This weeks special from Travelzoo Australia...

Spend three nights at Thailand's luxurious JW Marriott Khao Lak Beach Resort & Spa for $319 for two people and receive a host of exclusive value-adds, such as a traditional Thai massage per person, daily breakfast, late checkout and 30% off return airport transfers. This 2012 TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice award-winning property features four kilometres of private beach. Travel includes six weeks of high season.

http://www.travelzoo.com/au/local-deals/Outside-Australia/Getaway/64129?utm_source=localdeal_au&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1533830_html_australia_deal%3a64129&utm_content=1533830&tz_adid=1533830

 

Highlights

 

 

 

• • Two people can stay at Thailand's 5-star JW Marriott Khao Lak Beach Resort & Spa for just $319 per stay
  • Loaded with exclusive extras and featuring six weeks of high season, this offer is valued at up to $993
  • Stay in a Deluxe Pool View Room with daily buffet breakfast for two people
  • Enjoy one 45-minute traditional Thai massage per person (reg. $65) at the luxurious Quan Spa (limit two per room, per 3-night voucher)
  • Exclusive 30% off additional a la carte spa treatments
  • Free admission to the Kids' Club and up to two kids per room eat dinner free from the kids' menu with a dining adult
  • Get 30% off return airport transfers (a $54 value)
  • Includes one 'Buy 1, Get 1 Free' cocktail voucher per person and one 'Buy 1, Get 1 Free' buffet dinner voucher per 
  • • room, per 3-night voucher
    • Kids will also enjoy one complimentary selected craft activity per child, per 3-night voucher (a $22 value)
    • Late checkout to 2pm
    • Free Wi-Fi throughout the resort
    • Private 4km beachfront on palm-lined Khuk Kak Beach
    • Rooms feature 40-inch LCD TVs, DVD players, luxurious bedding and spacious bathrooms with soaking tubs and rain showers
    • Extend your stay for just $106 per night
    • Upgrade to a Deluxe Pool Access Room and pay just $30 extra per night
    • Resort is an hour's drive north of Phuket International Airport
    • Features eight restaurants and bars, a 3km swimming pool, state-of-the-art gym, tennis and squash courts and more

This is virtually the same offer made available via travelzoo last year. I spent 6 nights there in early April and posted photos and my comments in this thread - 
 
http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/topic/8039-amazing-travelzoo-offer-khao-lak-jw-marriott-resort/?hl=%2Bjames+%2Bbond&do=findComment&comment=67181
 
Here are the comments -
 

Despite its looks and its setting, the Resort is not all it’s cracked up to be. I suspect this is one of the reasons there are offers galore on the web for this particular Resort for almost the entire year. There is a lot of choice in and near Khao Lak, and I think both the Marriott and Le Meridien (even further away) are too far from town to be really attractive to most people. And how it gained a tripadviser Award last year certainly beats me! Some of the problems –

1. Location. It’s an 80 minutes drive north from Phuket airport. Plus it’s a good bit to the north of Khao Lak town and set 1.9 kms off the main road. The hotel runs a minibus service to town, but slams you with a Bt. 100 each way charge. If you want to get a taxi, you have to walk all that way to the road.

2. I had not realized the Resort is 8 years old – and inside, despite appearances, it is really starting to show its age. I checked back on old tripadviser reviews and noticed that two had mentioned rats being found in their rooms!!

3. This one is really odd for Thailand where the service in 5-star hotels is usually world-beating. For whatever reason, few of the staff smiled. It was really like most of them were bored with their jobs.

4. The restaurants are very pricey. On my first evening, I went to the Mediterranean restaurant. I asked for a glass of wine and some Thai bottled water. The non-smiling waitress explained there was no Thai bottled water – only Evian or tap water! Whoever heard of hotels serving tap water in Thailand? I told her to forget the water. Two minutes later she was at the table about to open a huge bottle of Evian. I said “No”. The young European captain came over. He explained there had been a misunderstanding! The tap water was in fact bottled water which they served out of a carafe. It was not tap water! It seemed pretty clear that the “tap water” advice was merely a ruse to get patrons to cough up for the expensive imported bottled water. Also, when my bill finally came, I found I’d been charged for two desserts, one of which I had not ordered!

5. Sad to say, I found the Resort guests about 95% European. There was one Japanese gay couple I spotted, and a couple of Chinese families. Apart from that, they were largely a mix of English, German and Scandinavian families with young kids, many I reckoned on package tours. I found it pretty boring. (But then, it was my fault that I chose the week after Easter when I should have realised a lot of European families would still be on holiday here)!

6. The hotel runs a number of excursions to various largely uninhabited islands, great for snorkelling but surprisingly the weather for much of the week was cloudy – it even rained a few times – and so I decided instead to go to Phang-na. The ‘highlight’ is the James Bond island (featured in “Man with the Golden Gun”). The island itself is far smaller than I imagined, but it was fun taking the long tail boat through the mangrove forest and then lunching at a Muslim fishing village built on stilts. Not a cheap day, though!

 

 

And my summary? Not all that positive.

 

Would I return? Probably not. It’s not a Resort for singles or even a gay couple. But if there was a party of 6 or more, it could be a lot more fun.