resort restaurants or in my room. There were stories of people getting food poisoning from eating off of the resort grounds, so it just didn't seem worth it to take a chance on ruining my vacation like that. The prices at the resort restaurants, while high by Thai standards, were reasonable by U.S. standards, so I say go for it.

 

[sage]

Phuket Beach Club - Things to do

Sorry but I don't know how to link a previous post so I copied it from the one I wrote.

Just got back from Phuket, Thailand. We had a great time.
I can answer some of your questions.

The Marriott is isolated.
It is about 30-45 minutes by car from the main shopping centres (Big C; Central Festival & Tesco).
It’s just over an hour from Patong.
It faces a beautiful (& really clean) beach and happy hour watching the sunset was a daily ritual.

Getting Around
There is a shuttle from the Marriott to the shopping centres but I don’t know when or where it goes from.
We organised a driver who stayed with us for the week. He picked us up each day we wanted to be driven around and charged between 1000-1500 baht (AUD $30-50) per day 4-8 hours. It was worth every cent. He stayed with us and waited while we went shopping. We could leave our things in the van while we went looking at the sights. We offered to take our driver to lunch each day but most days he declined.

The ResortAbsolutely beautiful!
Rooms were large and luxurious – a treat as we got it on flexchange about 3 weeks before we arrived. There are 3 pools; numerous restaurants and programmed activities.
The kids club had circus school; tamika car racing; ten pin bowling excursions for the teens and thai boxing lessons.
Happy hour (1/2 price drinks) are between 5.30 & 7pm.
There are NO BBQ’s available to guests – unless you want to by a BBQ dinner (very expensive) where a butler brings the meat, salads and BBQ to your room and cooks for you.

Dining
The beach restaurants that were there a couple of years ago are gone due to the tsunami. The resort restaurants can be quite pricey. We ordered groceries beforehand through holidayready4u@hotmail.com. Everything was delivered shortly after we arrived and was excellent quality.
There are fast food outlets (KFC, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Subway & Auntie Ann’s Pretzels) in most shopping centres.
The best deal we found was in Central Festival. Thailands solution to Starbucks is Black Canyon – a string of coffee shop restaurants. There were 5 of us traveling (5 adults). We bought around 7 dishes to eat there + drinks and 13 dishes to take home. The whole lot cost around AUD $50 (US$36). We had these for dinner the next two days.
Big C has a really good supermarket where you can buy just about anything and the most amazing array of tropical fruits.
At some of the temples there are vendors selling fruit or cooked foods (the corn was delicious!)

Sightseeing
We didn’t go on any tours to the islands as my mum-in-law is frightened of boats & can’t swim so we went shopping, hung around the resort and did the following:

A must do is taking a ride on an elephant. We did a 2 hour show. Our driver took us there and waited while we rode elephants; watched a monkey show; rice paddy demonstration and a baby elephant show. We also stopped at the Chalong Temple on the way home.

Patong is quite a drive but worth it for the experience. Be warned – the smell of sewerage prevails; it is very busy at the markets and crowded on the beach.
We went to the beach and went swimming. Not advisable! My daughter got an infection in a cut and ended up in hospital with a blood infection (one of the best & cleanest hospitals we’ve ever seen!).
The beach was murky and quite smelly.
My teenagers liked the markets but couldn’t wait to get back to the resort due to its cleanliness.

Our relatives went to James Bond Island; Phi Phi Island and Fantasea. The boat trips were by speedboat and a bit rough but they had an enjoyable day on each trip. My nieces and nephew said the Fantasea show was the highlight of their trip. It has just been revamped and the show and food were great.

Shopping
Central Festival is an upmarket, American style shopping centre while Big C is cheaper and catering for the locals. Big C has a better supermarket which is similar to Walmart. Downstairs is a level of electronics and gadgets. We got our eyes tested and had prescription glasses made up in an hour for about AUD$80 instead of $260 back home. Tesco is like Big C.
The market have some really great bargains especially in carved wood; silk cushion covers; runners and clothing.

Hope this gives you a better insight into Phuket.

Gillian

 

[Starbucks]

As a proud and happy owner at MPBC, here are my suggestions:

Restaurants on site:

We prefer eating at Cucina (Italian) and the Marriott Cafe (International/Buffet) as well as the quite new Ginja (Thai). There is also a Steak&Seafood Restaurant "Andaman Grill" and the "Kabuki Sushi Bar" to choose from. Cucina tries to serve real authentic italian cuisine and IMHO they do a great job there. However quality depends on the actual Chief (currently an Italian living in NZ) so YMMV. Buffet selection at the Marriott Cafe is huge and no one should leave hungry. A la carte selection offers also quite few popoular Thai Dishes (Pad Thai etc.) and all-time-favourites as Club Sandwich or Burgers. Dont miss out the desert buffet which can be ordered seperately for approx. 300 Baht/each. Also there is a tea-time special at the Lobby Bar which allows having a nice tea-time and enjoying the show-acts during the sunset.

off-site Restaurants

Nearly impossible to reach one by walking, so having a rental car seems advisable to get there. All sorts of Restaurants are available on the island so finding something adequate might not be a problem at all. Pick up the Phuket Restaurant guide at the concierge desk in the JW Main Lobby to get a list of possibilities. If looking for authentic local cuisine, there is a nice restaurant near the beach halfway between the HKT Airport and the resort which you could reach easily by car (15min). Did get the recommondation from our favourite MVC associate Patrick, so just ask him for the restaurant (He normally is the "show guy" at the owner party on monday, so catching him might be quite easy). Another idea: There is a leaflet inside your suite offering something like "rent a cook". Nice and affordable experience having a chief cooking some steak dinner for you and enjoying it on the balcony.

Supermarkets

Currently there is only one bigger supermarket on the Island. "Tesco" is located close to the intersection between the roads to Phuket Town and Patong. Allow approx. 45min (oneway) to get there from the resort. You can buy nearly everything there but Thai government has recently introduced a law in Thailand which prohibits the sale of less than 10litres of alcohol during the hours of 9.00am-11.00am and 2.00pm-5.00pm, so you must buy your alcohol in the hours in between. Tesco strictly enforces this rule so plan ahead if you want to buy your wine (dont try the local red...) or Singha beer. Carrefour will or might already open another large supermarket so there should be another option soon.

Activities

Resort offers some watersport-equipment free of charge at the Beach. The fitness center is well equipped and offers free sauna and jacuzzi after the training. Tennis courts as well as bikes/books/dvd/badminton sets etc. are also available to rent at the fitness center. There is no dive spot next to the resort nor does it make sense to snorkle at the resort beach. So if you want to dive i would recommend making an overnight trip to Ko Phi Phi from Phuket Town or even better organise a seperate tour after/before your stay at the resort to the Similan Island close to Phuket.

I really recommend making a tour to Phang Na province. The nature there is quite amazing. Even if advertised by lots of providers i would not book a day trip to the "famous" James Bond Island together with a sea canoe tour and lunch unless you want to spend the whole day with hundreds or sometimes even more than 1.000 other tourists on the beach behind the rock. Instead of this use your rental car, drive up to the Phang Na province and make a right down to the Phang Na town ferry pier where you can easily rent your private "captain" and boat to cruise to the Bond-Island, caves and the other main spots of the region. We paid 1.500 Baht for a private two hours tour and had lots of fun watching the crowds from our own boat. If you have time left or might return to the area think about driving the whole way to Krabi. Landscape is really nice so imho its not wasted time to to do that.

Also i would recommend making an island tour and visiting one of the Wats (if you habent been to too many before.. ). The south of the island is quite nice and offers some sightseeing points (mostly viewpoints). Unfortunately big $$$ hit Phuket in the last years so there is a lot of property building going on there, so finding this romantic beach spot might be not that easy. As stated earlier i would also do a day or maybe two day trip to Phi Phi Island. Boats leave from Phuket Town and you could easily organise this trip by yourself on any given day.

If your are into golfing, the two main courses are easily reachable from the resort as well.

Other stuff

There are three pools at the resort, i personally prefer the new one next to the new buildings (phase III). The Main Pool in the middle is mostly used by families. The other pool area next to the phase I buildings seems to be little bit more quite.

Currently there is a huge construction going on next to the resort. It will probabaly not have any impact but i am not sure if you could hear any sound at the older phase I building so i might suggest asking for a villa in the new buildings. The construction next to the hotel will be the future Ritz Carlton or Renaissance (thex didnt tell me exactly).

There are no direct sea facing villas so your view of the ocean will always be limited. As i personally like to sit on the balcony looking over the garden area i ask for a high floor. Villas on the ground floor have a private terrace including sunbeds, however passing guests might catch a look when passing by at one of the footpaths.

Sales Staff is quite friendly so i would go on the tour and catch one of the giveaways (5k Baht Spa-Voucher, 4k Baht hotel coupons, etc.) Dont take the "Fantasea Show Tickets" unless you are in the mood to explore some real touristic show.

The spa is really great (havent explored by myself but my wife rates it quite high and i really trust her..after paying several spa bills).

Thats it for the moment, enjoy your trip !!!

starbucks

 

[Icarus]

I thought that Phuket Beach Club only had 2 bedroom non-lockoff units.

-David

 

[jancurious]

I thought that Phuket Beach Club only had 2 bedroom non-lockoff units.

-David

That is correct. The poster got a 2 bedroom by trading his efficiency.

Jan

 

[Gaff]

My apologies for the delay in responding to the helpful hints! I worked 58hrs straight over the weekend at the firehouse, and only now got a chance to look up my thread.
We have booked 1/19 - 2/2/07, I understand that this should be the dry season as long as the Typhoons (Durian/Utor etc.) keep sliding off. We won't be landing in Phuket until 7:40pm. I am wondering if we would be better off to get the car at the airport and drive at night on the wrong side of the rode, or take a taxi to the resort. The decision would really depend on the conditions of the roads and how legible/familiar (english etc.) the road signs would be. How difficult would it be to rent a car later and have it dropped off at the Marriott?
My interests are in Scuba/Snorkling, Golf and relaxing after the long trip. However, I know my wife will want to tour, browse and explore. I was looking up the State dept. site and they mention areas for americans to be wary of,
particularly in the south. How south is Phuket?
Finally, if there are no ocean facing units; which bldg/unit/flr would you
recommend. Do they have non smoking? I live in the city (Boston) so I am not looking for more construction noise!!!
Thanks for the assist...
Gaff

 

[Starbucks]

Hi Gaff, no need to apologise...

Jan/Feb weather in Phuket is generally fine so no need to be worried.

As for the transportation. I would pick-up the rental car right after your arrival into HKT. To get to the resort you just have to leave the airport area and make a left (north) to the main highway on phuket island leading to Khao Lak and Phang Na province via the Sarasin Bridge. Shortly after you have entered the highway you will pass by the Blue Canyon Golf Club on the left side. Keep driving north until you see some fire lighted stone sign showing JW Marriott. Make a left there and you will reach the resort after 0,2 miles or so. If you have to pass a security screenpoint you have gone 0,1 mile too far on the main highway and must make a U-Turn. The highway is in pretty well conditions and divided so driving on the "wrong side" shouldnt be that complicated. Mostly all rental cars have automatic transmission so i guess you get used to drive on the left side pretty fast. From the airport it should take approx. 25min to reach the resort.

As mentioned earlier, there is not much of underwater activity at the resorts beach so if you wanna enjoy the Andaman Sea Underwater World i highly recommend booking some dive excursions. Golfing should be no problem as the Blue Canyon Golf Club is only 15 minutes away.

The areas mentioned by the State Department is probably the border region between Thailand and Malaysia. As long as you dont plan to drive down to that region you should be pretty save in Phuket and Phang Na Province. Thai police has several roadside checkpoints to improve security throughout the region.

I would go for a unit on the left side of the resort (new units / phase III). If you dont miss your personal veranda try to catch a unit on the top floor (4th) in one of the closer buildings to the beach. If you can catch a unit in one of the first three buildings from the beach try to optimize your view from the balcony by asking for a unit ending with "3" (3143/3243/3343) are IMHO pretty nice). By choosing one of the new units you will avoid even the smallest chance of hearing some construction noise from the ritz or renaissance construction next door. I am not sure 100% but i guess most of the units are designated non-smoking units.

Enjoy your time in Phuket !

starbucks

 

[SharonD]

It's my favorite timeshare

Hi Gaff, you are going to have a wonderful time! My husband and I went last February. This is the most luxurious timeshare we've ever been to. The staff are incredible -- the service really makes the place.

We actually took the shuttle to the grocery store (we'd probably try the rental car route next time, though the driving does look a bit scary). We had a great time grocery shopping! We attempted to buy the ingredients for Mango Sticky Rice; quite an adventure trying to figure out what was what, asking for help from the staff with hand signs, etc. This was the "real Thailand." We did end up making the sticky rice in our room and even took pictures of our "creation."

We did a day diving trip to the Similan Islands using the dive shop at the resort. It was about 2 hours on the boat each way but the diving was nice. We also did the John Grey canoe trip, which was fabulous -- incredible scenery. The trip went at a time when there weren't a lot of other boats there.

We enjoyed both the Italian restaurant and the Thai restaurant onsite. The Thai restaurant has a wonderful view. The food is priced at resort prices, but it was good (other than the fact that the Thai restaurant would not give me the food as spicy as I like!) Still, not like Bangkok, where you can have a 3-course meal for under $10.

The timeshare tour is pleasant, no pressure. I wish I had been there at the beginning of construction -- the resort was quite a deal. I'd still like to buy there, though I really need to stop buying timeshares.

Typing this has made me miss it! Please let us know how it went for you when you get back.