By The Sea Hotel Panwa Beach

By the Sea Hotel is located on Panwa Beach in a quiet and peaceful location, away from the bustling tourist areas of Phuket. 1. Hotel The hotel fits the description perfectly. The rooms are obscenely spacious, with windows, especially from the 3rd and 4th floors, offering wonderful views of the bay. Breakfasts are pleasant, the service unobtrusive but attentive. On the grounds there is a small swimming pool, fitness room, laundry with iron. Wi-Fi in the rooms is stable and there is a computer (Mac) at the reception for personal use. Rooms include toothbrushes with paste, cotton pads, shower gel, shampoo, hair conditioner, body cream, but for some reason there is no soap. The kitchen in the room is equipped with an electric saw, and there are pots and pans, a kettle, a microwave and a fridge. In general, everything necessary for comfortable living is available. The only downside is the nearby construction, which is not much of a nuisance, but somewhat spoils the overall impression. 2. Sea and beach The main disadvantage of this place is the sea, which looks attractive, but swimming in it is extremely uncomfortable. The bottom is rocky, strewn with corals (without special shoes, I do not recommend coming in - you can ruin the whole holiday). The entrance to the water is very gentle: to reach depth, you have to walk about 50 meters through the fossils. In addition, in these places the water seems murky due to the suspension of fine sand that does not settle. All this makes swimming by the hotel extremely uncomfortable. Personally, I only used to swim here in the mornings as a warm-up, but to really enjoy the sea, this place is not suitable. The beach itself is not perfect either: at high tide it causes garbage, and at low tide the coral floor is exposed. Rescue – nearby Ao Yon beach, sandy, clean and just as calm. Out of season, this is especially true, as the western beaches (Kata, Karon, Patong, etc.) are too big waves at this time, and many come to swim on Ao Yong specifically. It can be reached by two routes: either follow the beach left to the end, then climb to the road, pass 7/11 and the pearl farm (about 100 meters), before descending by the Cafe Flamingo; or by the road from the reception turn right, reach 7/11 and continue on the same route. 3. Infrastructure around Panwa is a small village whose life is concentrated between 7/11 and Top Daily shops (10 minutes walk from the hotel). There are cafes, money changers, shops, massage parlours, tour stalls and moped/car rentals. There aren't many, but there are enough for basic needs. On the one hand, it can be boring: there is little entertainment - sea, cafe, hotel, massage, kayak/sapa. On the other hand, it's relatively cheap and homely. In 1-2 weeks, you will probably meet all the locals. Near the hotel, on the mountain, is the cafe "Tarzan" (15 minutes on foot) with a beautiful view - highly recommended. All local cafes have roughly the same prices and menus, so you can choose any. Virtually all of them work until 9:00 p.m. In the hotel itself, the prices in the rest are above average by 40-100%, so they didn't eat dinner here. Separately worth mentioning massage: Thai and foot massage here cost 4-5 times less than in Yekaterinburg. The exchangers in Panwe do not offer the best rate (about 2% worse than in more touristic places). At the airport, the rate is not at all favorable (you will lose about 8.5%), so it is better to change the minimum amount there or not to exchange at all. Old dollar bills are not accepted everywhere, but for $50 and $100 bills the rate is noticeably higher than for smaller ones. 4. Excursions Since Panwa is boring and does not reflect all the beauty of Thailand, I recommend taking guided tours. Among the sea excursions worth noting is a trip to Phi Phi + James Bond Island - it is an opportunity to see all the interesting things in one go. From the land excursions you can choose "Kao Lak" (budget option with elephant riding) or "Secrets of Krabi" (for those who want to see the beauty of mainland Thailand). Less land excursions - a long road to the mainland (3-4 hours through other hotels), although from the airport to the hotel directly drive 50-60 min. Booking excursions can be done with guides, through websites and in TG-channels (e.g. "Treasure Island") or at local travel agencies. The latter option is the cheapest, but Russian-speaking guides are not common. I also recommend visiting Old Town in Phuket and Bangla Road in Patong. Taxis can be reached via the Grab, Bolt or InDrive apps. Old Town is best visited on Sunday: from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. there is a flea market. In the centre of Old Town there is a large fruit market, also recommended for visit. Bangla Road should be visited before sunset if you are with the children, or after sunset to see it in all its glory)). Be sure to go to the fish market by the port near Big Buddha. There is a huge selection of fresh fish and seafood: you can buy with you or go directly to the cafe across the street, where for 100-150 baht will prepare everything you bought. If you want to visit other beaches, I recommend Nye Harn - a cozy place popular with expats. Every Sunday at sunset, drummers gather there. On a nearby beach (15 minutes walk) you can snorkel - they say there are beautiful views, but we didn't get there before darkness. For shopping, it is best to go to the Central Phuket (Festival) shopping center, which features stores such as H&M, Zara, Uniqlo and others. If you are interested in temples, you can visit them as part of excursions or independently by taxi. Among the nearest are temples in Phuket city and Patong. The best one is Wat Chalong. Personally, I was most impressed by the temple of the Tigris Cave in Krabi, although perhaps this is due to the 1,260 steps leading to it. The most beautiful temple complexes are in Bangkok, but their visit requires separate planning with the purchase of flights and hotel reservations. Total Hotel By the Sea is a good option for a relaxed and budget holiday in Thailand. Its location is particularly good in the off-season. The only place that can be better is Ao Yong, but the prices are much higher there. Р.s. Were out of season, feared rain, but of the 13 days only one day was cloudy and one day rained, the rest of the time was fine weather.

Relaxed in this hotel with her family from 20 to 29 in room A301. Chic large room with 2 two bedrooms , two bathrooms and beautiful sea views. The hotel is small and quite simple, but it is beautiful. Seclusion, just what we needed. All hotel employees are male, very attentive, welcoming and quick to respond to all requests. Towels in the room and for the beach are changed every day! For the beach, the room has a bag, towels, mats. And rain umbrellas and a flashlight. Breakfasts are good and delicious, we always ate. Cafe on the beach! You eat and admire the sea. On the downside - the sea by the hotel is dirty, washed up on the beach not only natural debris, but also various construction, broken glass bottles, nail boards, plastic and more. I've seen people swim there sometimes, but I strongly discourage it even in the tide. It's not the stones, it's the lot of dangerous debris. We went to Ao Yong Beach about 15 minutes away. There are shops, money changers, fruit, cafes, massage parlors and a cannabis shop. I really wish the hotel staff would do a better job of picking up trash on the beach at least twice a day. And not just natural garbage, but bag bottles. There's also a construction clock near the hotel from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. or so. There's nothing we could do about it, we knew about it beforehand. Bottom line: I really enjoyed the hotel and I would love to come back here again!

This is a very quiet out of the way resort which is why we chose it, if you don't have transport it could be an issue. The hotel rooms are huge, our room opened our into the swimming pool. The room has a huge bedroom as well as living area with a kitchenette, the bathroom has a bath and shower. The swimming pool is a very good size with some sun loungers around it. From the pool area you could walk out onto the beach, at high tide it looked amazing but at low tide you notice a lot of rocks, so it's not a beach to swim in. The sunsets from the beach were beautiful though. There is a restaurant area to the side of the pool looking out over the beach. The breakfast is plentiful with a choice of eggs with sausage, bacon and ham. Pastries, yogurt, fruits, bread/toast jam. We had an issue in our room so we're moved and got an upgrade to a 2 bed room which was even bigger than our first room with a balcony overlooking the sea. We couldn't fault the staff. The furniture is dated and could do with an update but the rooms are clean. I would say though the hotel wastes a lot of electricity. We're used to hotels in Thailand and the general rule is you take the electric card out when you leave to save having the lights/Aircon on. But this hotel keep everything on full blast, we were slightly surprised by this. We probably would go back again as it suited our needs and was away from the real tourist areas.