My wife and I, along with 3 other couples, stayed at the Hilton Arcadia for 5 days in early March and absolutely loved this hotel! From the first moment you arrive, you are treated like royalty. As you wait for your room keys, you are given a warm wet towel to refresh yourself from the ride in from the airport. The lobby as well as the main desk are outside in a shaded area. The hotel has several multi story buildings and several swimming pools that wind around and under these buildings. A small tram takes you and your luggage to your building. We all had asked for rooms with queen or king beds and were actually presented with rooms having two single beds. After a short discussion with the front desk, we were all given the correct rooms except for one couple. They were celebrating an anniversary and the hotel gave them a two room suite instead! Very nice! The food and drinks were excellent. We will be going back there again, soon. Thailand is one of the few places where your $ still goes a long way and the people are the friendlest people we have encountered in all of Asia. I can't think of a better place to stay in Phuket at Karon beach.

The hotel and the grounds are fantastic and the staff at the hotel are really helpful and pleasant. We stayed here for just over a week. The hotel is just a short walk from shops and restaurants. The beach is just acoss the road but it wasn't safe to swim because of the rainy season.

I would say that if you are planning to visit in the off season that you should check what else is going on in the hotel. The first couple of days at the hotel were great and really relaxing. However, it then got taken over for a Hewlett Packard bootcamp which meant hundreds of people on mobile phones and the whole lobby and reception area was taken over as an exhibition area.

I had booked the hotel because I thought it would be quiet and relaxing but it was more like a conference hotel. Given the choice I would have stayed elsewhere but my experience was probably a one off.

Stayed at this hotel for 2 weeks in June 2008.

It is the rainy season and the weather for our stay was:

first 4 days great weather, little rain at night but nothing else.
Next 4 days, 2 days partial rain about 1/2 time, 2 days of total rain with no chance of beach/pool/boat type activity.
Final 6 days were great weather with a few thunderstorms in the evening and one during the day but mostly sunny skies.

The hotel is in a good location for the beach at Karon. The pools are spread around the facility and I thought were excellent pools. They could do a little better job of cleaning them every morning of leaves/dirt from the previous night but otherwise I give them high marks. There are two slides for kids, and one pool is more for adults with deep water and a diving board. Pool service is easily available and I'd comment that the prices were reasonable.

Breakfast buffet is excellent in the morning and goes until 11am which is also nice if you want to go to the beach first thing in the morning. There are multiple restaurants available. Being the slow season some were closed during our stay, which I understand, but I thought they should have had their casual burger/ice cream place open (scoops I think its called) at least for lunch. The Sails restaurant (which is also where breakfast is) offers lunch menu's and a dinner buffet. The prices for the lunch food are ok, I thought drinks were somewhat overpriced. The dinner buffet for a family is expensive at 975 baht (not including drinks) for adults and 475 for children. Drinks were expensive. The dinner buffets were ok but soon we started walking off the hotel grounds for most dinners.

There is a kids building that offers children's activities and it was well run and offered a variety of different things each day. It was good for days it rained if you have kids. The spa is next to it and the prices seemed to be reasonable for a resort. The gym was decent, could have used some more free weights but you could break a sweat. The fitness center was open until 10pm if I recall correctly. There is a room with table tennis and billiards - you have to pay about 200 baht for the billiard balls for an hour.

Tons of laundry services in Karon. We used a restaurant that was down and across the street from the Green conveniance store (which is to the left of the hotel on the corner when going out to the beach about a 7 minute walk). I can't remember the restaurant name but the food was good and prices reasonable and the service friendly. They had both indoor and outdoor seating and a few times eating in the air conditioned section was very good! They did laundry for 70 bahts per kilo including ironing and the service was very good.

This hotel is great if you want to relax at the pool or the beach. We did a few day trips that were excellent and did a day of shopping in Patong. If you want lots of things near the hotel then you'll be disappointed. Taxi's are much more expensive than in Bangkok and from speaking with some of the employees it seems to be run by the mafia of some sorts as all the prices are preset and high for Thailand. There are metered taxis at the airport outside the exit and to the right - we used these upon arrival. To give some idea of the prices we paid 500 baht from the airport - each trip to Patong via the "taxi's" was 400 bahts to Patong and 300 return - no idea why the differences in price on the way back. But still overpriced compared to Bangkok by about 300%.

We went to the shopping center in Patong. There are several eating places between the two buildings offering anything from local Thai food to Italian to Western Steak house. There was a nice mix of local and western retail outlets in the mall and it was a decent way to spend a rainy day. There is a movie theatre there that shows some English movies and there is an arcade/bowling alley there also - both on the third floor. Several local retailers offering dresses and blouses for women and lots of jewerly and gift type kiosks around the malls.

Gardens at the hotel are nice and well maintained. They have a nurse on site and can arrange a doctor's visit also. We used the hotel excursion desk for the Phanta Sea show and it went smoothly. They can arrange virtually any type of trip you want, but I made all other arrangements myself.

Hotel provided pool towels and beach towels through a card system - you give your card you get a towel - you give a towel back you get a card. Worked very well. The pools were open from 9am to 7pm. There is a business center which offered internet and business services. I had to send a fax while there and it was expensive to send a one page fax (about 10 US dollars equivalent). The hours of the center were good - 7am to 10pm.

Housekeeping service was excellent, had a lot to do with the guy we had most days. He kept us supplied with water and did a generally great job. The hotel has ESPN and a few English movie channels which was nice at night to be able to watch things in English for an hour or two. I think they also have a French station, Japanese and German station along with several Thai stations.

Overall I was pleased with the stay. Only thing I would really comment on to be aware of is the cost of the resort restaurant, but thats true for most any resort. An excellent place to visit if you truly just want to relax and enjoy the sun/pool/beach.

Firstly Hilton Arcadia is a fantastic standard- five star. The resort has great facilites and the pools are good. Great for families however great for couples as I went there with my partner. The resort is huge so you dont feel like there are lots of other guests or families there, you can find private areas.

Secondly- Spa looked beautiful and the sporting activites are fantastic however didnt really get to use them as my partner got severe food posioning from the hotel restuarant. I suggest not to get room service I think thats why he got sick as we had eaten at the same restuarant earlier in our holiday and had no problems. The Hilton were helpful and we had to get a doctor for an injection and LOTS of tablets.

Thirdly - I like Karon Beach much nicer than Patong. It has a beautiful beach opposite the hotel and you can hire a scooter down the road for approx. THB250-350 depending on what size and how new you want the scooter.

Karon to Patong costs THB250-300 each way- this is a standard price however some drivers try for 400 they will do it for less- --- just walk away!

If you have any questions about the hotel you can contact me if you have any questions.