Previous Trip Notes:
A Real Round-The-World Trip – Part Four: MH79 HKG>KUL Business Class, Grand Hyatt KL, & KL
A Real Round-The-World Trip – Part Three: One Night in Hong Kong
A Real Round-The-World Trip – Part Two: CX 807, Take Two
A Real Round-The-World Trip – Part One: The Setup
After a short visit to the Premium Plaza Lounge, we headed to the gate. The flight was uneventful. We were up and down in roughly an hour, and again used Grab taxi to call a ride. The trip from Phuket airport to the Hilton Arcadia is nearly an hour, with light traffic, although you do drive through some interesting areas such as Patong beach, a lively area of choice for backpackers and those looking for night spots.
We arrived at the Hilton around 3pm. NSPwife had used her Hyatt Globalist status to receive a Hilton Diamond Status match. We were cautiously optimistic about the upgrade in Phuket. Unfortunately, they only gave us a sea-view room, which was the same room NSPbabysitter – booked under my points and gold status – was given. Having said that, the rooms still have a great view. Diamond status did allow us access to the Panorama Lounge on the 12th floor of one of their four buildings. We were also told that guests were not allowed with us, meaning NSPbabysitter and NSPpeanut would not be allowed access to the lounge with us and experience the happy hour and views:
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge View
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge Food
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge Food
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge Food
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge Food
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge Food
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge Food
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge Food
Hilton Arcadia – Panorama Lounge
The sea-view guest rooms were nice, although somewhat dated – even with a relatively recent renovation. The highlight of the room was definitely the balcony, great to hang out in the shade, smoke a cigar, or leave your swimsuits out to dry.
Hilton Arcadia – Room
Hilton Arcadia – Room
Hilton Arcadia – Welcome Message in Room
Hilton Arcadia – Check-In Amenity
Hilton Arcadia – Check-In Amenity
Hilton Arcadia – Balcony View
The grounds of the hotel are huge. We stayed there for four nights, and still didn’t see everything. We stayed in the Andaman wing, closest to the sea.
Hilton Arcadia Grounds – Phuket, Thailand
Karon Beach – Phuket, Thailand
Hilton Arcadia Grounds – Phuket, Thailand
Hilton Arcadia Grounds – Phuket, Thailand
Breakfast was served every morning from 6am-11am; although they didn’t put out coffee in the lobby until closer to 7:30am. As someone who wakes up early on vacation, it was a bit of a hassle to go to the restaurants and ask for coffee, having to have them write down our room number to make sure we would come back for breakfast, otherwise they would have charged us for the coffee (very strange, seeing as how they just put it out in the lobby for everyone at 7:30am). Gold and Diamond members can eat at either Sails or Buon Appetito for breakfast, both of which have identical buffets, but with over 600 rooms they need the additional capacity a second restaurant provides:
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast Patio Seating
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast Patio Seating
Hilton Arcadia – Breakfast Patio Seating
While the beach in Karon is not the white-sandy beaches of the Caribbean, there is plenty of activity from locals trying to sell activity packages. The beach is across the street from the hotel, but only a two minute walk:
Karon Beach – Phuket, Thailand
The hotel also employs a traffic guard to stop the traffic so guests can cross without concern. The Hilton has a large number of pools, including ones that have kid pools and waterslides. NSPpeanut, while talking about the beach for the past five months, instantly decided she hated sand and waves, so the pools worked out amazingly well – and we spent a good portion of the days pool-side. The Andaman bar held happy hour every day from 5pm-6pm that offered 2-for-1 drinks.
Hilton Arcadia Pool – Karon Beach, Phuket, Thailand
What we love most about this location is the proximity to a ton of local shops, restaurants, masseuses, tailors and mini-marts. You can easily walk three minutes and pick up beers for $0.60 and large water bottles for $0.50, and we often stocked up our in-room fridge. You can go either direction along the beach and hit the local shops. We typically headed north towards Old Phuket:
Old Phuket – Karon Beach
Old Phuket Tailor – Karon Beach
Old Phuket – Karon Beach
Old Phuket – Karon Beach
Old Phuket – Karon Beach
Old Phuket Dinner – Karon Beach
It’s always nice to get a full load of laundry done, overnight, at one of the laundry shops. They take care of everything, clean, dry and fold. It’s extremely inexpensive and a great way to reduce packing space:
Old Phuket – Laundry, Folded Clothes
Old Phuket – Laundry
We ate every meal out at these restaurants, which offered great food at ridiculously cheap prices. NSPpeanut even experienced her first ever massage. It was hard to pass up a $7.00 30-minute foot massage:
NSPpeanut’s First Massage – Old Phuket, Karon Beach, Thailand
The only day we spent away from the hotel and Karon Beach is when we visited the relatively new Elephant Sanctuary. We chose this location due to reading about the humane ways in which this establishment treats its animals, whereas other elephant shows can treat their animals inhumanely. It was amazing getting to feed and bathe Asian elephants, and watch NSPpeanut’s mind be blown by the creatures. The outing included helping the elephants with a mud bath and shower, and then included a buffet lunch:
Elephant Sanctuary – Phuket, Thailand
Elephant Sanctuary – Phuket, Thailand
We were picked up at 8:45am and got back to the hotel around 11:30am. This is definitely an experience I would recommend.
While it was great to be back in Phuket, and see the same massage parlors and restaurants open after visiting them nine years ago, I don’t anticipate heading back to the Hilton. The service was OK, not great, and the general lack of convenient amenities were missed. For example, takeaway items were not allowed from their lounge. So if you wanted a coffee, you had to drink it in the lounge. They didn’t offer bottles of water, which wasn’t a huge deal from a price point perspective given the mini-marts sold them for dirt cheap, but you do then have to lug heavy waters back to your room. On our last day, I had a final fitting for some custom suits. While they were able to get me most of what I bought, there were two jackets that they couldn’t finish until about 11pm. Given we had to be up at 3:45am, we tried to go to bed early. We received a call from the reception around 11pm and was told we needed to come pick up the bag that was dropped off. I asked if we could stop by the bell desk a mere 5 hours later, and they said they would not hold it and we needed to come down. I told them we were sleeping, and so they reluctantly said they would send it up to our room. And with a sleeping two year old, meant I had to stand at the door with it partially open so they wouldn’t knock and wake up NSPpeanut. A complete nuisance and all-around terrible guest service policy.
I Wechatted with the Grab taxi driver that dropped us off at the Hilton when we arrived in Phuket, and arranged for him to pick us up at 4am. He was promptly there and we set off, watching groups of people returning to the hotel from a night partying, and wondering at what point we turned into people that were carrying a kid to an airplane at that time rather than the ones returning from having fun the night before. Time flies, and much has changed since our first venture there nine years prior, just not much on Karon beach in Phuket.
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