Novotel Phuket Kata Avista Resort and Spa

This hotel is the absolute best for kids. There is a kids club, and also a kids pool with slides, water guns and free floats and balls provided. Every morning at breakfast there will be a costume mascot that will greet the kids. We had a lobster, dolphin and crab appear during our stay. Staff were also wonderful and helpful. Having a shuttle is a nice touch considering the steep uphill climb back to the hotel. I appreciate the sustainability efforts the hotel has put in. But my battle with the toothpaste was not ideal. I could not tear open the toothpaste packaging. The bed we had was super king size. Truly remarkable. My wife is a light sleeper so it made our trip even more pleasant. Overall I would say Massimo Bernardi the GM has done a good job with the place. From the activities, to staff attentiveness and even the maintenance of the place. There were even yoga sessions in the morning for those who are into it. And finally would like to thank for the cake in the fridge. It was a very nice surprise.

It is a suitable hotel for a family trip. It is located near beach, however it is so uphill. It requires a lot of effort to walk. Hotel has free shuttle van to beach every hour. Breakfast has various options. There were activities for kids and play room.

We stayed at the hotel for 10 days. I want to leave a real review and warn visitors. The hotel itself is quite clean, there are fish swimming on the ground floor, you can feed them, the staff is friendly and responsive to requests. Positive aspects: the room is clean, there are no ants like in another hotel, good sound insulation (we didn’t hear the neighbors), you can see Big Buda on the hill, there is a shuttle to the beach and back every hour, breakfast doesn’t change much from day to day, but it’s varied you can (order different types of cooked eggs, for example), there is also a children’s room that helps couples eat, while entertaining the child. The playroom is good, the child has something to occupy himself with (although I would change the set of books, they are very strange), I did not see any animation there. In the evenings there is a cartoon show and free 🍿. A large wet area for children with a sandbox, toys, a small pool and a larger one. The hotel is located between two beaches. Kata Beach is pleasant, although it is difficult to find shade without buying sun loungers. Karon Beach is completely different, I recommend going there in the afternoon to watch the sunset. There are a lot of things around, including restaurants and shops, massages. Negative points: they clean every day, but every time I asked for a towel for the child, the floor was not washed perfectly, stains are visible. At breakfast there is no oatmeal for children, a children’s corner made of plastic cutlery and cookies. The hardest thing is the ROAD from the hotel to anywhere, a very rare climb, it doesn’t take long to walk, but it’s very difficult, especially with children. Be prepared to pump up your buttocks; once again you won’t go anywhere. Very strong chlorination of the water in the children’s pool, after a long stay our son vomited all night from this water, we never went there again. The hotel should also establish rules for the use of the children’s area by small children! Parents should use special diapers for toddlers. Watching a baby walk with dirty swimming trunks (from which **** comes out) into the sandbox and pool is very unpleasant to take your child there afterwards! The covering of the children's area requires repair, and there is also a sewer smell. When we came to the children's pool, there were few sunbeds, or the sunbeds were dirty, the food and dishes were not put away, it was not pleasant to sit there. The adult area is better. The food at the hotel is also average, I didn’t want to eat extra unless I was too lazy to go down from the hotel to the restaurant. There is no children’s menu for kids, although the hotel is family-friendly (nuggets, burgers, fries are not for a child’s stomach). The hotel has some work to do. I would not return to this hotel for that kind of money…

Reserved the Deluxe Seaview Room for 5D4N with my husband. From check in till check out, the service was exceptional. The receptionist (Mon) was fluent in english and escorted us to our room on the 5th floor. Unlike other hotels around, there’s an elevator in this hotel so you don’t have to worry about climbing the stairs. The bellboy also helped carry our luggage into the room and load our luggage into the car when we check out. Lobby: Cozy, with many sofas, pool table & foosball table. Room: Spacious room with partial sea view from the balcony. It also feels great to sleep on the cozy king bed after a full day tour. The TV only has cable channels, but we’re mostly outside so it wasn’t much of an issue. All the light switches & alarm clock is by the bedside which is very convenient. Smoking: They provide ashtray to smoke on the balcony. Bathroom: Spacious & clean, with bidet spray. Shower area & bathtub is separated. The water heater is easily adjustable and heats up very fast. Toiletries such as shampoo, shower gel & toothbrush is provided. Breakfast: Buffet style breakfast with Asian & Western cuisine. If you’re a muslim, do note that there are some pork dishes. You can avoid eating the porridge/bacon/meat. Surrounding: The hotel is situated on top of the hill away from the hustle & bustle. Hourly shuttle van to Kata Beach is provided for free. It’s possible to walk to the beach as it’s only 5 minutes away. However the slope is quite steep. There’s so much to explore while walking. Kata Walking Street & Karon Plaza/Beach is within walkable distance from the hotel. There’s also restaurants, ATM, minimarts, clothing stores & bars nearby. Central Phuket & Jungceylon is around 20-30 minutes by car. It takes about 1-2 hours to get here from Phuket International Airport depending on the traffic. Activities: VR games, yoga, cooking class & underwater scooter rental are available at additional cost. Staff: Very polite, friendly and fluent in English. Always greeted us with a smile. The restaurant staffs are very service oriented & housekeeping did a fantastic job in making up our room everyday. Cons: Insects on the balcony, especially lizards at night. Just close the balcony door & it won’t enter the room. Overall we enjoyed our stay and highly recommend this hotel.

We loved everything about the hotel expect the amount of little ants in our room. They would get into everything including you purse and wallet. Other than that we were very happy with our stay at Novotel Kata.

Great location Good hotel friendly staff Very clean and great breakfast Will visit again

if the room is booked by ocean but … :(

The bathtub was dirty with stain when we checked in on the first day. After complaining to concierge, they could only change us to another room on the next day as the hotel was fully booked. When we relocated to another room at higher floor, there was issue with the door as it cannot be opened intermittently. However, the hotel was managed to respond quickly to get the technician to replace the battery in the door handle. The food options not as much compared to other 4 stars hotels but the local food are tasty. Stayed there for 4 nights and they prepared different food everyday. The kids love the kids room and the swimming pools. The kids room is clean but no staff was there in the morning session. Kids can enter and out freely. The swimming pools are well maintained and can see the staffs picking up dried leaves everyday. There was no life guard on duty though.

Service was generally ok.. But one of the female staff was extremely pushy, which was a turn off, definitely not something we expected when we first arrived. She insisted that she “did us a favor” by giving us an early check-in (at this point, the tone and the delivery was already unpleasant) and we could only “redeem” the early check-in if we rate the hotel 5 stars on TripAdvisor immediately. We explained that we can and we will do the review after we settle down since we have just arrived, but she did not allow. We further explained that it’s also not fair to give a “5-star” since we have not even seen our room. But the staff insist that if we do not rate 5 stars on TripAdvisor right now, we will not be able to check in, and so there’s no early check-in. She advised that we can just rate that the lobby is clean and they provide hourly shuttle bus to Kata Beach. In a way, we were “forced” to give a great rating. In addition, the room had a bad sewage smell throughout our 4D3N stay, we did feedback to the hotel reception right checking in but the smell was still lingering. We made do by spraying our own air freshener/perfume to get rid of the smell. There were many flies near our bottom of our beds, but we only realized it the next morning. We did not open the windows at all. We informed the hotel and it was cleared by the end of the day, but the experience was already quite unpleasant. Breakfast was good.