Grand Mercure Khao Lak Bangsak

Grand Mercure Khao Lak Bangsak is engineered for calm. Our stay was marvelous. The low-density design, open spaces, and a quiet beachfront eliminate sensory overload. At the spa, therapists Pa and Dao were super sweet and got us the best massage we've ever had. Food was also delicious at the Mango Restaurant and at the breakfast buffet, where everyone was so nice with us. The room conditions were also amazing.

After a 3 night trip to Bangkok, we stayed at the Grand Mercure for 10 nights in a swim up room with our girls in the adjacent room. I chose the hotel for its relaxing boutique feel and it really was a perfect place to relax and recharge. Our rooms, 4105 and 4106 were gorgeous: very spacious, comfortable beds, good toiletries and best of all, the balconies with 2 comfortable sun-beds and a separate seating area. Steps led straight down into the pool with jacuzzi areas. I’d read reviews many of which suggested upgrading to the swim ups and I’m so glad we did. It made all the difference to our holiday and felt very decadent. We tended to relax and sunbathe there until mid afternoon and then head to the beach for a few hours and to watch the sunset. For us, our rooms were ideally situated on the sunny side of the hotel, half way between the lobby and the beach with the breakfast restaurant less than 1 minute away. The hotel is quiet. There is little in terms of entertainment, just some live music on a couple of evenings but as we were only on a bed and breakfast basis, we headed out every evening to one of the local Thai eateries. Other than breakfast, we only ate once at the hotel which was on Christmas Eve. The staff were excellent and tried really hard to make it a special evening but the buffet was massively overpriced, no drinks included and the entertainment ( a singer, violinist and keyboard player), lacklustre. Food was generally expensive here as you might expect from a 5 star hotel but there were plenty of places to eat on the beach and to the left and right from the front of the hotel. Our favourites were The Andaman, Food Story 168, Green Restaurant, Double Tree Kitchen, Taste of India Bangsak, and the B52s bar for a late night drink. Our favourite lunchtime choice was Thap Tawan beach restaurant. Portions here were huge and the Thai meals were very authentic. When we asked for ‘Thai spicy”, that’s exactly what we got unlike in other places, where they toned it down significantly for the tourists! We also had late night drinks at a tiny bar to the left of Food Story – half a dozen barstools and a lovely Thai lady with all her games who entertained us and our girls.
The main pool was nice with a swim up bar. No loud music, lots of families but also not overly crowded. The beach was huge with beautiful soft sand and blue water and was the perfect place to watch the magnificent sunset straight ahead of us. Great for some lovely shell collecting too. The hotel offered some activities mainly first thing in the morning and late afternoon. I tried out the Muay Thai classes with Leen a few times (he was great) and the beach yoga.
Taxis are available outside to take you wherever you need with visible fixed prices for a single journey (though they will wait and bring you back too). Trips all similarly priced wherever you go. It was a 20 minute journey into Bang Niang and 400 ThB for example. The Muay Thai boxing stadium was a real highlight and well worth the money. Sit on the red seats at the back to have the best view of the winners. Ringside seats not worth it. Massage places everywhere. The absolute best was Nina who worked at the massage place on the beach adjacent to the hotel. Ask for her. She was absolutely amazing.
Overall, a fabulous holiday if you want peace and quiet and no blaring music!

Thank you to Paul and his team for the amazing stay we had. We spent five nights there during our two-week stay in Thailand—an ideal place to relax and enjoy the wonderful, expansive beach where the hotel is located. The hotel is lovely, perfectly located, and highly recommended.

The Grand Mercure Khao Lak is a spectacular property. Its beachfront location, welcoming vibe, lip smacking great food and most importantly top quality staff team under the leadership of GM Paul Smith is a jewel in the khao Lak landscape. Many of the team members Including K. Prince, Chris at the front desk, Restaurant staff comprising of K. Yo, Bow, Paw and others made our staff memorable and one which allowed for us to stretch from 4 days to 7 days, the longest we have stayed in any Accor resort being Diamond members ourselves of ALL, its a vacation we really cherished as a family. The Spa team with whom with spend quality time almost everyday was very attentive and provided rejuvenating massages everyday to our family…..you have relaxed us, revived us and rejoiced us…we will be back….Khapum Khap 🙏

I had a fantastic stay at the Grand Mercure Khao Lak. The hotel itself is beautiful, with a great layout that blends perfectly into its surroundings, and it sits on a truly wonderful stretch of beach.

The food on site was very good, with plenty of variety, but we also loved that there are lots of excellent dining options within easy walking distance outside the hotel too. Prices within the hotel were very reasonable, and the happy hour options throughout the day were a real bonus.

The staff were absolutely incredible and genuinely made the stay special. A particular shoutout to In, June and Yo, who were all outstanding - friendly, attentive and a real credit to the hotel.

Sunlounger usage was very well managed, which meant it was always easy to find a good spot by the pool or beach without any stress. My room was extremely comfortable and relaxing, and the check-in process was smooth and very efficient.

The only minor constructive feedback would be that my bedroom door didn’t shut fully by itself and needed a small tug. Also, while the daily activities looked great, they could have been better advertised, as I tended to stumble across them rather than being aware in advance.

Overall, a brilliant hotel that i would happily return to and recommend without hesitation.

Here are a few observations which I hope will help future guests…as lots of the recent 5* reviews pertain to the spa and the treatments those guests had, not actually about the hotel.

Firstly the good. The hotel is beautiful and the grounds are well kept. Our room was the standard/lead in category. We are staying on a Luxury Escapes deal and have gotten quite a few great inclusions like complimentary half board, free shuttle service and a 60 min massage each. This is an amazing uplift to guests, highly recommend checking out LE if you are considering booking this hotel. There are lots of restaurants out the front of the hotel as well as on the beach along with massage places, currency exchange and an ATM (opposite Graceland Hotel entrance). The Pran Spa in the hotel is lovely and we did have a great massage from Pa and Ping. But there needs to be more to a HOTEL review than just the spa.

Then onto the strange and not so good.

The hotel while beautiful is really small and feels super cramped. It’s long and narrow - a few YouTube videos I watched beforehand noted this, but it feels really cramped. We have stayed in many beachfront hotels in the Caribbean and Mexico which follow the long and narrow layout but I didn’t think it would be as hemmed in as this. It is the narrowest property ever. The reception area is tiny and there is no additional space other than the room blocks and the walkways which run either side. For a 195 room property it feels claustrophobic. The ponds down the middle of the resort look lovely in photos but that’s space which seems wasted when here in real life as the only open part of the property is the lake which you can’t swim in. The hotel is busy and everyone seems to be jammed into a tiny part of a small hotel - around the main pool which is small. I went and looked in Graceland next door and that feels spacious and not crowded in comparison to here.

Everything around here is shut up and closed pretty much by 10pm. The hotel doesn’t have a bar to speak of (there is an outlet on the beach which is open “late” maybe til about 9-10pm and the pool bar) and all the local restaurants seem to be done and dusted by 10pm. The exception is the Brothers Market (turn left out of the front of the hotel, 5 mins walk) which is definitely open past 10pm and Green Mango in the hotel is open until 11pm last seating at 10pm but the staff are shutting up shop by then.

The walls in this hotel must be paper thin or we had some complaining idiots next door to us, as we got a phone call from reception telling us that we were being too loud on our second night here. And that “security” had been outside our room to confirm this. Now I know this to be false because my husband and I were just having a conversation at a normal volume with the air con on - which is pretty noisy so would cover a conversation. “Security” would not have heard anything. We are respectful to fellow guests always but have come on holiday to a resort, not a convent. And if the walls are thin, that’s a hotel issue, not a guest one. It made us feel quite uncomfortable hanging out in our room (because when it’s raining, there is literally nowhere else in the hotel to go, no other social spaces, tiny gym, not much activities, no covered bar area) in case our neighbours ratted on us again for talking or having the TV on and front desk staff took their side again.

The coffee situation at breakfast is no joke. You serve yourself and there is always a queue. Which is slow as hell and always has at least 4 people in it. This place needs another coffee machine installed.

We’ve seen a lot of people using their hands at the buffets. Not children. Adults. I would say avoid the buffets. Even breakfast isn’t that big of a deal especially with the coffee situation and the fact it’s so busy. Go eat in the village restaurants at lunch and skip breakfast.

Bathroom is a bit weird in that there are signs everywhere to reuse towels (totally onboard with this) but there is only 1 x small towel rail (doesn’t even fit 1 towel properly) and no hooks to actually hang your reused towels up to dry?!?

There needs to be a bit more lighting along the walkways as it gets very dark at night.

I have to add that the weather has been grey and cloudy and raining the whole week we were here, which meant we have spent more time in the hotel than we usually would on holiday. This has lead us to make loads of observations about the property, and I’m disappointed in myself as we didn’t make the right choice property wise. We were trying to decide between AVANI+ and here. In hindsight, we should’ve gone to AVANI+ and not been sold/wow’ed by all the extras Grand Mercure offered via Luxury Escapes. We probably would have had a different experience had the weather been better and we would have spent the majority of our time off property or on the gorgeous Bang Sak beach. We will return to Khao Lak but not to this hotel.

Nice Hotel everything great with the best poolbar. We met In as Barista and crew, great guy and nice cocktails. Big recommend!

It was very cozy and relaxing. Dao was e very kind and professional. The location is very relaxing and beautiful. I would recommend.

Best stretch I’ve had in years. Relieved all the tension in my neck and lower back. Such a nice atmosphere to relax in and feel stress free

Excellent massage! The first time my back and sciatic nerve have felt free of pain in a long while without my physio stretching. Very relaxing and comfortable. Thumbs up

Our stay was perfect! The hotel looks exactly as in the pictures. The food is amazing, everything is clean, the staff is extremely helpfull and polite. I would highly recomend visiting the spa as well during your stay! We will for sure be back!

We both have travelled a lot and this was our 3rd stay within 4 years so definitely by far our favourite hotel thus far. Today we had an excellent Relaxing Aroma Massages by Ping and Dao! 6/5

it was very good and professional.
it helped me a lot and made me relax and feel refreshed.
Pa was very nice and very helpful

Excellent Aromatic Thai massage! Nok was professional and gentle. She payed attention to my notes and helped my muscles pain!

Excellent Thai massage!
Helped my back pain and was very professional.
The facilities are very clean and comfortable and smell good.

I had the most amazing two and a half hour treatment with Pa. What a lovely lady and amazing experience. I would highly recommend to everyone

Very good hotel generally. Beautifully aesthetic and well maintained. Nice genuinely friendly staff who seem very helpful.

Rooms were well set up and comfortable.

Beach is lovely and clean with good loungers that are comfortable.

Breakfast was excellent with plenty of choice and good quality foods. We ate well.

Didn't eat in the restaurants whatsoever so cant comment on those.

Drinks prices were average against other hotels but obviously more expensive than away from hotels.

Notch around the area and restaurants outside of the hotels weren't great. So maybe consider travelling into Khao Lak itself for evening meals.

Im sat here now writing a review from my pool access room sun lounger. This has to be one of the most beautiful places that i have ever visited. The resort has the most beautiful rooms with access to a stunning, tranquil pool and the room is to die for. We loved it so much from our 4 night stay that we checked out early from our next hotel and came back to stay here. My face lit up when we returned. We were greeted with a welcome return smile. This is the one place that has given me a tear to my eye of not wanting to leave. Keep up the good work. I will most definitely be returning in the future.

Nok worked on my shoulder injury during thai massage which did wonders during my complimentary massage, & going back today

Had an absolutely amazing Thai massage with Pa! Feel so good and relaxed! I am a massage therapist, and very rarely feel good after a massage, but this was different. Was very very good
Thank you so much