Hotel Recommendations: Merlin Beach Resort

The Phuket Merlin Beach Resort is almost in Patong Beach, but not quite. The location is off a side road to the South end of Patong, past the Baan Yin Dee Boutique Resort and heading towards Paradise Beach. It's easy enough to find, but not too many people head this way. This is an area we like and I have already recommended the Tri Trang Beach Resort on this blog.

I just decided today to blog the Merlin Beach Resort, as a customer came in to book diving and was raving about the place. It IS a big resort, with more than 400 rooms and does get large travel agent bookings, yet due to it's secluded location does not feel like part of the main tourist scene. The resort has several restaurants, tennis courts, 3 pools, a spa, a gym, a beauty salon - all that you'd expect from a quality resort.

But the attraction for me (as usual) is the location - Merlin Beach Resort is on it's own beach - which they say is called Tri Trang Beach, although that is also the name of the beach where you find nearby Tri Trang beach resort. The Merlin Beach faces south, the Tri Trang Beach resort faces North. The 2 hotels are not on the same beach... But hey, it's a private beach, located near Patong (near enough to get there in 10 minutes, but far enough to be very quiet) - great location.

• Location of Merlin Beach Resort on Google Earth

Phuket Merlin Beach Resort - Booking and Reviews

• Merlin Beach Resort Rates and Reservations at Agoda.com
• Merlin Beach Resort Reviews

• More Patong Beach Hotels


Merlin Beach Resort - Photos

 

 


• More Hotels in Phuket - Phuket Hotels at Agoda.com
• Last minute Phuket hotels - LateStays.com
• More Phuket Hotel Recommendations

TripAdvisor Phuket - Reviews and Deals

As an aside from my normal tales of "where we went last weekend" I just want to make a quick post to highlight a very useful website for planning a trip to Phuket - probably most people already know about TripAdvisor.com, but on this page you can find links to the most useful and relevant pages on the site relating to Phuket.

On TripAdvisor you can find hotel and holiday reviews by real travelers, not paid reviewers, so reviews are not always 100% positive! It does help to have a balanced view before making a booking. This web site is not a travel brochure where the sun always shines and every detail is perfect, though there is of course advertising on the site to keep it profitable. There is also a useful forum where you can ask questions (and give answers). You can find maps, vacation package deals and flight information too.

So, here are some links direct to the pages that relate to Phuket...

TripAdvisor.com Phuket

• Phuket Overview
• Phuket Forums (I'm on there sometimes!)
• Phuket Hotels
• Flights to Phuket
• Phuket Deals
• Phuket Attractions
• Phuket Discount Hotels

Of course, TripAdvisor.com covers the whole of Thailand (and indeed the whole world) - so here's a few links for other places of interest:

• TripAdvisor Thailand
• Phi Phi Islands
• Bangkok
• Chiang Mai
• Koh Samui
• Koh Tao

A trip to Phuket Zoo

We have of course been to the zoo before, and I have blogged it before (see Phuket Zoo), but when you have kids you need to think of something exciting to do! With previous weekends either raining or taken up with birthday parties, we promised the little 'uns that we'd go on Saturday (if it was sunny). The sun duly shone, and so we could go to see the tiger, the elephants, the crocodiles and many other great and wondrous beasts...





Phuket Zoo is a great attraction for local residents since the entry fee for residents is only 80 Baht for adults and 50 Baht for kids. So we are happy to come again and again! Note that if you are a tourist the fees are considerably higher.





It was a hot day on Saturday, and the zoo always seems hot since it's full of trees and rather humid with little in the way of cooling breezes. Thus you are bound to part with a little more money to buy a drink or ice cream :)

Now, I am not a zoo fan in general. Some of the animals seem happy enough - the elephants look happy when playing basketball, the deer and birds look jolly, but some animals such as the leopard, which paces back and forth in a bare cage, I do feel sorry for.



The kids of course are excited to see the animals. We made a bee line for the tiger, who was rather dopey. A tourist kid sat with the tiger while his dad took photos. The tiger keeper (a one armed man) poked the tiger with a stick, making him growl and bare his teeth. Would I let my kid sit next to a pissed off tiger? Er.. no.

 

The growling rather scared my 2 year old, so we went to find crocodiles instead (yeh, not at all scary). Then we stopped at the elephant show for a while. The viewing stand was packed full (and this is low season!), so we stood just outside for a while and watched elephant races and elephants standing on two legs and elephants playing basketball.








The zoo has lots of smaller animals too, such as monkeys, a huge variety of birds, snakes, a small but refreshingly cool airconditioned aquarium, plus deer, camels and (wow!) goats (which my kids enjoyed feeding with bananas). There is also a very nice orchid garden (I do like orchids).







If you wanted to see all the shows at Phuket Zoo (elephant, monkey, crocodile) and all the animals you can easily spend a few hours there. We tend to dash around in an hour and head home. Since we are paying local rate we are not so worried about getting our money's worth! And I am sure we'll be back again.

• Phuket Zoo - Location on Google Earth



Phuket Zoo Links

• Phuket Zoo Website
• Discussion about Phuket Zoo on TripAdvisor