14 Nights Phuket April - Kantary Bay Hotel inc breakfast & Direct Manchester Rtn flights (TUI) - £849 solo or £1416 for 2 people (£708 pp)

I've been here. It very popular at winter time for 65+ age group staying for 2 or 3 months.

The hotel itself gets rave reviews on Tripadvisor but I was thoroughly unimpressed. The breakfasts were poor and repetative. The rooms 'old' with loads of dark wood. There is no beach. The staff are very good. But by staying here I discovered the Cape Panwa hotel where I have stayed at most winters these past 6 years

But if you are happy with a cheap stay then this loaction is brilliant despite the hotel not having a beach.

Why? Well there is a shuttle bus running every 20 mins or so to take you up the heart attack hill to the Cape Panwa Hotel. This hotel has private gardens and a private beach. I have spent many a fornight just lazing in theses gardens (as I stay at the Cape Panwa hotel)

Every morning (Dec to March/April) from about 9 am shuttle bus loads of OAPs arrive from Kantary Bay and they take up a large proportion of the sun beds at Cape Panwa they generally bring their picnic cool bags full of grub and beverages and hardly ever spend a penny at Cape Panwa. Which is a shame as the Beach Bar / restaurant at Cape Panwa does some decent food and some very cold beers, albeit a tad more expensive that the nearby bars etc. Free hotel Wifi in the gardens /beach side at Cape Panwa was of decent signal strength.

Second there are a number of really good restaurants nearby. Live India for great curries and Sabi Sabi for Thai food. All delicious and cheap and just 100 yards from the hotel. Further along there is Bluewave and Sawadsee restaurants. Bluewave is good but I didnt like the 'vibe' at Sawadsee and avoided it every time.

However in my opinion by far the best is at Eat Me restaurant ( on the main road side about 300 yards away, just past the 7-11). I have eaten here many times over the past 6 years. (amazingly fast free 5G wifi here too)

A night market is also held most nights, along the promenade outside this hotel, with a number of food stalls and touristy 'tat' clothing. Grab a Roti here

A number of massage places are located along Heart Attack Hill. A 1 hour Oil massage was 300 bhat last year

So if you are OK with 3 star style of accomodation, possibly being surrounded by 'older' peeps but want to be able to catch a 3 mins shuttle to be allow you to laze in nice beach side gardens with loads of shade from trees and to have some decent cheap restauants nearby then go for it. Hopefully as its April a lot of the 'older' peeps have come back home.

If you do then here are some tips.

1. Visit the nearby 7-11 daily for you beers and soft drinks and snacks. You will save a fortune. 7-11 is your friend!
2. Change up you Sterling cash into Bhat at Phuket airport - you get a better rate than here in the UK
3. Go and use the beach facilities at Cape Panwa- get there early !
4. Go to the Buffet Theme nights at Cape Panwa hotel- I can recomend the Seafood nights and Thai nights especially.
5. Be prepared for a Chilled Out time. This is not a "hot spot" location for entertainment.
6. Accept Kantary Bay hotel for what it is
7. Consider a future stay at Kantary Beach hotel (90 mins north of airport) which is a better more modern hotel and has loads of bars and restaurant within a 5 min walk along the beach and a Gazillion in the nearby town of Khao Lak. Kantary Beach is 4 star.
8. If your budget allows consider Cape Panwa hotel - not a basic room but either a Junior Suite or ideally a cape Suite
9. Take loads of reading material / a Kindle
10. Get the hotel to take care of transfers from the airport. So much less hassle than getting a taxi

Fantastic hotel stayed there twice in 2018 and once in 2010ish. Hopefully it's still as good.

They do a free shuttle to the sister hotel the Cape Panwa with private beach every 30mins which is quite fun and useful.

Also there is a little restaurant just in front of the hotel gates call Sawasdees which is fantastic and a 7eleven type shop next to that. There are also a couple of other small restaurants within 5 min walk and a few spas.

The restaurants at the hotel are ok but expensive for Thailand as to be expected. I wouldn't bother with the Italian one. Breakfast is excellent however.

I would recommend happy hour at the sister hotel lighthouse bar

Literally 2 min walk to the aquarium which is worth a look too.

Only downside is it's quite a long taxi ride to Phuket town for a night out but it's a lovely quiet area. Hotel reps are decent enough at organising excursions but I found using TripAdvisor or viator is much cheaper for the same exact tour with same provider. Note due to location of hotel there is often a subsidy to be paid on top of normal excursion costs because it's so bloody out of the way.

Also use Uber or Grab to get around the island without getting overcharged. Grab is more widely used than Uber.

Rooftop pool is also great.

I paid this per person in about 2012 for only 9 nights so this is an inflation busting mega deal for 2024 for me. Heat to OP. (edited)

Phuket, I'm going.

Looks a great deal. Wish I could get leave to take advantage of this deal.

Nice.. but coming into wet season..

Hope someone saw this and said "Phuket let's book it"

Beware it’s songkran during these dates.m
If you don’t mind getting soaked all day all night then it’s a good deal

This is only hand luggage though??? Is that right??