Reviewed By:
Julie Williamson
Travel Date:
October 1999
We stayed at the Sheraton Grande Laguna at Phuket in Oct 99. We flew Malaysian Airlines from Melbourne, fantastic inflight service, much better than the lazy folk at Qantas. Our then 9 month old baby has the sky cot and the 3 year old had a seat to himself. Its a shocking flight leaving at midnight Melbourne time, 3 year old was hyped up and overtired about 10 mins into flight but settled down after the kind hostess gave him a small meal. It was a 8 hour trip to Kuala Lumpar and then a shocking 5 hour wait for the connection to Phuket. KL airport is ok, a few shops but a drag waiting (Qantas flies to Phuket also, but you have to stay overnight in Bangkok to connect the next day). Then its a 1 1/2 hour flight down to Phuket. By the time we got there we were all exhausted!
Resort was lovely, as you would expect with a Sheraton. We started off with a double room overlooking the pool which has a sand beach, great for the kids, the pool actually weaves its way around the resort, fantastic to swim around with the kids on their floaties. Food is expensive, though there is a nearby beach market with restaurants there, ok value and it catered better for the kids.
Kids club were for 4+ and it didn't look all that hot. 1 small room and not much to do in there. The kids looked bored.
We went in October and it rained virtually every day which we were told was unusual even though it was the rainy season. It started to get a bit miserable after a few days as it was too wet to go out.
After a few nights we had a note slipped under our door that we would be upgraded to the villa houses and if we would like to try them out. These were great, a 3 bedroom villa with 2 bathrooms and full kitchen, though on the bad side of the resort not a good view and no where near the beach and pool. We also ended up being dragged into a time resort 1/2 day lecture, which was part of our upgrade, obviously to try and flog it, we weren't at all interested, but we felt like we were required to do that.
After 10 days we were ready to go, the rain really didn't help. I would probably go back to Phuket. Though they would have to improve on the flights, its hard enough as it is flying with young kids, let alone with bad connections and strange departure times.
Not recommended for the young children, our friends had a 9 and a 5 year and they went on boat trips and day long tours and had a ball. Not an option with little ones unfortunately.
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