The Centara Resort located just a few minutes walk from Karon Beach was a pleasant surprise.
In fact the location is second to none being right in the heart of Karon villiage with restaurants, bars, massage parlours. 7-11 convenience store, tour shops plus clothing and variety stores literally just outside the resort. The local Karon Temple and night markets are a few minutes walk up the road.
The service, presentation and attention from staff at all levels was very good indeed.
The rooms whilst not as large as other resorts in the area, are kept clean and serviced daily whilst the included provisions are equivalent to that of a 5 Star hotel. For example in addition to the standard soaps and shampoos in the bathroom, they supply tooth brushes, vanity kits and shower caps. They also have rooms with 2 double beds as an option which is rarely found in other hotels.
Centara have 3 amazing, well sized pools kept beautifully clean with one of them including a children's water playground with a water slide. All pools have a swim-up pool bar as well.
In the morning you will find the extensive buffet breakfast caters for everyone's needs and the quality is very good indeed. They even include 4 flavoured coffee syrups (vanilla, caramel, hazelnut, coconut) next to the self service coffee machines which was a real plus not found at any other resort. You can order any type of eggs you like at the egg bar including eggs benedict and the service is very quick.
A real surprise was the delivery of a beautiful little birthday cake to my room on the day of my birthday. I went to reception to thank the staff and they all came out and gathered around me to pose for a group photo together. Talk about feeling special!
The only issues I had with Centara was at the Escape Club bar and restaurant. Unfortunately there is an obvious lack of consistency with cocktails from day to day depending on the barperson making the drinks to the point where the same cocktail would taste totally different.
In the restaurant at dinner they brought out a complimentary dipping bread which unfortunately was closely followed by entree and main course brought to the table together, even before I got half way through eating the bread.
My college experienced exactly the same problem only an hour earlier so it wasnt an isolated incident.
Its a pity because the food quality was quite satisfactory.
This delivery of entree and main course together is obviously very unprofessional and was brought to the attention of the hotel manager. Hopefully Centara will attend to this obvious lack of training with restaurant staff which spoiled an otherwise wonderful holiday experience.
