My husband and I decided to celebrate his birthday this year in Phuket, Thailand since we have been planning to visit the place 3 years ago but really never had a chance. Now we have a good reason to have a 3-day getaway, so we invited another couple who is also our close friend to join us as well.
We booked our budget-airlines flight right away since there was a promotion going on from Singapore to Phuket. And my girl friend and I were looking for a nice, decent low-cost hotels or apartments to stay in.
We ended up booking in The Lantern. It was very close to Bangla Rd, where all those naughty, party bars are located, and also close to the Patong Beach. Looking at the photos in their website and reviews, it convincingly looked good. So we booked 2 rooms for 3 nights, and asked for airport to hotel transfer as well.
Location: The Lantern is located a street away from Bangla Rd, which is around 3 minutes walk. The Patong Beach is around 10 minutes away while the famous Jungceylon Shopping Mall is around 5 minutes away. Indeed a good location, very central.
The street where it is located is called Rai-U-Thit Song Roi Pee Road. It is a street full of both old and new hotels/apartments, some night bar, Thai massage parlor, street foods, restaurants, souvenir shops and 24-hour convenient store.
Amenities: From outside, the hotel looks like a very new one, roughly around 2-3 years old. There was a security guy near the reception area and the reception area looked very bright and spacious due to the glass walls. Receptionist didn't look or sound friendly though, which was quite surprising since Thailand is known for very hospitable and warm people, the reason why I have been to Bangkok 5 times already as of this time because I feel very at ease and at home.
While waiting to finalize in getting our room keys, I decided to roam around the lobby area, which felt a bit empty but was quite presentable. It was a modern, simple area with few paintings hanging on the wall and few black leather seats across hall. And the lobby would lead you to the two swimming pools. There are some rooms with balcony facing the pools. And they looked lovely. Too bad we only booked for the most affordable room, the Studio Pent, which have the view of the back of the Jungceylon Mall, and not really a good sight to see.
There are three pools in the hotel. These two, and another one located on the third floor, which is a smaller one (looks like a kiddie pool to me) that we did not try since it is quite far from our room. The pools were nice, modern design. But the water is salty, not sure if this is due to the fact that they are near the sea and it affects the type of water they use for the pool, or because of those customers who went for a swim in the nearby beach who didn't rinse up and splash to the pool afterwards. I cannot tell exactly, but not really a nice experience. The poolside tiles got molds as well that it was very slimy and slippery when you accidentally touch those. Water was not warm but not really very cold, maybe just a bit cold for my preference.
The room we have is ok. Since we booked the smallest one, I am not expecting anything superb. We had rubber slippers, few robes and towels, a flat-screen TV, "complimentary bottled water" (which we realized at the end of our stay that they were refilling the bottles themselves) mini-soap and other toiletries included. The room was quite clean, but I have some concerns with the cleanliness of the toilet as there were some stains on it that I cannot afford to remove the rubber slippers inside the toilet. Queen sized bed is ok, I love the colors of the sheets provided. But we had one, major, disappointing concern - the AIRCON.
We visited Phuket last March 2012 and this time was considered to be a hot, sunny part of the year. When we initially turned on the aircon, it was fine, perfectly fine. Until 10 minutes later, the temperature rises, until it is freaking hot. I am sweating inside our room and my husband is so angry as well after trying to adjust the settings and still didn't help. After 15 minutes, it went ok again, and then hot after 15 minutes, and went ok after 15minutes. So we realized it must have been set that way. We went to our friend's room and try to check with them how they were doing and find out they were experiencing the same thing. And we endured that kind of temperature for the next 2 nights (good thing we were always out the whole day), with our friends complaining that they would be awake in the middle of the night due to uncomfortable temperature settings of the aircon.
So will we recommend these place to our friends? Definitely not. All the good reviews about the amenities, the structure and other else did not matter since the most important aspect of a nice room for us is the comfort. I would rather add up a bit more to get a better deal with nicer hotels where I am sure the aircon works perfect.
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| The Lantern Resort & Residences |
We ended up booking in The Lantern. It was very close to Bangla Rd, where all those naughty, party bars are located, and also close to the Patong Beach. Looking at the photos in their website and reviews, it convincingly looked good. So we booked 2 rooms for 3 nights, and asked for airport to hotel transfer as well.
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| The signage across the road |
The street where it is located is called Rai-U-Thit Song Roi Pee Road. It is a street full of both old and new hotels/apartments, some night bar, Thai massage parlor, street foods, restaurants, souvenir shops and 24-hour convenient store.
Amenities: From outside, the hotel looks like a very new one, roughly around 2-3 years old. There was a security guy near the reception area and the reception area looked very bright and spacious due to the glass walls. Receptionist didn't look or sound friendly though, which was quite surprising since Thailand is known for very hospitable and warm people, the reason why I have been to Bangkok 5 times already as of this time because I feel very at ease and at home.
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| The lobby |
There are three pools in the hotel. These two, and another one located on the third floor, which is a smaller one (looks like a kiddie pool to me) that we did not try since it is quite far from our room. The pools were nice, modern design. But the water is salty, not sure if this is due to the fact that they are near the sea and it affects the type of water they use for the pool, or because of those customers who went for a swim in the nearby beach who didn't rinse up and splash to the pool afterwards. I cannot tell exactly, but not really a nice experience. The poolside tiles got molds as well that it was very slimy and slippery when you accidentally touch those. Water was not warm but not really very cold, maybe just a bit cold for my preference.
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| View of one of the two side-by-side pools |
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| The other pool with the balcony |
The room we have is ok. Since we booked the smallest one, I am not expecting anything superb. We had rubber slippers, few robes and towels, a flat-screen TV, "complimentary bottled water" (which we realized at the end of our stay that they were refilling the bottles themselves) mini-soap and other toiletries included. The room was quite clean, but I have some concerns with the cleanliness of the toilet as there were some stains on it that I cannot afford to remove the rubber slippers inside the toilet. Queen sized bed is ok, I love the colors of the sheets provided. But we had one, major, disappointing concern - the AIRCON.
We visited Phuket last March 2012 and this time was considered to be a hot, sunny part of the year. When we initially turned on the aircon, it was fine, perfectly fine. Until 10 minutes later, the temperature rises, until it is freaking hot. I am sweating inside our room and my husband is so angry as well after trying to adjust the settings and still didn't help. After 15 minutes, it went ok again, and then hot after 15 minutes, and went ok after 15minutes. So we realized it must have been set that way. We went to our friend's room and try to check with them how they were doing and find out they were experiencing the same thing. And we endured that kind of temperature for the next 2 nights (good thing we were always out the whole day), with our friends complaining that they would be awake in the middle of the night due to uncomfortable temperature settings of the aircon.
So will we recommend these place to our friends? Definitely not. All the good reviews about the amenities, the structure and other else did not matter since the most important aspect of a nice room for us is the comfort. I would rather add up a bit more to get a better deal with nicer hotels where I am sure the aircon works perfect.
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