Hi all. I'll be traveling to Chumphon soon and am looking to stay at the Novotel. Could anybody kindly give me an honest opinion of the place. I've stayed in a number of ACCOR hotels and am usually pretty satisfied.

I've got an ACCOR privilege card for some good deals so I'm not looking for alternatives thanks. If the Novotel's OK I'll stay there.

Plus what's the approx driving time from Bangkok to Chumphon driving steadily (cruising 90/100km/h where possible) or alternatively what's the nearest place to Chumphon that has an airport that serves Bangkok and how far is it from Chumphon?

Much appreciated.

I have never stoppped in the Novotel but it certainly looks very nice. Just south of Chumphon. You are looking at around 7 hours from BKK but add another hour for stops etc. Chumphon has an airport but I think the carrier that was going to fly from there has gone bankrupt. The nearest airport is Surat Thani which is a couple of hours away and a 60 minute or so flight. It also cheap.

from the next thread:

we stayed at Novotel on 23rd December & can highly recommend the place, very cheap deals to be had too. We paid 1,800 baht cause we booked 2 days before but it was such a good deal even at that price but you can get cheaper when booking early.

Thanks for the feedback ^ and ^^

Novotel is great! Wonderful rooms and very tasty food...they also serves some western dishes...and they have their very own golf course!

Thanks.

drive from Bangkok to Chumphon doing a steady 70-80kmh took us around 7hrs but we did get a car problem & had to stop for an hour to have the exhaust welded back onto the engine & we also did a couple of potty stops (for the toddler, not me & stopped for a 40minute lunch & toilet break too

If you have a bladder larger than a 2 year olds then you might get away with one food/toilet stop & cut the trip by an hour.

forgot to add, the hotel is a fair distance from Chumphon proper & apart from the hotels rooms service there is a small local shop 2 minute walk away from hotel & opposite that a restaurant that sells very decent food. We avoided the room service & ordered a take out from this place instead & was very satisfied with it. We also bought in beers & extra water as the mini bar drinks were the usual expensive hotel cost.

Make sure you have enough cash as we didn't find an ATM nearby & had to stop in Chumphon next morning.

Thanks Boo.

Booked yesterday. Looking forward to it!

i would echo much of the above; not a 5 star but a nice clean,modern hotel with great staff. also has a fun little 9 hole golf course which hardly seems to get used.

Thanks wordchild.

Stayed there just b4 xmas. Would echo what others have said. It's a reasonable place.

There are two down points that i found. One is that as a stop-over it's not very convenient in that you have to come quite a long way off the main North-South road - about 30 - 45mins. The other is that it's one of these places with loads of rooms but seemingly not many guests - makes the place feel lacking in atmosphere.

On the bright side, the buffet breakfast was good and i'd also recommend going for the set meal for dinner - 500 baht for two was very good value and tasty food.

Cheers rix. I actually prefer places half empty. To me better than fighting off hordes of people at the local Amway seminar trying to decide what floor they need in the lift.