Centara Grand Beach Phuket

This is a lovely hotel, set right on the beach. We had a very warm welcome and were pleasantly surprised to be told at check-in that our rooms had been upgraded to ones with a hot-tub on the balcony. We arrived quite late so had an evening meal in the main restaurant. They had a sea-food buffet or you could choose from the menu. Both were delicious but expectantly, a bit overpriced. Some people have mentioned that there isn’t anywhere to eat locally, however, if you walk onto the beach, turn right, there is a food shack on the beach right by the hotel, however, if you turn left and walk along the beach for approx 10 minutes, you’ll come to a section with lots of loungers, you'll also be able to get a massage on the beach. If you join the main road from there, you will see a selection of food shacks with plenty of choice and very reasonably priced. If you continue walking along the path where the food huts are, you’ll come to a roundabout where if you turn left, you’ll see lots of shops, bars and restaurants and if you turn right, you’ll again come to more restaurants etc, that road will lead you to Kata. A taxi from the hotel will cost you either 200b to the local shops, 300b to Kata and around 400b to Patong (we did go there a couple of times which was great, expect it to be loud and crazy and you'll be fine). You can also walk out of the hotel (up a slightly steep incline) and turn right, this road runs parallel to the beach and will also lead you to the shops and restaurants. There is a lazy river but the flow wasn’t great and I needed a push a couple of times to help get me round LOL! The restaurants are great but expensive. We did have lunch a couple of times which was lovely, but as we were only on a bed and breakfast basis we didn’t eat there very often due to the price. I thought it would be easier to list the pros and cons, however, I hope none of the comments will put you off staying here as I believe the ‘cons’ are small observations that I believe could help make improvements to the hotel and to the guest experience. Pros: Beautiful and well maintained grounds and pool area Staff are lovely, very friendly and accommodating Big hello to the entertainment team Tina & Will Rooms are lovely and spacious Good quality food in the restaurants Cons: Please include some instructions in the room on how to use the shower, it took us a couple of days to work it out! Room cleaning was a bit hit and miss The steps in the pool need to be clearly lined, I saw people on a daily basis slip as they missed a step. Floor of the pool feels very gravelly, not comfortable when we were walking or doing aquarobics Some loungers and parasols on the beach would be great. I don’t understand why there is a sandy area by the pool when there is a beautiful stretch of beach adjacent to the hotel. The themed nights and events looked great and the hotel made a lot of effort to promote these and decorate the grounds beautifully, however, they were quite expensive per person. If you could reduce the price a little and include either wine or a cocktail for the ladies that may persuade more people to stay in the Hotel and take advantage of the events. A couple of the events included soft drinks and beers but nothing for the ladies, please include some wine or cocktails :-) Overall we had an amazing stay and would definitely recommend the Centara Grand. Read less

The hotel is outdated. It is not five star. I’d give it 4 star. The TV’s are old and volume is too low. Electrical plugs didn’t work. Leaky showers. Rusty finishings. The hotel reception is too hot; no air conditioning. The restaurants are hot; air conditioning is put to a bare minimum. It’s difficult to feel comfortable in the communal areas as air conditioning is too low or none existent. However the hotel is in an excellent location. The pool is fantastic. Staff are friendly and nice. Read less