Guest reviews The Sands Khao Lak By Kata Thani Resorts

by PrishLove Vannvikan, Norway

Recommended

Great village for families. Baby Club equipped and supervised by hostesses, full of activities to do every day. Well equipped gym and relaxing reading area with books available. The village is very beautiful and large. All very clean. Great food. Different pools. One completely dedicated to children equipped with a small water slide that will delight the little ones. The family room we have chosen is excellent for a family of 4 people. 5-star breakfast buffet that ranges from Thai, to croissants, bread, jams, fruit, bacon, eggs and cereals. There really is something for everyone. Recommended.

by 410xavierg Bangkok, Thailand

Best option for family with kids

We spent 3 nights in July at the Sands hotel in a family room in the Lagoon Wing. Room is great to accommodate 2 adults and 2 kids. The hotel was almost empty due to Covid 19 so it was great to enjoy the swimming pool and all hotel facilities (especially slide and lazy river), just for us. Only one restaurant was opened with great western food (better than Thai !), spa offered great discount and bar also, very affordable for this level of hotel. Not so far from Khao Lak center even if the town as very quiet at that time. Good option for the area.

by Lek_Manoon Singapore, Singapore

Nice hotel with good facilities for Kids

We are a group of 10 adults and 10 kids who have just spent a night at this hotel and our kids love it! They spent all day by the water park and pool. My little monkey love the slider in the Family Slide room. Breakfast was good and variety selection. I would say the hotel is really good for family trip

by jugendmoth Oslo, Norway

Perfect! Best service, you can imagine! Lgbt friendly!

It's not a first time, I'm choosing Katathani hotels, and they never disappoint me. Amazing, friendly people and perfect service! As example: one day we had broken air con and we been asked, if we want be moved in other room immediately. We rejected offer and just decided relax in terrace instead. It was 22:30 and workers came like in 2 min after the call to reception. They fixed air con and we got free dinner coupon in hotel restaurant. It was very nice to know, that hotel takes care of their customers and is so careful to each detail. I also can mention, that hotel is spotless! Everyone is super friendly. Perfect place for take your kids there! Girls in breakfast and restaurant making some mistakes, as they are trainees. But that's okay, we always got everything fixed and lots of "sorries" and smiles:) Breakfast is for all tastes. Big choose and lots of fruits! Only dawnside I can mention is tasteless unauthentic food in restaurant. So, if you are really tired to go to main street for food, you still can order from restaurant, but then order Italian food. Still far from perfection, but it's best they have in there. I also have suspection, that maybe lots of people wouldn't like authentic Thai food, so maybe this hotel choise made for purpose. Also alhocol cocktails are very sweet. But that's a problem in all Thailand. So just get bottle in hotel shop and make your own cocktails! P.S. Don't miss watermelon and coconut shakes! They are amazing!

by Iamsuperk Brisbane, Australia

Nice hotel for families and older travellers

We stayed 9 nights in March as the last stop on our Thailand holiday to explore Khao Lak and luckily our timing got us out just before Corona-Virus lock downs came into effect. We split our time between a Sands room and a Pool Access Junior Suite. If we did it again and budget permitting we would have the pool access room only as it was fantastic. Rooms: Sands room was nice, no bath but the showers were great. Pool Access rooms were spacious and well laid out. One annoyance was there was no bottle opener/cork screw in either room. The "pillow menu" worked really well and ensured we had a great sleep and the beds were super comfortable. The ceiling fan in the balcony area is a life saver for those really hot days. Wifi: WiFi was very poor. It is fine for messaging or casual web browsing but not suitable for streaming or any real-time video etc without constant buffering and dropouts and this was when the hotel wasn't busy at all. I ran several speed tests from around the hotel with downloads of 2-5mb and uploads at up to 186mb !!! This should be the other way round so I think Sands needs to check their WiFi settings. Food: The breakfast had many choices, which my partner loved. I was impressed by the room service menu which was very reasonably priced and had a great range of options with some very affordable specials. Kudos also that all price lists are tax/fees inclusive. We ate twice at Talay in the evening, The food was lovely. Unfortunately the setting was somewhat ruined by the very poor entertainer and children. This was frustrating when it's clearly marketed as a more romantic upmarket setting. To be clear, I have no problem with the kids being there or even running around on the grass. What I did have a problem with was them singing over the "singers" PA system. Having a 6 year old girl screeching the "Frozen" theme song while we were trying to enjoy dinner was just crazy. On the entertainment, it was cringe worthy poor at times and having worked in the music industry for years I don't know how they are even employed there when there are so many good musicians in Thailand. The singer / guitarist at Talay cannot sing, I initially thought it was a comedy act he was that bad and mumbling through songs to a backing track. Whoever is hiring musicians at Sands must be tone-deaf !! The one thing we would have liked was a more contemporary space for couples (or solos) only in the evenings with some (modern) background music away from the "Love Boat" style crooners by the other areas. As for the other facilities, the pools are fantastic. The onsite mini-mart is very reasonably priced, for example the price of a beer or breezer is 5-10Thb more than outside. A large bottle of SangSom is 50Thb more than outside shops. We are split on if we'd stay again, we loved the facilities and being able to chill out but felt it was really a family or oldies type feel (and we're no spring chickens). Thanks also to Sands for your help with Airline numbers when we were faced with cancellations and also for the late check-out when our plans were disrupted, this was very much appreciated !! For local tips: Larn Deo restaurant (one of the first on the main road from the entry) runs an excellent laundry service for 50Thb/kg. Jasmines restaurant was consistently the best food outside the restaurant. Nang Thong supermarket (700m once on main road) has the best range including bakery, wines and beers/ciders. Including Bundaberg / ginger beer for the Aussies.