Looking to stay in Phuket but want to avoid the crowds and craziness? Be sure to check out the Marriott Resort & Spa on Merlin Beach. Private beach, great kids facilities, and private snorkeling & diving reef!

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach | The Family Travel Bug Review

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach

Escape the craziness of Phuket, and relax at the Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach! This family friendly resort scored high with our family.

Location

6
Rooms

8
Family Activities & Amenities

9
Kids Club

10
Food

9

The Goods

Great kids pool & slide
Splash Pad
Great breakfast buffet
Family centered rooms
Beach front
Kids club & Playground

The Bads

90 minute drive from Airport
Need to drive to local attractions

8.4

Average Score

About the Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach

Looking for a great family friendly resort? Take a look at the Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa. It is located a secluded / private beach (Tri-Tang Beach). It’s also a short drive from other destinations on Phuket Island without having deal with the crowds every day! The Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa at Merlin Beach has some great facilities, some of our favorite included:

4 Swimming Pools w/ dedicated Family Pool
Free WIFI
Family Splash Pad & Side
Kids Club & Kids Activities
Onsite food options (over 8+)
Great fitness center
Onsite reef for diving and snorkeling
And more… (click hear to learn more)

Kids will love the open grounds, abundance of families and kids, and most of all the kids facilities!

Booking and scoring a free stay!

If you are a Marriott rewards member you will appreciate this resort even more. Since Russ was a Platinum Elite member, we scored free breakfast for the entire family and a room upgrade during our stay! Because it is a category 5 hotel (30k points), it’s much more reasonable to use Marriott points for a free stay! Below are a couple of tips around how to score a free stay:

Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Card: Because we both have one of these cards, we each get 35k points annually that we can use towards a free night. That totals 70k points just between the two of us, resulting in two nights!
Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Sign Up Bonus: While we had already used ours on a previous trip, Marriott is offering 75k points if you sign up for the card. If two people did that, you could score 150k points!

Learn More or Make A Reservation

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach | Location

When booking our trip to Thailand, we knew we didn’t want to stay in the heart of Phuket with small children. Based on previous research, we learned that there are some places around Phuket that might not be the most family friendly and to look for places on the west coast (bordering the Andaman coast).

Because we like Marriott’s for their kids amenities, we looked to see what Marriott Resorts existed and found the Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa at Merlin Beach! What we loved most about his resort was that it was situated on it’s own private beach with a reef for snorkeling and diving.

One thing to be advised, this resort isn’t close to the International Airport. When looking at the map, it doesn’t look that far but it is! By the time we arrived, went through customs and immigration, and picked up our car it was 1:30am. Then we typed the address in to the resort and discovered it was 90 minutes away! We arrived about 3:30am, all kids completely asleep. The Marriott was great and helped get all of are bags from our car, and took them to the room for us. They also set up a kids bed in our room for us so we could quickly just put our kids down.

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach | Rooms

The rooms at the Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa are nice, most of them are the same with different bed configurations (king vs. two doubles). Our room had a couch in it, which they converted to another bed for our two older girls. A lot of rooms have pool views w/ balconies, and depending on where your room is positioned you can also see the ocean.

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach

Each of the rooms come with all the standard room amenities that you would find in a good hotel. During our stay we used the mini-fridge to store stuff we would buy at the store, which was helpful. The air conditioning worked well in our room, and was great after a hot day. Are family is a bit picky when it comes to beds, and the Marriott’s beds were great!

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa | Rooms with a view

When it comes to rollaway beds and cribs (based on their website) the resort allows for 1 rollaway bed and 1 crib permitted per room. We had a total of 5 people (2 adults 3 kids) had we didn’t have any problems using one room.

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach | Family Activities & Kids Club

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One of the things that we liked most about the Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa was it’s family focused activities and resort amenities. Families can enjoy the numerous life-size games around the resort, cooking lessons, snorkeling, and organized activities. In addition, kids have the option to head over to the Kids club where they can exercise and let their imagination run wild. The Kids’ Club is welcoming and open-air, and adjacent to the splash pad and family pool. the Kids’ Club has dress ups, balls, video games, and more! Below is a list of some of our girls favorite activities and amenities:

Slide: There is a fun slide centrally located in the middle of the resort
Splash pad: Next to the slide there is a fun splash pad that both small and older kids would enjoy
Kids Club: Located next to the splash pad, your kids will love this dedicated area! You will find everything from painting, board games, video games, and organized activities.
Resort Activities: There are a lot of different resort activities that are focused around kids. While we were there are girls enjoyed face painting and pool games.
Snorkeling: Our two older girls loved playing on the quiet beach and snorkeling

One thing that made this resort stand out amongst others was its reef (basically private) off its beach. The resort has a dive shack onsite where people can rent snorkeling gear by hour or day. You can also sign up for a dive tour if you would like! Below is a video from our snorkeling adventure at the reef.

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach | Food Options

The Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa offers several different options when it comes to dining. Families will love the kid friendly menus, and different food options. Our girls loved the breakfast buffet, which had waffles, pancakes, and cereal!

Onsite Restaurants:

D.O.C.G: Italian | Dinner
Merchant Kitchen: International | Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
Phuket Coffee Co.: Coffee House | Breakfast and Lunch
Thai Pantry: Thai | Dinner
Beach Grill: International | Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner
The Lounge: International | Lunch and Dinner
Pool Bar: International | Lunch and Dinner
Wellness: Healthy | Breakfast and Lunch

Offsite Restaurants:

A short ride from the hotel you will find several different local restaurants.

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach | Summary

If you are looking for a good family friendly hotel near Phuket that has great amenities, make sure to check out the Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa! We loved staying here, and we look forward to going back some day.