Stayed January 2012. Family with 5&7 year old kids. Two adjoining lagoon direct access rooms in SPG wing for only 6 of original 13 nights planned. Part of three week trip to Thailand including Le Meridien Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand (sensational -see Chiang Rai review. Also stayed at Hyatt Hua Hin - see review also).

The Good

This is a great resort. It ticks all the boxes. With two "water safe" kids, the direct lagoon access (without glass pool fence) was sensational. It was worth the extra cost. The rooms are large and well appointed and very much in the international resort style. The beds are firm. Note the SPG rooms (buildings 1 to 4) have balconies facing south so you get the sun all day. Rooms in buildings 5 to 8 do not get sun.

Kids Club was sensational. Very large internally with computer games, Wii, multiple TV's etc. Lots of activities (painting, puppet making etc) and a large outdoor play area and sizable kids wading pool.

Food; a very good selection at the multiple restaurants which while not "cheap" compared to local places, are what you would expect from a high standard five star resort. The Italian was well executed especially the wood fired pizza's. Wine was expensive - but as Thailand taxes imported wine at 400% it is expensive everywhere you go. Live music from a band rotating through the different restaurants on different nights was a real plus. We ate at all venues multiple times. Breakfast had a very wide selection but could do with a bit more variety on hot dishes.

(On a separate note we ate one night at the Dusit Thani Hotel virtually next door at the hotel's best restaurant, The Grill. Silver service, fairy lights strung over trees,beachside location and extraordinarily good produce - albeit it at a comparable price to the Sheraton's top place. A completely different feel to the Sheraton and real "big night out" meal well worth the short cab ride next door).

The beach at the Sheraton is, well, non existent, but as the pool and lagoon is so nice the beach does not really beckon. The bar restaurant overlooking the beach is great and very reasonable for food and drinks.

Front desk staff very good. General staff were sometimes rather aloof. One waitress was downright surly throughout the whole stay. Kids Club staff were sensational. That said all staff helped when ever you needed it.

Some reviewers have complained about the shuttle bus. Yes it is a big resort and sometimes more people want to use the bus that there are seats. Some people can miss out. But the Hua Hin town is only a 15min A/US$5 ride in a hotel car so what really is the problem?

The tailor in the shopping arcade was very good and had a good selection of fabrics. A suit with two set of trousers cost only A/US$250 was well made and completed in 48 hours. Excellent value for money.

Now for the ''Bad".

The tourism industry in Thailand like elsewhere in the world is suffering at this time. The hotel was only about 30% full during much of our stay. Tough times obviously means that hotels have to look to different markets to generate income.

It appears that Sheraton Cha Am has focused on the wedding market in India with apparent success- and good luck to them.

When we first checked in we were told that a large wedding would take place the following weekend. That is fine. However when shown to our rooms they were at the back of the resort (far form the beach lawn area) albeit still on the lagoon in the SPG wing. I asked if we could move the rooms closer to the main pool and ocean. It was explained that as we had a long booking and that the wedding was going to occupy 4 of the hotel's 8 wings, if we wished to be in the "better" rooms that they would be smack in the middle of the wedding party.The hotel was fine with moving us to these rooms but we were clearly warned that the 3 day wedding party would be disruptive to us. In fact we were asked a number of times over the next few days if we still wanted to stay in the new rooms - that is good - they were concerned that our stay would not be too disrupted. It was also explained that various restaurants within the resort would not be open to general guests over the course of the weekend because of planned events.

In the end we decided to cut short our stay. We moved to the Hyatt on the otherside of Hua Hin (please see my review). Glad we did as on the day we checked out the wedding guests started to arrive and noisy doesn't begin to describe it.

Having any one large group/party of people take over half a large resort is going to definitely impact on the other guests and in this case we decided it did. Other people may be fine with it but as we have family living in Mumbai we know that there is nothing as a "quiet' Indian wedding. They do not go with "quiet holidays sleeping by the pool etc". I was told by the staff that they had 4 separate three day weddings booked for January weekends.

I know that the hotel was trying hard to accommodate both sets of guests as best they can. Unfortunately it appears to be doing so at the cost of the ordinary guests even though they may be repeat SPG customers such as our family

Would I recommend the Sheraton. Yes - especially with young kids that may not be fully water safe. The Kids Club is fantastic and the resort food is good. Just make sure to ring the hotel directly and speak to the reservations department to plan the trip around big events such as weddings.

However with water safe kids who are a bit older then go to the Hyatt for a family holiday - a very different resort - very lush gardens and far far more private than the Sheraton. It also has a kids club (albeit one quarter the size of the Star Club) but it has the added bonus of a two story waterslide into the main pool so long as you are 120cm in height. Also as the slide away from the accommodation kids can enjoy themselves to their heart's content without the risk of annoying other guests with associated pool noise.