The Sands Khao Lak by Katathani

Beautiful modern hotel part of a complex, with 2 other sister hotels, lies right on the beach. Although it’s a family hotel with busy small water park, it offers adult only areas, such as pool and breakfast. Our rooms were overlooking a small lagoon reservoir with some wildlife you can watch and admire.
The buffet restaurant offers variety of food for every taste, with live cooking options.
Talai restaurant didnt not impress us. Both restaurants were quite pricy unless you’re on HB or all inclusive.
The rooms are cleaned daily, and you can order any missing amenities via the hotel app.
We had a lovely warm welcome by Rose. Special thanks to Heart and Shuka for the special touches celebrating our birthdays.
You must not miss the duo singers, I could have listened to them for hours, so talented.
We left the hotel fairly early in the morning and they kindly offered a packed breakfast to go.

Our kids had endless fun at the water park.
I want to truly thank the staff of Talay restaurant for their knowledge of gluten allergy- truly five star service and made my vacation stress free.

The New Year celebration was really fun and fantastic food.

I will only give 4 stars as we thought the buffet offer was very limited and the hotel generally needs a full renovation. (Older hotel built after tsunami).

Might be back if it gets a revamp.

The Sands Khao Lak Resort is a large, well-maintained property offering something for everyone. It features an adults-only pool as well as a main pool, plus a fun children’s water park, making it suitable for both couples and families. The resort has three restaurants, including an adults-only breakfast restaurant, and a well-equipped gym.

The junior suite rooms are clean, spacious, and comfortable. There is easy access to the beach with plenty of loungers available. The Talay Restaurant stands out with a good menu, well-presented meals, and exceptional service. While the adults-only breakfast restaurant is a nice concept, the breakfast selection could be improved. All staff are polite and willing to help if any assistance is needed.

The resort is conveniently located just a short walk to the main road, where you’ll find many restaurants, shops, massage parlors, 7-Eleven, and minimarts.

It's a shame the beach doesn't have any sunbeds, so not really a great option for beach lovers. I'd have used the beach more had there been beds and it would have reduced congestion / fights for sunbeds in the resort.
Pool sunbeds get taken up very quickly in the early morning.
Breakfast is hell in peak times.
The pools are OK, one is adults only and always empty. Shame they don't make it open to all and therefore more pool space for all.
Easy walk to the mains trip for dinners & evenings out. Eat out rather than the hotel as the hotel is expensive compared to the strip. We paid 3000 bhat for a family of 6 to eat 3 courses and drink on the strip, but was double this for less food inside the hotel.
Overall it was average.
All staff are nice and helpful, but track carefully anything you put into laundry. We had missing /lost laundry sadly, but they did accept responsibility and we got a small refund (but didn't cover the cost to replace) but was a nice gesture that we didn't have to ask for specifically.
it's a big hotel and spread out, so be prepared to walk a lot within the site. Wouldn't recommend for elderly or disabled personally.

Had fun at The Sands.
Two swim up bars - would have preferred they open earlier but maybe that’s the holiday me talking….
Kids club was good. Staff lovely.
Water slides switched operational hours with the lazy river. Lazy river was sped up (fastest one yet).
Cleanliness wasn’t fully there. Housekeeping sometimes missed our room as it was at the end of their row.
We got a family room with pool access which we enjoyed more than we thought we would, glad we made the gamble.
Thought the cost for our week was a little steep for what we got. Take into account our Aussie dollar not so strong, peak time and the NYE surge pricing maybe it wasn’t steep?

Absolutely beautiful hotel. We stayed at Christmas & the lights were amazing. Everything was clean and staff were helpful & friendly.

My daughter & I are coeliac and chose this hotel as it has a gluten free (gf) menu so I will focus on this as many reviews cover other areas. Good gf options for breakfast. We were given a form at check in where we could select the night before what gf options we wanted so we didn’t need to risk the buffet. Everything from eggs to gf pizza!
A good selection of muffins, cakes and gf bread. Pancakes were delicious. French toast more like bread than toast so we only had once and didn’t like the gf cornflakes but after a few days we found what we did and didn’t like.
Then had lots of gorgeous fresh fruit from the buffet.
A few Thai lunch and dinner options. Tip - you need to say you want things spicy if you like what we would consider ‘English Thai spice levels’. We said ‘a little spicy’ the first time thinking it would blow our heads off and it was bland with no spice at all as they seem to ‘over compensate’ for tourists.
Lots of gf options in the nearby town and it’s a great location.

Cannot fault this hotel. We had three family rooms in the Aqua wing All Inclusive. 6 adults and 5 children. Rooms were huge and well equipped. Pools and water slides/play equipment were clean and well supervised. Staff were lovely and very helpful. Food was great. Upon check in hotel gives you an app on your phone. App has everything you need to know. You can book activities, order food, check opening times, everything is on there. You can eat in any restaurant or get it delivered to your room. We had a few picnics on the grass with the kids and also ate on our balcony/pool area. Hotel replaces beach towels all day long and you can order anything you need through the app (ie: bottle opener, more water, bucket of ice etc). We absolutely loved this hotel and would definitely return.

Only two more days to go
What a wonderful hotel. Great ambience and incredibly helpful staff. Nothing is to much trouble for anyone. The rooms are very clean with a great power shower!!
Breakfast time can be a bit chaotic as there are lots of children here but the grounds, beach and pool have plentiful space.
We booked the all-inclusive option which we thought might be a mistake but when we realised you could use the A la carte restaurants at 3 other hotels it has made it perfect.
The food in these restaurants is stunning.
Tow special mentions.
Firstly the pool bar staff by the beach who never stop working and bringing drinks all day.
Secondly but most importantly a young lady called AE in the Talay restaurant. This girl is wasted in here. She informed us more about the hotel and what was on offer than even the reception staff. Her English was perfect and if anyone in the hotel reads this then you should put this lady in a more customer facing role.
All round a brilliant holiday

Just finished a lovely 7 nights here. Bed and breakfast and we had a pool access junior suite which was spacious and cleaned daily.
We had a really nice welcome, and our cases were taken to the room with us on a cart. We really enjoyed sitting on our own terrace and swimming in the swim out pool.
We had a couple of days around the main adults only pool which was nice and never full.
Also had a couple of walks on the beach, you could walk quite a way in either direction, and the sea was a nice temperature.
Breakfast was nice, lots of choice and we also got room service a couple of times as the weather wasnt great.
All staff were amazing, so friendly, helpful and happy to us.
The town centre is a 5 min (up a short hill) walk, and there are always tuk tuks around, and on market day they will order a taxi for you.
Had a perfect stay thankyou.

The Sands in Khao Lak is a top very quiet holiday spot. It's in walking distance to the main shopping precinct and restaurants. The resort provides separate swimming pools for children and adults. It's located on the beach which is ideal for beach walks. The resort has excellent amenities, provides good food, has very friendly staff and has large clean rooms. Thank you Charif and Katie at Tully's Restaurant for your kindness and your professional service. We'll be back.

8 of us travelled to this hotel for 12 nights between the end of October and the first week on November. For perspective we had a mixture of ages ranging from 60 to 7

We have travelled to Thailand and its islands before staying in the katathani in Phuket and various Amari hotels, about 8 times now so we feel pretty well versed of the standards expected.

The good
Big hotel with every facility you could ever want or need
Excellent water park for the children
Well manicured gardens
Excellent beachfront location
Great gym facilities
Superb selection of pools
Good themed evenings
Location great

The bad
Service can be erratic depending where you are eating/drinking. The team in the Talay restaurant were excellent, as were the team in the beach pool bar and the adults pool bar, however some of the team in the waterpark bar were completely untrained! A few times one meal would come out and would be finished before anything else arrived (we had to chase it). Also when ordering at the pool bar the team got the drinks wrong.
Food is average for Thailand
Breakfast is like a hectic canteen very busy if you time it wrong.

The ugly
Check in reception is dirty and needs a good clean, when you check in you can see the dirt, never experienced this before in Thailand normally everything is immaculate.
Rooms were not clean on arrival, I am a little fussy I admit but mirrors were smeared and areas of the room worn but overall who spends time in a hotel room?

This is a great hotel for a young family going to Thailand for the first time, however we have experienced far better standards of cleanliness and service at Amari hotels in Phuket and Koh Samui for possibly less money! It feels like this hotel is trying to be more European in its approach which will appeal to many, however people visit Thailand for the experience more than anything else and I felt this was lacking, maybe due to the size of the hotel.
Tip
We booked some great trips with the family going to elephant sanctuary, turtle conservation, tsunami museum, James bing island on long tail boat, bamboo rafting and temple with rung ontour khaolak who were sensational and half the price, ask for your tour guide to be BOND he is superb at his job

I really wanted to love this hotel but unfortunately this was not the case. This hotel was saved until the last leg of our Thailand adventure after staying in Bangkok, Krabi and Elephant Hills. We booked 5 star for all areas and this is the only hotel that did not come anywhere near 5* I would say 3*.

First the positives:
The hotel’s location is good. Fabulous sunsets can be seen on the adjoining beach and there are good sized swimming pools with lots of sun loungers. We stayed in a pool access room and it was nice to have this option.
We found the first room we stayed in wasn’t particularly clean on check in and also we struggled with my teen not having any privacy so moved to a family room. Staff were good sorting that out and let us see the room then moved our things.

The staff are generally super friendly and go out of their way to help. We have found this to be the case across Thailand.

Negatives:
the cleanliness of the hotel is very disappointing. One thing we noticed about everywhere else we had stayed in Thailand was that the cleanliness was exceptional but certainly not here. The room was unclean on check in and this was also the case when checking into the 2nd room. There is dust everywhere. Things have obviously not been moved just cleaned around as I found a hair clip and a ball of hair under the tissue box. The rooms really do need a good clean.
The second room we were moved to had a cockroach problem. We counted 4 on the last night. I’m pretty understanding that we are in a different country in the jungle but we haven’t seen any other cockroaches at any other hotel out here!

Whilst it isn’t the hotel’s fault, the cleanliness problem was extended by people leaving dirty plates outside doors after having room service and also dirty nappies!!!! Exacerbating the cockroach problem I expect.

We encountered quite a few drunk teenagers who were clearly under age and sat merrily drinking after being served in the hotel bar.
There was sick all over the toilet in the lobby.

The bars and restaurants are pricey but that’s expected with hotel prices and there are so many other options outside the hotel.

The breakfast buffet was absolute carnage - so busy, noisy and dirty. We found it was calmer in the manta ray restaurant and for the first part of our stay it was for adults and children over 12. This changed to accepting all ages but it was still much calmer.

This is the first ever negative review I have written on trip advisor but I feel people need to hear it. I am still at the hotel as I write and am looking forward to leaving. We considered checking out and booking somewhere else but we would have been so out of pocket.
It’s such a shame as I really hoped it would be the amazing final leg of our trip I expected it to be but it has just made me want to return home. Unfortunately we booked with a small agent in the UK who have been useless at sorting anything out whilst we have been over here.

My advice is do not book here if you are expecting a 5* stay there are so many other options

Hotel location right beside a good beach. This is rated as a five star however it is most definitely not five star standard. Hotel is very big and was very busy during our stay. Rooms were decent size but cobwebs in room and lamp beside bed was not clean. Breakfast was chaotic and food quality was really poor. We had come from a five star hotel so I had booked this hotel based on it's five star rating however it is not five star. Positive would be it is a few minutes walk to main town and a Seven Eleven store. But very disappointed overall with the breakfast food quality and also the general upkeep of the hotel grounds with uneven surfaces and general maintenance needed.

Returned for the third time and just one year after our last visit. Had an amazing time again. Had a room with great view of the sea and sunset.

Breakfast selection has many options but I hope they decide to have fresh fruit juice the next time we visit as the juice on offer is so sweet. Many hot local cuisines such as stir fries, curries, congee and soup noodle station. Egg station, bread, pastries, salads, cereals and fresh fruits.

Although Chita no longer works here it was great to see her at the food offerings to the monks. The lovely Sugar is now in the role and she is as wonderful as Chita. Was also great to see that Mel is still working here. All staff are so friendly and helpful.

Overall experience was poor… initial room smelt and we had to request chg. New room had same issue with air purifier not overly effective.
Maintenance onsite was clearly poor with numerous issues incl Tv reception and quality (broke down 3 times with varying issues); balcony door lock broken, curtain rail broken, lights not working, mould in main adult pool on water line and throughout, rain poured thru shower head when heavy outside, onsite washing machines and dryers broken and out of order with 500 guests fighting for 1-2 machines and no acknowledgement of issues by management.
Staff engagement (other than front rest) was poor and lack of understanding and English not good.
Zero proactive offering of food and or drinks at adult pool and no availability of pool towels anywhere at pools. Once your towel was wet it stayed that way for whole day as nil avenue to get new one. Umbrellas too small for pool seating and plastic pool lounges got very hot especially given towels not of sufficient size to cover.
Quality of food and presentation at breakfast sites below standard. Old serving containers, food cold and not replenished, order of presentation all over the place.
Management did not seem to acknowledge our issues and responses to live chat on app where at best slow and or unresponsive. When we did get some ‘compensation’ it was impersonal with voucher just slid under the door and nil follow up on any service issues.
In summary we won’t return noting we acknowledge you get what you pay for on a heavily discounted packaged offering. Resort seems to be very focused on family groups. ( huge volume of kids)
If an adult group spend the $$ and stay at the new K Shore resort next door.
A

The Sands Khao Lak has always been a dream hotel for kids — the only one in Khao Lak with such a large water park where little ones can play all day. We’ve visited four years in a row, and while the fun at the water park remains the same and the pools are still clean and well-maintained, we’ve noticed a decline in service standards and breakfast variety compared to our first stay. Some facilities, including the rooms and kids club, are also showing signs of wear over time.

Still, we truly appreciate the hard work and kindness of all staff — from the front desk to housekeeping (Building 6), the breakfast team, and the Talay Restaurant crew — even during a fully booked period. We hope the hotel continues to improve its service and upkeep, so it can remain the magical place our family loves returning to every year. 💛

Great location. Big. Clean and beautiful.
Many pools and activities

Amazing resort and friendly attentive staff. Beautiful surroundings and easy to get into town. Rooms were very spacious and comfortable. Great value and wonderful stay.

We stayed in a Sands Room from Monday September 8 to Tuesday September 16 .
From the moment we arrived , we were made to feel valued . The lovely Bird Bird on Reception checked us in .
On first night after availing of happy hour and being awake over 30 hours , having travelled from Ireland , I was a little the worse for wear 🫣. The wonderful Meaw in Pineapple Bar really went above and beyond to make sure I was ok . Over the course of the 8 nights , she provided wonderful service and company . She truly is a beautiful person and went above and beyond during our stay .
Nas in Talay Restaurant provided excellent service . The joke was that I was expecting a baby elephant 😂...the perils of having a beer belly . Nancy gave a wonderful massage which totally relaxed me , as I could hear the waves on the beach alongside me .
Breakfast was had in the Floating Market Daily . It was amazing . You certainly wouldn't leave hungry .
As it was low season , the hotel was pretty quiet which was Perfect for us . Every single person we encountered was so hospitable and friendly .
This truly was Paradise on Earth . We can't wait to return next year .

It’s perfect for families. Also great for couples as there is an adults only breakfast buffet. Also an adults only pool. As well as two other huge pools; one with a lazy river ride and two slides.