We stayed at the Twin Palms for two weeks in April. Looked around a great deal on the internet, and TripAdvisor before settling on the Twin Palms. We booked a garden suite.

It's a long way from the UK is the first thing to say - 11 hours to Bangkok, 2 hour layover, then 1.5 hour onward flight. Luckily only 25 minutes to hotel as the last leg.

Check-in was fairly efficient, given towels and welcome drink and shown to room. First impression of the suite was that it was a generous size but that the lounge area was a bit of a waste of space since one half of it had nothing in it but a desk when it could easily have accommodated a dining table. Nice stylish furniture, though the sofas were THE most uncomfortable thing I have ever sat on. The bedroom and bathroom was really great though - twin sinks, huge bath, great rain shower, and views of a small non-accessible garden outside through the massive windows.

I was woken on my first morning by construction noise from the marriott they are building next door. Not horrendous but enough to wake me. First impressions of breakfast was that it was a nice selection but nothing compared to hotels in Dubai, and I would agree with other reviews that the selection gets tiring when you are there for longer than a week and there are some hygiene issues with birds flying around the open Oriental Spoon restaurant and nibbling at the bread, pastries etc.

We asked to move rooms due to the noise when we were awoken on day two. Thebauld, the front of house manager said there were no rooms available of our type but that they could move us the day after which we thought was reasonable. Next day we were moved to a Residence with rooftop pool where we spent 10 days. The Residences are incredible and words or photos cant describe - ours was apprx 2500 sq ft, over 3 storeys with its own private 10m x 4m pool on the private sundeck on the top level. Huge lounge with 50 inch plasma and cinema surround sound system. Dining area with 6 seater dining table and chairs. Kitchen/bar area with 2 fridges for the complimentary (and refilled as often as you liked) beer/coke/water, and a wine fridge and bar which you had to pay for the contents. There was also a downstairs toilet and shower, all decorated in ultra-minimalist style with comfy furniture, white marble floors etc. Heaven! As with other reviewers, it was bigger than my house at home and like I would like my house to look.

Upstairs, there was a bedroom suite, with fantastic bathroom with freestanding black granite one-piece tub, shower, toilet etc. Huge windows, electric curtains, another plasma and dvd player etc. Linen on the beds was the best of any hotel i have ever stayed in. Top floor private roof top sun terrace with shower, seating area, sunbeds, good sized deck, the pool, beautiful frangipani tree, and another fridge with free water etc.

Residences also get a hostess - ours Ju, was fantastic and couldnt do enough for you. She would make up fruit plates for you from the free fruit provided every day, bring you cold drinks with ice and lemon etc and when you went for dinner in the evening she used to come to the restaurant and serve as our private waiter. My wife mentioned having been to Thailand as a kid and having banana crepes at the side of the road. One day at lunch, she appeared with one for my wife - she had been out and bought one locally for her as a surprise.

Of the general hotel - staff are excellent, Thebauld was very helpful and knowledgeable at organising trips etc. Free internet access all over the hotel, not many kids (not encouraged), great pool of 30m+ and never busy. The lagoon pool is a waste of time and lagoon pools are a total waste of money - everybody we spoke to who had one said that. The lagoon pool runs along the side of the main pool, and is only 2-3m wide. It is good only for climbing into to cool down, and you cant swim from it to the main pool. Save your money.

Restaurants were good but not great. Oriental Spoon had been highly recommended to us by people who live in Phuket but it was nothing compared to quality/service that you get in Dubai. Good, reasonably priced for a hotel, but nothing memorable and service was a bit patchy - generally language skills among the staff were not very good, good enough to get by but not generally good enough to ask questions of the menu too much etc.

Beach Club is disappointing we felt, as was the hotel beach. A small private beach probably 50m wide, with public beaches on either side where sunbeds were packed in. Service was sporadic at the beach club as well - not particularly attentive staff to fetch drinks to you while you sunbathed etc and we generally ended up getting up and going ourself. Service was also slow to eat there with quite lengthy waits and we saw a few people complaining about this during our stay.

Surin beach town itself is small, only a small shop for drinks, chocolate, snacks, sun creme etc, an off license, and 4-6 restaurants, all of which were pretty average but OK.

Best meal we had by a mile was at Silk, which is about 5 mins from hotel and has a shuttle service to come and pick you up. Superb food, nice contemporary setting but not cheap - pretty much UK prices.

Gym at the hotel is great - as good a gym as i have ever seen at any hotel anywhere. Free weights, Smith machine, good selection of cardio equipment, free water. Spa was very good according to my wife who is an expert in these things!

All in all:
GOOD
- the residences
- the staff - friendly, helpful
- the pool / the gym
- free internet / DVD ,magazine, and book library
- Thebauld the front of house manager
- Ju, the Residence host
- design-led nature of the resort, modern and stylise

COULD BE BETTER
- the restaurants (the residence paying customers would expect better I'm sure - think the room product is ahead of the rest of the hotel for the moment
- the beach and the beach club

Overall, a solid 4 star where with a few improvements it would be truly a great hotel. The resort isn't great, the beach isn't great, but even if it were the hotel is a nice place to spend time as its just so cool looking and well laid out.

Overall

This hotel is fantastic. It is quite pricy, but worth the money. The rooms are decorated to absolute perfection. The beds are a US standard king size bed. The staff are friendly and professional. You get free internet access including in the rate. The is no sea view, but the beach is a 4min walk from the hotel. Surin Beach has to be the best beach. The food and drinks are cheap and everyone is so friendly. It is a bit quieter and more up market compared to Patong Beach. The pool is amazing. I would highly recommend this hotel. Total Bliss.

I stay in this resort in early may for 3 nigths. hotel ground are beutiful.

Just besides, new CourtYard Marriott which is still undergoing renovation. And Manathai Resort in another side. But, you could find food easily outside of resort. Few restaurance within walking distance.

Surin beach is just in front of the resort, and about 3- 5 mins walk.

Back to the resort, may be during raining season. A lot of mosquito anywhere. Especially pool area. Staff are friendly but not professional enough compare to other five star standard. But no complaint .

If you can drive, you can rent a car in the airport. Not far, about 25km from airport, just follow SURIN beach from the main road. And about 4km to Fantasea and 12 km to patong town.

Room is very clean but I think need some renovation espeically wooden floor.

I never try food in beach club because raining every night and not convenience to walk there. (Hotel should provide transport to the Surin beach, where beach club located at)

I was really looking forward to this resort as I read rave reviews and saw the gorgeous pictures online.

When we arrived, our room was not ready even though we were in low season and the hotel was probably half empty. The first room we were put in had spiders and webs. They changed our room for us. We could not shower for more than 5 minutes without the water turning cold.

The worst part was the concierge. They seemed inexperienced and were not very helpful in booking our excursions. They were straight up confused when I tried to make a spa appointment. Ultimately I came back early to go to the spa but was informed that the spa had already closed. I was pissed because I had planned my day around getting back to the hotel just for my appointment. Then the next day I realized that they do not have a spa, just a hair salon. I felt deceived because I thought this would be a spa resort; it is NOT!