The Grand Mirage and Thalasso is essentially two n...

The Grand Mirage and Thalasso is essentially two neighbouring hotels combined. We stayed at the Grand Mirage (the older hotel), so to use the kids club area you have to walk a bit along the beach front or the road to the other newer hotel, so you are hassled by hawkers trying to sell every time you go back and forth.

We have a 6 year old son, so we wanted somewhere with a good kids club where he could make some friends and do activities together. Grand Mirage is very nice, however, not well designed. The water playground area is not part of the pool area and is set on its own, with primarily bench style seats and walls around it and is small and confined. You cannot lounge around and relax while your kids play here, which is why when we were there (for 7 days) it is almost unused. The main pool for the newer hotel does have one large slide and a rock climbing wall which is good for older kids.

The kids club room was very good with two separate areas for younger and older kids. The older kids area has a number of play station consoles, which the kids basically got on and stay on. Unfortunately, kids being kids, let them on electronics and they won't do much else, you could see that with lots of kids, including ours....so he wasn't really doing the playing and friend making we were hoping for. They really need to make the water playground part of the kids club and bring in some other interactive games like the air hockey table. Perhaps have an electronics free period for a couple of hours...

We didn't do the all inclusive as we like to go out and experience local restaurants and it did not look like good value. If you do not do all inclusive, the cost of drinks is prohibitive at the bar. eg a small bintang is 55k, plus tax 21%. Then when its charged back to you via credit card your will get the banks bad exchange rate plus fees. Not worth it.

Staff were all happy and smiling, rooms were ok for the age of the hotel and the cost. Breakfast was a good range and worthwhile.

There is a number of good restaurants on the road out front, plus convenience stores and massage shops.