Do not be convinced that the photos you see of the access resort & spa are entirely correct. They had a highly skilled photographer in place. The resort barely rises above 3 X stars for quality of facilities. The staff were lovely, supportive and helpful at all times. The rooms and facilities were below par. The Resort is NOT just 1 X year old, it is a very OLD facility not yet completely renovated, and they are still working on it. The location is pretty scabby, and most of the Tuk Tuk Drivers do not know where it is. The sights from your pool access rooms can vary from half painted bare walls, the business in front back yard or a building site. We had to be shifted twice because of a poor location and a shower ceiling that collapsed just after my young Daughter got out. The showers by the way, barely rise above a trickle and the water fluctuates from hot to cold in seconds. The pool(s) are in about 4/5 sections with the wet bar too deep for small children. The food was great and the eating area clean and well maintained. The food & drinks staff were very friendly and a delight as they struggled with their english.
Overall, we will not stay at the Access Resort & Spa again, I would suggest abot asking for a price somewhere near 25% less than their current prices or try the Merlin Beach Hotel, much dearer but, much much nicer.

I am really surprised to read such bad reviews for this resort. We had a fantastic time here.
The access to the pool was a unique and special touch which was so nice after a warm day in the sun. It also meant that if you wanted to have a relaxing day around the pool it really was a nice way to spend the day.
While the location is around a 10 minute walk from Karon beach, their are 4 shuttle buses from the hotel per day and the walk is a nice way to start the evening when the sun has gone down. Karon is ok, not too much there but enough to have a choice for drinks or dinner.
There are a couple of restaurants directly outside of the resort which are slightly cheaper than the hotel, as that would be my only criticism that the hotel is slightly more expensive for eating and drinking but that is to be expected.
We had 7 nights here and in that time the staff were always polite and friendly to the point of knowing us by the end of our stay.
The spa was a professional well established spa, unlike some in Thailand which give themselves the spa name but do not offer the service. It was very relaxing and the staff were very good at the facial, massage, manicure and pedicure that l had.
We went into Patong twice which was more than enough. Good to see and experience but l am so relieved we were staying outside of that resort!!! Its ok if, obviously like the Australian review below, you are used to tackiness, noise and out of control tourism!!!
I would recommend this resort to anyone and if l went back to Phuket would probably choose this resort again.

This place looks great on the website, but doesn't look true to it's photographs in person. The staff was mediocre at best and the breakfact was pretty lousy. The rooms are decent and housekeeping does a nice job on daily clean up. The hotel is about a 20 minute walk from the beach up and down hill, depending on whether you are coming or going. It is a $4-$5 tuk-tuk ride each way, so if you are selcting it because it is slighty cheaper than a place down the hill, don't do it. You will either lose $10 a day in tuk tuk cost or could end up walking up and down the hill in the scorching heat. The road that leads to this hotel was closed from 5pm to midnight during the week we were there so we got stuck walking up the hill at night just about every night which was a bummer. The hotel left fresh rose petals on the bed when we arrived, which was a very sweet and nice gesture. Unfortunately we used the pool and laid down on the bed while still wet without removing them. The rose petals leaked into the bedspread and we were required to pay $50 for that. We opted to take the bedspread home and with a few washings there is no stain left. We thought that was really bad business practice. We also found out we weren't the only ones who did that. Sounds like a scam to me. The good news is that you have direct pool access from the rooms and that is pretty neat. Careful though, they treat the pool with serious chlorine around 7pm without any notice. If you jump in right after your skin will burn for days. I would not recommned this place to anyone .

We cannot understand the review from the Australian person below.... I think he/she must have been staying at a different hotel to us!!

We have travelled fairly extensively and stayed at all standards of hotel around the world and the Access was was just lovely for the ratings category it is in. The room was large and tastefully decorated. The bathroom was a v.good size and had a seperate shower and bath. The hotel provided flip flops and bathrobes too. The bed was ginormous and while it was firm we found it was comfortable. The mini bar was v.reasonably priced and you get 2 free water and complimentary tea/coffe each day. The airconditioning was good and not too noisy; often we have to switch aircon units off at night because they are too noisy for us to sleep with left on - this one was fine on the lowest fan setting.

The funishings, to my eye, were all nice and while there was some wear and tear - noteable the dining room chairs had paint chippings - they certainly didn't look like they were left over from the Tsunami (a comment I found distasteful) - this is not the Burj al Arab its a 3 starish hotel! I particularly loved the restaruant/lobby area.

The patio chairs were fine but somewhat unusual, my husband didn't find them particularly comfy but I did and I actually really liked them. It was nice that the patio had a fan too. The USP of this hotel is the pool at the edge of your patio; it was just fabulous to be able to go for a dip straight from your own room. WE LOVED THIS, we are not really 'beach people' so a good pool scores high with us and the 'rooms' pool and the main pool were just great. The main pool has seating round some of the edges and just opposite the wetbar the seating has water jets so is a bit 'jacquzzi' like.

The food was OK, - breakfast was a little bland, while there is a fair selection its all sort of samish. I would have loved some wholemeal cereals and bread - it was all a bit 'white carbohydrate' for my liking and Thai bacon is awful. But to return to my point of the star rating of the hotel we found the food reasonable for a 3 star place - we have had worse at 4 star hotels. The Thai food they did - available on all menus - was very good, I did enjoy that. I find, in general, that in Thailand (this was our 3rd trip) you are safer eating Thai, they are not that good at 'international/European' dishes.

The hotel Spa was LOVELY I went twice for Thai massages and it was simply divine. (I go at least once a year to the Santuary in London as I really like being pampered) I know its a lot pricier than getting a massage on the beach or in a local shop, but the ambiance of the place was worth it. It was lovely to be dressed in a special white suite and have airconditioned comfort, with soothing music playing and on comfy, proper massage beds (with a hole for your face why you lie on your tummy). The girls in the Spa were just lovely too.

The staff on the whole were good (service was a bit slow, but we found it to be the same everywhere we went) yes their English is not brilliant but then our Thai is non existent so they are 100% better than us at being able to speak a foreign language. We always manged to make ourselves understood.

I would DEFINITELY return to this hotel and recommend it to friends.

Karon is a bit 'down market' - 2 starish, we found that Kata was nicer - 3 starish and had a greater selection and better standard restaurants. Went once to Patong and thought the place was simply ghastly (Like Blackpool on Cocaine!) not our cup of tea at all. But having said that we found a nice Italian place in a side streeet - away from the awful noise of the beach road (something akin to the M25 at Friday rush hour!) and had a very nice pasta and pizza meal in air conditioned comfort. Then we walked back up the street they close to traffic at night (where all the girly bars etc are) and found a really good bar at the top of the road (sort of underneath the Thai boxing place) on the right hand corner, as you walk up from the beach. It had a live band and they were simply brilliant, great range of rock music and excellent girl singer (bit like Tina Turner voice wise)

In Karon, not too far from the hotel, just along from the temple there was a nice restaurant called Piano, would recommend that.