The Naka, Phuket is one of the most beautiful properties I have ever stayed at. We had just left The Siam, Bangkok, so the Naka had a lot to live up to! Our flight from Bangkok to Phuket was pretty painless and we hailed a cab at the airport for the 45 minutes cab ride to the hotel. It cost roughly $40 bucks for the ride
I never realized that Phuket was so big! The Naka is located near Patong Beach in Kamala Bay.
We booked our four nights at The Naka via Agoda in the One Bedroom Beach Access Pool Villa, paying $509 a night. I am still a super newbie to hotel bookings so I was disappointed to later find out that The Naka was a Starwood, luxury privileges property meaning that if we booked the hotel via a Starwood's travel advisor we would have gotten a fourth night free, saving us $509! We paid 2036.86 but could've paid $1527 instead.
Here's what you get when booking via Starwood's Luxury Privileges
- Complimentary fourth night for stays through April 30, 2016. Complimentary night will be adjusted at check-out.
- Complimentary standard in-room internet access
- One 100 USD resort credit per room, per stay (excludes Watsu Spa services and spa products)
- Daily full breakfast for two guests
- VIP Treatment
- Upgrade on arrival, early check-in and late check-out which are all subject to availability
Free wifi and breakfast was included with our hotel stay but because we didn't book through Starwood we missed out on the free fourth night, $100 resort credit, upgrade upon arrival, and earning any Starwood points!
Lesson learned, will NEVER make that mistake again!
I had the tiniest fear about Tsunami's, we were later told that The Naka was exactly where the tsunami happened, and the property was built after the fact.
Now this leads into my theory about ghosts.
I don't believe in ghosts *knock on wood*
I didn't see a single ghost at The Grand Hyatt Taipei, supposedly one of the most haunted hotels in the world.
Not to be morbid, but Thailand reported over 5000 deaths due to the tsunami. Now, assuming that ghosts are spirits of people who died unexpectedly in a horrible way.
Wouldn't Phuket be haunted as hell???
Anyways, it wasn't haunted at all. But I digress.
The Naka's Lobby is quite breathtaking, I've never seen an outdoor lobby before. We arrived around 2:30PM and it took about 20 minutes to prep our room. When the room was ready we jumped into a tuk tuk which drove us to our room.
The Naka consists of 95 Villas, here's a view.
Here's the side view from our room. The Naka's beach is a public beach but the property is super secluded. The hotel is only accessible via it's own private road and the visitors would have to make it past the lobby. Visitors could possibly boat up to the beach, but in general the beach was super private and never packed.
The private infinity pool was shaded which was a plus.
The view from the bedroom was AMAZING. It was so relaxing to wake up to this view every morning and work from my laptop all day with the sounds of the waves keeping me zen.
Photo Source: Priceline
Here's the beach, which was just a hop, skip and jump away from our villa. It's fun for snorkeling, you can rent snorkeling gear for free from The Naka for a hour at a time. There's a lot of rocks so I really recommend going out when its high tide instead of low tide.
The Naka Phuket balcony side view.
The Naka Phuket welcome fruit plate
The Naka Phuket complimentary minibar.
These drinks were refilled daily and were comped. I especially loved the chrysanthemum tea drink.
The entertainment for the room came with free Netflix access. What we were impressed by is that the hotel's Netflix has many more movies than our Netflix at home. How could that be?
We are the world's laziest travelers, loving to lounge in our hotel room all day, so it was great to have this souped up Netflix.
The Naka Phuket coffee maker
The Naka Phuket desk
The Naka Phuket bathroom
I forgot to shoot a photo of it but there was a button you could press to call for service. Service was great at the hotel and they offer both a daily room cleaning but also a nightly turndown service, which I've never had before?
All the staff was incredibly sweet and extremely helpful.
Tipping isn't required in Thailand but I feel like the people in Thailand would need the tip money more than in the US, so I would encourage you to tip while you are in Asia!
The Naka Phuket toilet
The Naka Phuket outdoor bath.
I really wanted to do a photo shoot with the tub filled with water and flowers, but was way too lazy.
The Naka Phuket Room Service: Steak Sandwich
The Naka Phuket Room Service: Thai Basil Chicken
BTW the prices for the room service menu were very reasonable, nothing was outrageously priced. The dish below ran about $9 USD.
But what about the best hotel breakfast buffet everrrrrrrrr!
The Naka's breakfast buffet is truly epic. It's a mix of Western and Thai foods. There's a fresh noodle bar and egg station and the dozens of entrees available changed daily. There was also fresh passion fruit, which I didn't see at any of the other Thailand hotels that we stayed at.
The Naka Phuket buffet juices
Even the juice selection changed daily, but the delicious orange juice was available every single day.
Thai noodle soup on the left, so delicious!
The Naka Phuket buffet toppings.
The Naka Phuket buffet white snapper
A brand new fresh and steamed white snapper every morning, what what?
The Naka Phuket buffet fresh noodle bar
Just point at the meats and veggies you'd like to include and the noodles you want and the attendant will boil the noodles for you, done in an instant!
The Naka Phuket buffet dishes that changed daily
The Naka Phuket buffet dim sum.
The Naka Phuket buffet cold cuts
The Naka Phuket buffet cheese
The Naka Phuket buffet bread
The Naka Phuket buffet jams
Seafood BBQ Buffet
At the Wiwa Restaurant, where the breakfast buffet is, they host a seafood bbq buffet on Wednesday nights. We were definitely planning on going but we spent a day out fishing and came back pooped!
So sad because we got so ripped off at a random seafood place in Patong, ordering crab and shrimp that cost almost $100 bucks!
The seafood bbq was pricey, around $90 a person but liquor and crabs, shimps, even lobster and more are included: all you can eat, so it's totally worth the price.
Activities
Don't go to Patong Beach to eat, it really isn't cheap at all. It's worth taking a trip out to just to check out, The Naka has a free shuttle to Patong that heads out three times a time.
There is plenty to do at the Naka, there's a spa, yoga classes, a super packed gym, and more.
In Conclusion
It's been over a month since I've left Phuket and I still think about The Naka, Phuket. I absolutely love and recommend this hotel!
To be honest, I wanted to hate the hotel, because I reached out to the PR person for the hotel about possibly collaborating and she replied back saying that my profile doesn't match with the property. What, was I not "high end" enough? Too trashy? What?
One thing I did notice at the hotel was that all the guests were mainly Chinese, not sure if from China or Taiwan. Maybe they didn't have any need to outreach to the Chinese community?
I was either too busy shooting photoshoots or lounging around doing nothing that I didn't take any photos
