Karon Cafe Inn (Eric's Place)

[ancientmariner]

Karon Cafe

http://www.phuket.com/karoncafe/index.htm

Would greatly appreicated for any experience or information about this place. Many thanks in advance.

[Baltic]

Originally Posted by ancientmariner

Karon Cafe

http://www.phuket.com/karoncafe/index.htm

Would greatly appreicated for any experience or information about this place. Many thanks in advance.

Hi ancientmariner,
as You know already from our communication before,
I have been located mainly in Karon Beach hotels all these past years (just once in Kata Thani, but this hotel was wrong selection for me ) .

Never been guest of this place Karon Cafe, but can tell You some details about general things there:

- place is extremely close to the Karon action (if You look to the map on their homepage, it is located on a narrow street close to Karon main street, what is starting from traffic circle and directed to the right side on the map).
Therefore everything is very close, including shopping, bars, restaurants, street food stalls, and lovely Karon sand beach too.

- however I can bet that no sea view available from the hotel room window (as I remeber, You were looking also for this advantage in some earlier posting)

- due to extremely close location to the Karon action the place might be a bit noisy nighttime, but this is just my estimation since now, I don't know exactly

- if You walk by hotel location street to Karon main street (by map down direction) You will end up exactly on the front of one massage parlour where are TGs willing to give a service, currency exhange etc...

- opposite way , where narrow streets gather into one street going to laguna direction (upwards) by map, there is rather bigh night market for any kind of t-shirts, CDs, DVDs, footwear etc stuff...
I'm still extremely thankful that we were walking there one night, as I had a chance to purchase one Pink Floyd DVD (of course pirate) what I had been looking to purchase legally in Europe for 2-3 years without success

Writing all this down - I suddenly started to think - maybe I book for me room there for my next duty visit early 2006.
I will think about this once more later on...

[ancientmariner]

thanks baltic for the detail info. the karon cafe looks clean and friendly with good food right below on the ground floor plus cheap compare to other choices so i guess it's a good alternative.

[Baltic]

Originally Posted by ancientmariner

thanks baltic for the detail info. the karon cafe looks clean and friendly with good food right below on the ground floor plus cheap compare to other choices so i guess it's a good alternative.

Thanks ancientmariner,
after You have been there, please share Your experience.
I'm really thinking about this place as one alternative for my next winter trip.
BTW - when You go there?

[Baltic]

Originally Posted by kiwi hitman

hey Baltic

Never been there before - DVDs - where they cheap and location please mate - heading over in July and Sept

Cheers Hitman

Hey Hitman,

Last time I visited Phuket (beginning of March), the DVDs were available almost everywhere where street trading was active, and in quite wide selection - also at next corner from Soi Eric where MTB is located, were some places selling DVDs.
Prices are very cheap (at least for European customer) - movies 100 Bht, music DVDs by some strange reason at least 120 Bht or even more.
But even this is 10x cheaper than usually in my home country

[tomyam]

Originally Posted by ancientmariner

Karon Cafe

http://www.phuket.com/karoncafe/index.htm

Would greatly appreicated for any experience or information about this place. Many thanks in advance.

hi ancient mariner,

stayed there about 2 years ago , in the middle of the action , though not too noisy at night , rooms are a bit tatty , at least they were when i last stayed there , good buffet breakfast in the morning , top floor a bit of a no-no for a 94yr old , as there is no elevator , guest friendly and no-joiner fee , a bit public though , as you need to go halfway into the restaurant to pick up your room key , all-in-all good value at just under 1,000baht per night , if that is what they still charge , also no swimming pool , but only about 100 metres to the beach..

tomyam

[ancientmariner]

Originally Posted by tomyam

hi ancient mariner,

stayed there about 2 years ago , in the middle of the action , though not too noisy at night , rooms are a bit tatty , at least they were when i last stayed there , good buffet breakfast in the morning , top floor a bit of a no-no for a 94yr old , as there is no elevator , guest friendly and no-joiner fee , a bit public though , as you need to go halfway into the restaurant to pick up your room key , all-in-all good value at just under 1,000baht per night , if that is what they still charge , also no swimming pool , but only about 100 metres to the beach..

tomyam

thanks for the info tomyam. they confirmed that it's guest friendly and i tend to carry my own key so it should be alright. they charge 799 baht for a deluxe room with balcony and i would imagine it shouldn't be too noice at nice in karon during low season.

they also said guests are allow to use to pool in the pacific club next door which is owed by the same owner.

[othello]

Originally Posted by ancientmariner

thanks for the info tomyam. they confirmed that it's guest friendly and i tend to carry my own key so it should be alright. they charge 799 baht for a deluxe room with balcony and i would imagine it shouldn't be too noice at nice in karon during low season.

they also said guests are allow to use to pool in the pacific club next door which is owed by the same owner.

hi there, I will be going phuket for the first time and have booked Karon Cafe Inn from 1 may to 4 May. Will come back and give a field report !!!

[Schmeen]

I have a friend, former long time reident of Thailand and Phuket, whenever he returns, he always stays here. Loves the place.

I've actually stayed in the one on the corner next door, funny story to tell about that, would stay there again, but it did sour the memory. Can't really tell the story without knowing the name of the place.

[othello]

Originally Posted by othello

hi there, I will be going phuket for the first time and have booked Karon Cafe Inn from 1 may to 4 May. Will come back and give a field report !!!

I am back !! Ok .... I was directed to sister hotel - Paradise Inn - which was 1 minute away. I my opinion, the best room there is the standard room @ the top floor. Its bright - with a balcony - and has a higher ceiling than most ..... The other rooms are dark and deluxe room not much bigger in size ........
Very near to the beach, with bars, restaurants nearby ..........

HOWEVER, Karon & Kata is VERY VERY quiet now ..... At dinner time, you would be hard pressed to find more than 4 tables @ normal eating places ( save for those famous ones) ............ I wld recommend staying @ Patong - where the beach is so much nicer and I wld say beach capacity is around 35 - 40 % .........

I rented a jeep @ 700Bt ( he offered 600 for 2nd day), and I did not have to show or give him my passport. Just my driving licence. The roads there are very easy to navigate although have to be careful on those hilly & winding roads .......

And IT IS GOD DAMN HOT now, avg temp of 36/37 deg in day time ...... Coming from sunny singapore, I found it even hotter & also more humid. I was pespiring like mad.

Ok, 1 last piece of caution. To people who wanna book any hotel along road opposite Karon beach, going by the road towards kata, the last "good" hotel would be Sea Sun Resort and the first "good" one would be Andaman Seaview. KaronBuri, Hilton, Thavorn etc ..... in front of them and the beach are major land works. Have to take e detour ( Long depending where you are) to get to the beach. And looking from your hotel room, it is not a nice sight .......