Cape Panwa Hotel, Phuket.

[sitges233]

Hi, This is my first post and we are going to Bangkok and Phuket for the first time in January.

Has anyone stayed at or know of the Cape Panwa Hotel? It looks very beautiful from the photos I've seen on the web. We love snorkelling and hope to be able to do lots of that whilst there.

Any info and feed back would be greatly appreciated.

BTW Is Phuket as good as Bangkok for shopping?

Thanks.

[Mim]

I don't know whether you're a native Spaniard or not but I'll answer in English anyway cos I'm feeling too lazy for Spanish.

I'm going to stay in Cape Panwa at the end of August because the reviews were so good. Apparently it's still safe to do water sports on this part of the island because it's very sheltered.

I don't know what age you are but the impression that I seem to get is that a lot of the clients are of the retired age, German and repeat visitors (which must be a sign that the hotel is good right?). It is very far away from the nightlife of Patong but they provide a bus service to Patong and Phuket city. It seems the ideal place to relax that's why I booked it.

I'll let you know how it is when I post my trip report!!

PS I don't think anyway is as good as Bangkok for shopping...I think I can smell my credit card melting already.

PPS Madrid rules! Barcelona wears little pink girlie thongs

[sitges233]

Buenas Tardes Mim

Thanks for your reply. We have booked through Kuoni in the UK and they have recommednded this hotel. I think you may be right, I get the impression that the hotel caters for my age group (I'm old enough to be your mother! ) more than yours, but I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time there and it certainly looks peaceful for a chill out time! And there is even a pub in the style of a lighthouse which will please our 16yr old daughter who is coming too.

I look forward to hearing from you when you return.

No I'm not Spanish, although my daughter goes to a Spanish school and is fluent, wish I could say the same for me! Are you Spanish?

Well, anyway I hope you have a wonderful holiday, here's to melting the plastic!!

BTW Barca rules - they won the Euro champs' afterall he he!

Veronica.

[Mim]

Hey Veronica,

No I'm not Spanish, I've beening working here for about a year now! My Spanish is reasonable because I have to deal with them with my job and also my boyfriend is Spanish but we always speak English to each other.

Are you going with a Spanish travel agent? I found the prices were almost twice as expensive than the UK. I booked everything from the UK and including the flights to the UK it's a damn sight cheaper. €1000 vs €1800

I'll be sure to road test that pub for your daughter!!

[sitges233]

Hi Mim

Yes we booked with Kuoni as they have been around the Uk for a long time and are well respected in the industry. We looked at the brochures in Spain but found the same as you, much more expensive and a lot less choice, plus for us here in Barcelona we would have had to fly to Madrid first for the connection to Thailand, so we may as well fly cheap on Easyjet back to UK.

We have lived here for 4 yrs now and absolutely love it. You will find it easy to pick up the language if you are working in Spain, plus your age helps (I'm a bit long in the tooth now I'm afraid ) and having a boyfriend is also a plus for picking up the pronunciation etc.

I'm assuming that you are from England, whereabouts? We come from Colchester, north of London.

Is this your first time to Thailand? We are so looking forward to going in January.

Have a great time.

Regards

Veronica.

[Mim]

I'm from Reading but after Uni I followed my boyfriend to Spain! I'm supposedly an English teacher but I haven't taught anyone for a while, I'm stuck in the office "co-ordinating" people and speaking to disgruntled students on the phone, easy money but boring.

I'm half Thai so I've been to Thailand quite a few times but nearly always just Bangkok. I've been to Chiang Mai, and Koh Samui, apparently I've been to Phuket but I remember nothing!

The Spanish travel agencies offered guided tours of Thailand which could be a good way to see the country but I like the liberty of doing what I want to do, instead of being shoved around like cattle into this restaurant and into this temple.

You've picked I really good time to go, I'm going in low season but I don't really mind...I like tropical storms...kinda

[sitges233]

Well, what a small world! I was originally from Slough and my brother lived in Reading for many years and raised his 3 kids there. My brother has retired to Somerset now but his sons still live in Reading. My mother lives in Wokingham, so we still go there quite a bit.

Can you speak Thai as well?

Hasta luego

Veronica

[Mim]

Hi Veronica,
Thought I'd give you a review of the hotel, dunno if you come to this site but I know you'll receive an email notification.

Well the hotel is definitely away from the tourist tack but it's so far away from everything you feel like you've been taken hostage. There are no taxis (they're at the bottom of the hill at the bay hotel) other than the official hotel transportation so it's extortionately priced. Better to take the shuttle bus to the bay hotel and then go to the Aquarium and get a bus there to Phuket town.

Accomodation was ok had a few problems with ants!

Food at the hotel, there's a lot of choices of places to eat, breakfast (incl in price) is good but it's expensive 900baht is more than I want to pay for a mediocre meal. But I ate something dodgy at dinner and I ended up in hospital for a day and a night on a drip.

The beach is pretty small and be careful when going in the sea cos there is a bugger load of coral and my boyfriend cut himself on it. There is a cool underwater path that you can walk on and all the fish come around you, nibbling your bikini strings!

Here are a few pictures! Didn't take that many pictures! Sorry

Tram down to beach


Panwa house


Me on the beach

[LivinLOS]

Thats the thing with Panwa, nice and remote but its er.. Remote.. Hotel basically has you sort of trapped for meals and stuff, happend to me once staying at the Yacht club on Langkawai (own mini island off the langkawi main island) and wont fall for that again.

Beach sounds good tho, good coral is getting harder to find, may have a swim round that way next time I go Ao Yon bay.

[Werwolf]

Hi Mim
good comment to the hotel....(and of course good pics.....)
..I did add your review to the hotel list

[sitges233]

Hi Mim

Thanks for your review of the hotel, although it doesn't sound too good if you ended up in hospital with (I presume) food poisoning. The ants don't sound very appealing either!

As far as the hotel being very isolated - this may cause us a problem especially as we will have our 16yr old daughter to keep amused and the thing is, we don't mind the peace and quiet and a bit of isolation if it's easy enough to go and find the action when you want it, but this doesn't seem to be the case with this hotel?

I have emailed Kuoni and asked for their comments on the isolation and the other problems etc, but I'm still waiting to hear back from them. Will keep you posted on the outcome.

The photos look fabulous though, so will be dissapointed if we have to start looking for an alternative hotel!

Regards

Veronica

[Mim]

Yep I had severe Gastroenteritis, I was so dehydrated that they admitted me straight away, my fault really cos I was putting off going to hospital. My boyfriend ended up with a 200€ bill for the short stay in the hospital and the insurance company is playing up about giving him the money back.

My main issue with staying at this hotel is the isolation. The hotel is great, beautiful etc but I spent so much money travelling to Phuket town or Patong because the hotel doesn't really have anything in the way of entertainment at night, except the depressingly awful "pub band" at the lighthouse. They have activities during the day like fruit carving but I just watched that. It's 45mins/450baht to Patong (difficult to bargain with the taxi drivers cos they have no competition), with the hotel they charge 250baht per person. To Phuket town 15mins/200baht, the hotel charges 150baht per person.

The staff are lovely and a lot of people visit the place again and again, so I guess isolation works for some people.

Please don't worry! I'm sure you'll have a great time! It's only one minus in a bunch of positives for the hotel and I don't think anyone else got gasteroenteritis.

[LivinLOS]

Panwa is a LONG way out.. To get to the west coast nightlife is a fair old hike.

Dont consider it if you want to head out at night to patong.