Khaolak Merlin Resort

Our stay at Merlin Khao Lak was pretty great. We had a week there, and sincerely enjoyed the feeling of staying in a contained and nicely taken care of rain forest by the beach. The location was nearly perfect, but the beach itself wasn't very swimmable (beginning of rain season, to be fair). Fortunately, there were other beaches on the same coast that were nicer during the same time of year, so we did get time in the sea water. Even without sea swimming, the ambience from the waves and the sunsets made the beach plenty nice for us at Merlin. There is also a variety of nicepy kept pools to enjoy, though I typically don't enjoy pools personally. Service/food were both nice as well. The staff was pleasant enough, but it did feel weird that an ecologically minded resort had the least meat/dairy alternatives of any of the several resorts/hotels we stayed at. I found ordering curries with no seafood or meat simple though, and they were mostly still good. The massaman curry was a miss, but everything else I tried was quite good for resort food! We really loved the touch of the room's default tv channel being an info channel about the resort's wildlife and maintenance. That, plus the several info booklets allowed us to have a more guided and knowledgeable experience while sightseeing on the exceptional grounds. It was really fun running into others who were also just having a look around and waiting to see a different animal pop up. We enjoyed our stay. Next time we'd likely come back, while also spending some time up the coast a bit.

I'll start with the positives, the beds are very comfy, the cleaning staff and activities staff are very friendly and Kiki gives an amazing massage. Also, the taxi company who are at the front of the hotel are amazing. Sadly I don't think it is much more than its beautiful grounds. I'm not sure how it is a 4-star hotel, more like a 3-star which was disappointing as we are used to staying in 4 stars. Many of the guests that stay here seem to be very much into the booze and sunburn, I'm not even sure they are aware of its eco status! After a week in a fairly lovely room, we had new guests move in all around us who were smoking constantly, we were travelling with our 11 yr old daughter and as I have had multiple lung surgeries (I have never been a smoker), this was incredibly unpleasant for us, as it meant when we were at the room we could not use the balcony or have the doors open- which we had been leaving open all night with the mosquito screen in place as we find air con too harsh. The hotel kindly moved us to another room, however, it was a significant downgrade from what we had paid for. Smaller and staring out at a concrete path surrounded by noisy generators. The food was average and did not cater well for vegetarians at breakfast, luckily it was cheap enough to travel around the island and there were amazing restaurants (namely Rasoi and Metang within walking distance which catered beautifully for us with incredible dishes). We checked out very early on the day we left, and the staff "kindly" put together a breakfast box for us. Sadly this box contained meat sandwiches which were useless to us. Luckily Thailand particularly Khao Lak Phuket is an amazing place full of amazing people, but next time we won't be coming back to the Merlin.