We stayed at the Phuket Emerald Beach hotel for a week in April 2026 with our children (9, 10 & 14). The hotel was excellent and great for families.
Rooms – The room was excellent. Extremely clean and spacious. Lovely balcony (all balconies overlook the pool). New towels and new pool towels were provided every day in the room. We had a minor issue with the shower not draining – this was reported and it got sorted, not immediately but within a few days. I would have chased it up sooner but we also had a lovely bath with a shower attached so it wasn’t urgent. I found the bed pretty comfy-I suffer from a bad back and I was perfectly comfortable.
Pool – Lots of different pool areas. The kids loved the 2 bigger slides and spent lots of time going down them. The pool attendants were great with the children. The only thing the hotel is missing is a larger pool area where you can have ball games/inflatables etc, all the pools were fairly small/narrow. There wasn’t anywhere to swim properly although this wasn’t an issue for us. We weren’t sure when we went, from looking at the photos, but you are allowed in the pool areas where the swim up rooms were, they are not reserved for those rooms only. There was a slightly deeper swim up pool towards the rear of the property where the kids found it easier to play.
There were always plenty of sunloungers although we only normally used one to put all our stuff on, but it looked like there were always some available. The cave bar was lovely, we had daily drinks and ice-cream here-really friendly staff.
Hotel – The hotel reception was lovely, as was the sky bar, which is located on the roof of the property. We had a drink up there most nights after we had been out for dinner. Beautiful view and never busy. The hotel in general didn’t seem very busy – not sure what capacity it was at, but it never seemed overly busy which was nice.
Location – the location was great for us. Karon is a very touristy area but great for families. You are on the main beach road so although the hotel is set back from the road you are directly on the main strip. There is a 7/11 pretty much next door which was handy. There are loads of restaurants, shops, market stalls, food stalls, massage parlours along the main beach road and round the corner on Patak Road. The beach was also nice, although we only visited once as the kids weren’t keen on swimming due to worries about jellyfish! There are plenty of tuk tuks waiting on the road outside if using those rather than Grab/Bolt etc. It is also a good location for trips – not too far from the Big Buddha and Hidden Forest Elephant Sanctuary.
Food – The hotel breakfast was very nice. Plenty of options-fresh fruit, an egg station, meats, pastries, curries & rice etc and we never struggled to get a table for the 5 of us. We ate lunch a few times at the hotel which was also very nice.
The hotel held various events such as a foam party for kids, buffet for Songkran etc. They also had underwater scooters for hire.
The only negative we have about the hotel was on check out we were charged for 2 x cans of drinks from the mini bar and a missing laundry bag. We hadn’t used/taken these, and they must have been missing on arrival (but we didn’t know to check items on arrival). We were left with no choice but to pay for these which was about £10 in total as we couldn’t prove we didn’t take them, so I would recommend ensuring you know what is supposed to be in the room on arrival and taking photos and alerting staff if something isn’t present.
As others have said I do feel it is more a 4* than a 5* hotel but that is not meant as a negative.
