If there’s anything that our beach club review team likes more than a beach club, it’s one attached to a top resort and with the longest beachfront in town.
So, they couldn’t wait to pop on their Speedos and bikinis and get out by the pool at RAVA Beach Club, the upmarket Banyan Tree Resort’s posh beach club on Bang Tao Beach. It has the longest stretch of oceanfront for any beach club in Thailand too!
We weren’t sure what the club meant by describing itself as “an interactive destination”, but we knew one thing for sure: we were going to find out, and this is what we learned.
Introduction – Getting To RAVA Beach Club, Phuket
Phuket is a relatively easy destination to get to from most of the world, as the area has an international airport with connections to Europe and beyond.
However, flights are very much seasonally based, and you may find that in the off-peak season, it’s easier to get a flight to Bangkok and a connection to Phuket.
That’s OK, it’s less than an hour’s trip from the Thai capital, so you won’t need to hang around too much.
Once you reach Phuket, the Banyan Tree is easy enough to find and getting there shouldn’t be much more than an hour’s drive from anywhere on the island, even in the heaviest traffic.
As a resort, there’s even some parking available, though priority goes to the hotel’s guests, so we recommend that you take a ride-share or a tuk-tuk to RAVA Beach Club.
Where Is RAVA Beach Club, Phuket? 109, Choeng Thale, Thalang District, Phuket 83110, Thailand
Online: Banyan Tree
Opening Hours: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. every day, though there may be exceptions for public holidays and government elections.
What’s Available At RAVA Beach Club, Phuket?
There is a 150-meter long stretch of beachfront, three infinity swimming pools, three conceptualised spaces to experience, restaurant and bar facilities and regular DJs.
We would note that the Prestige area of the beach club is closed except to Laguna Residence owners and members of the “Sanctuary Club”. This facility offers two additional dining rooms, semi-private areas, dedicated daybeds and a private infinity pool.
Our Detailed Review Of RAVA Beach Club, Phuket
We maintain a uniform evaluation process for each beach club to ensure just treatment of owners, management, and staff, and to offer reviews in a standardised structure that makes venue comparisons effortless.
The evaluation procedure is as follows:
- A review team is appointed to assess the venue.
- All members are required to visit the beach club, though they can visit individually and not on the same day.
- At the venue, each reviewer completes a scorecard, rating the club from 1 (lowest standard) to 5 (highest standard) across specified categories, while also recording their observations.
- Once all scorecards are submitted, the team gathers to discuss their findings and settle on final category scores.
- A selected team member then drafts the review, reflecting the team’s conclusions and scores, before it is uploaded to our website.
Reservation and Booking Process
There’s a fairly confusing start to this process. When you push the first “Book Now” button on the beach club page, it still takes you to book a hotel room.
Then, however, if you scroll down and use the next “Book Now” button, you will be taken to a high-level overview of the beach club.
You then need to select when you’re coming – day passes (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.), lunch (12 p.m. to 5 p.m.) or dinner (5 p.m. to 10.30 p.m.)
You can then select the seats that you want, as well as the date you want to arrive. Well, at least you can, in theory.
Our experience with the booking engine was extremely frustrating, with much of the club showing as permanently booked out. It actually took a visit to RAVA Beach Club to clear this up.
Ambience and Atmosphere
RAVA is a high-end beach club, and it feels like it. Everything inside this place is about ensuring you have an elevated experience, and everyone likes to feel like a celebrity, right?
However, there are moments when you realise everyone around you is so into themselves that there’s not really that much socialising going on, and that’s a bit of a shame.
We’d recommend visiting this beach club with friends, family or a partner rather than going solo, as we think it would be hard to make connections here without a group.
Location And Accessibility
Phuket is reasonably accessible from most of the world, though North American travellers may find themselves, at a minimum, forced to change planes in Bangkok.
And RAVA is easy to get to from almost any part of Phuket, it’s a short drive from the rest of the area, and it’s on one of the best known beaches, which makes it easy to find.
We also found that some of this beach club, though not all of it, was wheelchair accessible, which is a positive step in the right direction.
Aesthetic And Design
This beach club is very attractive to look at, and it’s clear that a lot of thought went into the design. The multiple infinity pool beachfront is amazing.
However, even at the Banyan Tree, there’s no doubt that there’s a hint of the corporate about the whole thing. It’s one of the downsides of hotel beach clubs, you can’t escape that they’re not a labour of love, they’re a big business cashing in on a trend.
That’s fine because there are plenty of upsides to offset this, and RAVA is a great place to grab some awesome Instagram snaps, and that’s really all that matters.
Staff Friendliness and Professionalism (Service Standard)
Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles, thanks to its friendly and helpful people, and there’s no doubt that the folks working at RAVA Beach Club are the epitome of this.
And, of course, when backed with a multinational hotel chain’s training team, that natural friendliness can easily be harnessed and paired with professionalism and attention to detail.
We found the staff at RAVA to be among the best we encountered in Thailand, and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend any of them.
Service Speed and Efficiency
There’s also none of the usual laidback Thai approach to service at this beach club; once you are served (which always seems to happen without making very much effort to get the attention of the staff), your order is whisked away quickly.
Then, the food and drinks materialise in an interval that we’d describe as long enough to be sure it’s been properly prepared and no longer than that.
Even the bill came promptly once it was requested, and if any change was required, it was swiftly brought to us.
Food Quality and Variety
The food at RAVA is superlatively good, and the ingredients are absolutely in the premier league of beach clubs.
The menu is also large and varied, with plenty of choices to ensure that even the fussiest eater is happy.
So, where did the other mark in this category go? Well, it’s on price. RAVA may make excellent food, but it comes at a substantial price premium, and that’s something that budget travellers are going to be very wary of.
Beverage Selection and Creativity
Similarly, the drink selection at this beach club is first-rate, and there’s plenty of choice. Cocktails are made swiftly and are beautifully presented.
If you’re a would-be influencer, then photos of the drinks (and food) at RAVA are going to go down well with most audiences.
However, once again, even allowing for the fact that alcohol is nowhere near as cheap as it once was in Thailand as a whole, the drinks at RAVA are expensive.
Cleanliness and Hygiene
This is the sort of place where dirt is simply not invited, and if it does arrive, it’s removed with all the haste that you’d expect them to apply to someone who tried to jump into the pool covered in mustard.
The water is clean, the pool area is beautifully maintained, and the toilets and changing facilities are superb. Everything about the attention to hygiene here is meant to give you confidence in the club as a whole, and it does.
Comfort of Seating and Lounging Areas
The furniture at RAVA is extremely comfortable, though we’re not sure how well it will hold out after long-term use.
It certainly looks great in our Instagram feeds, and we felt that while it wasn’t the best we’ve ever sat on, there wasn’t a seat that felt uncomfortable in any section that we tried.
You’re going to be fine spending a long, lazy day at RAVA and lounging in the same seat.
Music and Entertainment
Some piped music, a fire show and some DJs. It’s clear that this isn’t the main focus at RAVA, but they don’t leave you feeling underserved in this department.
We’ve definitely seen places that do entertainment much better than RAVA, but we didn’t come to the end of the day wishing that we’d had more of anything, either.
Seasonality
It’s Phuket, and the official line is always going to be that as it’s in the tropics, it’s warm and pleasant all year round, and that’s not entirely untrue.
However, it misses out the salient fact that during the rainy season, it can quite literally rain for days or weeks on end with barely a break in the downpour.
We always recommend people to hit up Bali in the rainy season in Southeast Asia, it rains much less there and you get a lot more sunshine between intervals of cloud.
Pricing and Value for Money
While we felt that RAVA was really good, we also felt that every interaction with this beach club came at a large price premium.
Given that this is Thailand, a destination beloved by backpackers and bargain hunters, we find it difficult to say that this is top value for money.
It’s not bad, per se, and we never felt cheated at RAVA, but it was a heavy day on our wallets.
Beach Access and Quality
The beach at RAVA is very attractive and, as you’d expect from a property of this class, the staff ensure that the sand remains clean and tidy all day long.
We didn’t see any litter on the beach, and it’s a nice place to wander up and down for a romantic walk.
However, the water isn’t safe to swim in as it’s full of pollution (which is outside of the beach club’s control) and suffers from dangerous riptides, too.
Sustainability Practices
RAVA and the larger Banyan Tree and Laguna Phuket are committed to a Corporate and Social Responsibility policy and positive environmental stewardship.
They believe in integrating the local culture, conscious living and an environmental focus. And this all sounds great.
However, without direct reporting and specific milestones, they’ve still got some way to go in this area.
Exclusive Perks for Guests
As with nearly all beach clubs in Phuket, you will get access to seating (depending on which part of the club you book, the seating can vary) and a towel.
This is very much the standard, and you can’t fault the club for this; however, we would like to see more VIP and premium options for additional inclusions.
You’d think this would be a no-brainer for a high-end joint like RAVA, but sadly, not yet. We want to splurge when we’re on holiday, and we’d like our beach clubs to facilitate that.
Safety and Security
Beach clubs that are high-end tend to take the safety and security of their guests very seriously, and we’re pleased to report that RAVA is no exception in this respect.
Cars entering the hotel compound will be subjected to search and security checks to ensure that nothing untoward enters the area.
They may also conduct bag checks on the door to make certain that things won’t go awry and to ensure that no contraband enters the building.
There is also an excellent security staff on hand for them to call in if anyone should find that they’ve drunk a little too much and try to do something silly.
Event Hosting Capabilities
RAVA has a comprehensive events management team, and they can host events of all different sizes.
Our only concern in this area is that RAVA has only been open for a very short time, and that means they may not, yet, have the experience to ensure that your day goes smoothly.
We wouldn’t hesitate to book a small event at RAVA, but for anything that’s vital or big events? We might wait a year or two for their team to go through their teething pains first.
Consistency of Experience
This kind of refined hotel beach club experience is always consistent, and that’s exactly what our reviewers observed and what online reviews from customers reinforce.
You can count on places like this to deliver, and that’s what enables them to charge a premium over other beach clubs and a huge premium over the local restaurant and bar scene.
However, as with all hotel beach clubs, there’s also very little effort put into innovation and reinvention. They play it safe when they could be looking at constantly evolving the customer experience to be even better than they are now.
Additional Amenities and Facilities
They have all the amenities and facilities that you need for a good day out at RAVA, particularly if you just want to kick back by the pool and relax.
But if you do need something that they don’t have on hand, then the good news is that you’re in Phuket and you won’t have to travel too far to find that something.
Nearly everything you could possibly want or need is within a short driving distance from RAVA, and that’s exactly what we want when we’re on holiday.
Summary
We liked RAVA very much, indeed. Yes, it’s more expensive than we’d normally spend on a day out, and it’s the sort of spot that we’d visit on a special occasion, but we did feel it was worth it.
This is a beach club that’s all about luxurious relaxation, and sometimes, that’s exactly what you need while you’re on holiday.
Of course, sometimes you need to party all night long, and when you do, you don’t go to places like RAVA, which just aren’t built for it.
Overall, though, this is an excellent hotel beach club, and we can see that if you’re a property owner in the Laguna development that having access to RAVA all the time must be a sweet benefit, indeed.
FAQs
Can You Go Swimming At RAVA Beach Club, Phuket?
Yes! With three beachfront infinity pools, there’s no shortage of pool space at RAVA Beach Club, and yes, towels are included with your daybed.
One thing we do like about RAVA is that there is no charge for using a daybed or for the towel, but you must agree to a minimum spend in order to use them.
It can be challenging to book a daybed using the club’s booking system, but we’d recommend that you power through, as it’s very much an integral part of the experience here.
In theory, you could also go and swim in the ocean at RAVA, but we wouldn’t and don’t recommend that you do, either.
The ocean water here is very polluted (this has nothing to do with the beach club and is outside of its control), and there is the potential for a riptide to drag you out to sea, too. This can happen to even the strongest swimmers, so it’s best to stick to the awesome infinity pools.
What Is There To Do At RAVA Beach Club, Phuket?
RAVA has drinking, dining, lounging and swimming facilities for the majority of the day, and later in the day, the venue offers DJs, and you can enjoy some dancing.
However, it’s important to note that this is not an out-and-out party venue, and it’s not going to be a wild night as it might be at some of Phuket’s other beach clubs.
Is RAVA Beach Club, Phuket, A Child-Friendly Venue?
Yes. RAVA Beach Club is family-friendly. This should come as no surprise, as it’s part of the Banyan Tree Resort and also open to owners in the Laguna complex.
There’s even a Kids Menu, which is a bit of a rarity in the Phuket beach club scene, and ensures that the little ones can enjoy tasty treats that are more geared to their appetites.
As with all beach clubs in Southeast Asia, though, you are expected to keep an eye on your own children, and though there are lifeguards at the pools, you should be watching them for their own safety as well as to ensure that they don’t annoy any other guests.
Who Is The Owner Of RAVA Beach Club, Phuket?
RAVA Beach Club is part of the Banyan Tree, Phuket, and that is, in turn, part of the Banyan Tree Group, an international group of hotels that specialises in high-end luxury properties.
Final Thoughts On The Review Of RAVA Beach Club, Phuket
The RAVA Beach Club is about as good as hotel beach clubs get. The setting is beautiful and luxurious.
As you would expect from the Banyan Tree, the food and drinks are excellent, if a little pricey. The infinity pools are first-rate, and the view out over the ocean is lovely.
However, this is a place for refined chilling and not for partying. If you want to rage all night long, you might want to choose another beach club.
