Coral Island Resort

“Great Views”

As a regular visitors to Phuket we decided we wanted to do something a little different on this visit. We booked 2 nights in a beach front bungalow and have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and wished we had booked some extra nights. The resort itself is a little run down and could do wi… more

As a regular visitors to Phuket we decided we wanted to do something a little different on this visit. We booked 2 nights in a beach front bungalow and have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and wished we had booked some extra nights. The resort itself is a little run down and could do with a little TLC but looking passed that the staff are friendly and helpful. The beach can get busy during the day when all the daytrips and divers arrive but first thing in the morning and later in the afternoon you will be amazed as you have the beach to yourself. All in all I recommend a visit.

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“perhaps living off the memories”

The location is scintillating. The accommodation is perfectly adequate for beach holiday. The snorkeling on the coral is good. The transport arrangements are impeccable. There appears to be some maintenance jobs which have been shelved. Some of these are trivial and some more substantial. Nearby r… more

The location is scintillating. The accommodation is perfectly adequate for beach holiday. The snorkeling on the coral is good. The transport arrangements are impeccable. There appears to be some maintenance jobs which have been shelved. Some of these are trivial and some more substantial. Nearby resorts are scooping the pool through better marketing. The beach has seen some serious erosion in recent times. The staff are competent but not happy in their work under current arrangements and that's not down to dropped visitations alone. There is some great potential here but things are slipping a bit at the moment. The hire fee for snorkeling equipment is ridiculously high. The policy of no food on the island should have been heralded before we embarked on the journey.

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“Unrealized Potential”

My review of this place is conflicted and I think your level of enjoyment here depends mostly on what you expect and what you are looking for from the experience. If you plan to spend all day outside, lounging in the sand and swimming, and if you want the increasingly more elusive beachfront bung… more

My review of this place is conflicted and I think your level of enjoyment here depends mostly on what you expect and what you are looking for from the experience. If you plan to spend all day outside, lounging in the sand and swimming, and if you want the increasingly more elusive beachfront bungalow, and you are okay with backpacker level accommodations, then this place will work for you. If you’ve stayed in other beach bungalows around Thailand this is will be fairly similar. If you are expecting a high-end resort, this is not that. It is old, the appliances (air con and fridge) are old, and it’s clear not a lot of effort is going in to updating or upgrading anything. Our room wasn’t dirty, it was just old. My only real complaint about the room was the bed. It was hard. Uncomfortably hard. The blanket was also too small- for a full size bed not a king. Cutting some corners with the quality on both accounts I think. The location and true beachfront accommodation is the best part of this hotel. The water is stunning, the beach is lovely, there are hermit crabs and hornbills and you can take a short hike over to Banana Beach if you need to do something other than lounge and swim. There is also a pool that, while not in the prime of its life, was perfectly swimmable and enjoyable. Because the scenery is so charming there are a large number of day-trippers coming in tours in a steady stream all day. The bulk of them land farther down the beach, but the resort itself hosts a few groups as well. It’s not really possible to avoid them, but they were mostly harmless. There are plenty of plastic beach chairs so those are never in short supply and easily moved away from the worst of the crowds. The sun beds however were scarce and to get one you may have to do the old ‘towel reservation’ before breakfast. The beach itself offers a lot of shade which is great for the pale among us, and there’s no need for umbrellas. My big complaint about the day trippers and some of the guests was an obvious lack of education about coral and what it means to be respectful of the natural environment. I saw multiple people stand on the coral because they didn’t realize the ‘rock things’ were where the coral was trying,and mostly failing, to grow. There was also a lot of prying up of starfish, urchins and sea cucumbers to take videos and pictures of and then leaving them on the beach to die, not even bothering to put them back in the water. It’s clearly over-touristed and unfortunately, even though there are a few signs at the resort about fines and not to disrupt the wildlife or touch the coral, nothing was being monitored and no one was being stopped or fined. Due to large numbers of careless tourists, it’s a miracle there is anything left to see here. There is still SOME coral, but a lot is dead, and more is washed up broken on the shore. You can tell how lovely the reef used to be and it’s a bit heartbreaking to witness. There is still life out there, and it is cool to see, but the tourism is taking an obvious toll. I’d recommend bringing water shoes due to the broken coral. Once the tourists leave for the day the island becomes quite calm and romantic. It’s just the resort left populated so it is a lot like being on your own secluded private beach. The restaurant was decidedly mediocre. The Thai food was okay, and some of the western dishes were okay, but it was expensive for the quality. Same goes for breakfast, just okay, low quality items (orange drink instead of juice, boiled hot dogs instead of sausage, etc). There is a full bar, but also expensive. Beware the misleading buy 3 get 1 free beer sign- the 1 free is a hat, not a beer. More than just us made the mistake of not reading past the initial part. Understanding it’s a bit isolated and prices will be higher, I would have been fine paying more if it had been better quality. They also have a policy against brining outside food and drinks in, which I find a bit ridiculous given the high prices. They clearly want to make money off the food and drinks by forcing everyone to exclusively use the resort, but then they really need to either lower the prices or increase the value. We didn’t know about this policy and brought some of our own snacks and drinks in but they were packed away and not visible at check-in so it was okay for us and no one came demanding the 1000 baht fine after the cleaning lady came the first day so I honestly couldn’t say how seriously this policy is enforced. Just don’t show up with bulging shopping bags. The resort runs on a generator so there is no electricity during the day. The only time this was a hassle was when my kindle battery died mid-day. Again, if you want to be outside all day, it’s not an issue, but napping in the room would not have been comfortable. The ferry back was delayed due to engine trouble, so give yourself time to get to your next destination as it seemed like delays to the scheduled departures were common place. I would go back, it is a beautiful location despite the tourists, and a unique place to stay, just go with the expectation that it’s more backpacker basic than resort fancy.

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