conde nast traveller phuket

• Inspiration
• Destinations
• Places To Stay
• Style & Culture
• Food & Drink
• Wellness & Spas
• News & Advice
• Partnerships
• Traveller's Directory
• Travel Tips
• Competitions

The best of Thailand's beaches

Best undiscovered Thai island

A land of free-diving sea gypsies, leafy cashew farms, Champagne-coloured sand and mint-green water: it is actually still possible to find unspoilt parts of Thailand . Until recently, almost no one had heard of the mellow island of Koh Phayam, on the Thai border with Burma - and those who had were unlikely to want to make the nine-hour slog on the night bus from Bangkok to get there. But Koh Phayam's fortunes are set to change (for better or worse) now the low-cost Thai airline Nok Air has started direct 90-minute flights from the capital. Get there before every hippy and hipster worth their pink Himalayan salt finds out about it. www.nokair.com

Best beach bar

Koh phangan.

The Flip Flop Pharmacy in Koh Phangan exemplifies the hidden side of the island's north-east with its chilled-out vibe a million miles from the Full Moon parties this place has become known for. Here, instead, is a pavilion with worn-smooth floorboards, a drinks menu that would make any mixologist proud and a mellow soundtrack. But the best bits are the slouchy pillows, low tables and candlelit lanterns beneath a sky that changes from pink to starlit in the time it takes to sip a cocktail. +66 77 445081

You'll need to get here early or hang late to get the postcard-worthy photo-op at Nangyuan beach near Koh Tao , a silvery sliver of a sandbar that connects three small islands linked by thigh-deep, crystal-clear water and a fishbowl-effect of tropical marine life.

Best snorkelling

Similan islands.

Grab a mask and head to the Similan Islands , a national park west of Khao Lak that's well worth its designation as one of the world's best diving sites. After discovering the shoals of rich coral reefs and the spectacular limestone islands, the squeaky soft beaches are just the spot for a picnic.

The rooftop bar with the best views

At sunset everyone heads to Baba Nest for a rum-drenched My Thai Lady. Suspended up high, cut into the rocks of Phuket's Cape Panwa peninsula , the rooftop bar of the Baba Poolclub at Sri Panwa has knock-your-socks-off views over the Andaman Sea. The vibe is low-key, with sunken seats for flopping onto after a swim in the infinity pool. Come earlier in the day for lunch and order the sake-sashimi salad, salt-and-pepper calamari and tiger prawns, alongside a Piña Colada or the non-alcoholic Baba Punch with fresh orange, hibiscus juice and lime. www.sripanwa.com

Wildest beach clubs

Koh samui & phuket.

For some, a perfect evening in Thailand is a great cocktail and a mean green curry, preferably while wearing just flip-flops and a kaftan. But for others, it's a much more raucous event. The European-style beach clubs here include bottle service and a glammed-up crowd. At Koh Samui 's Nikki Beach, for example, sushi, Champagne and international DJs are the draw (the more low-key Wednesday film nights are pretty popular too), and at Phuket's Catch Beach Club on Surin Beach (one of the island's better stetches of sand) the parties turn into a rave as the night goes on. www.nikkibeach.com ; www.catchbeachclub.com

Best Thai massage (and it's only £10)

Forget the brightly lit storefront massage parlours that are a dime a dozen in Thailand . Tanaporn Massage House on Koh Phangan somehow combines an authentic atmosphere (flowering gardens, gentle music, hushed surroundings) with bargain prices (less than £10 an hour) and therapists who make your body as limber as your 18-year-old best again. If you're lucky with your timing (in the earlier months of the year), the owner's mother-in-law might be in town; the deceivingly slight lady can make men cry - her hands are that strong. www.tanaporn.com

Best street food

Blending Indian, Malaysian and Chinese influences, the food of southern Thailand is intense, hyper-fragrant and the spiciest of the country's already spicy regional cuisines. Get your fix in Phuket Old Town, a former enclave of 19th-century Chinese and Portuguese traders, where umbrella-covered stalls sizzle outside pastel-coloured shophouses strung with red lanterns. Lunch might come in plastic bags but it is the most authentic you'll find on the island. It's also the cheapest. Feast on local specialities - soupy seafood hokkien noodles, skewers of sizzling sausages, oyster omelettes, piping-hot roti and velvety curries - for less than £1 a dish.

Most fabulous new villas

Koh Samui is heaving with heavyweight hotels - Banyan Tree, Four Seasons, W, Belmond Napasai - but giving them a run for their money are a new breed of houses to rent with vast amounts of space, spectacular design and privacy. Check out the modernist cubes of Samujana, cleaved into the hillside above Choeng Mon beach . Each comes with its own butlers, chefs, drivers and swimming pools, as well as Muay Thai boxers for personal training. Or try the Panacea's Praana Residence, which sprawls over 50,000sq ft and needs a staff of 20 to keep its six suites, cinema room, two infinity pools, gym, spa, nursery and nightclub ticking over. www.samujana.com ; www.panaceasamui.com

Best coffee in the islands

Casa Lapin x Samui has just opened at Fisherman's Village , right on Koh Samui 's fashionable Bophut Beach . The brainchild of architect-owner Surapan Tanta, one of Thailand's niche coffee pioneers, it continues the industrial-chic style of the Bangkok original - exposed brick walls with bare floorboards and a decked terrace. Here you'll find skilled baristas serving the best coffee on the island, as well as a range of smoothies, detox juices and punchy cocktails, alongside seafood platters piled high with lobster, prawns, oysters and scallops.

Coolest café bars

Ella Phuket in Patong Beach is a temple to urban industrial minimalism with bare bulbs, polished concrete, iced mochas and guestrooms upstairs. At the opposite end of the style spectrum is China Inn Café in Phuket Town . A hundred years ago the shophouse was used as a money brokerage firm; now its beautifully restored rooms are filled with colourful textiles, lacquered antiques and vintage Chinese advertising posters, and there's a great courtyard restaurant. www.theellagroup.org ; China Inn (+66 76 356239)

Totally under-rated but wonderful island

Thailand's fourth-largest - but least-visited - island, Ko Kood, sits in a pristine marine sanctuary near the Cambodian border. Largely mountainous, with thick jungle ringed by immaculate sandy bays, it feels totally off-grid. Stay in a straw hut at Neverland, the little beach houses at Shantaa Resort or in one of the largest hotel villas in the world at sybaritic Soneva Kiri, a beautiful spot with environmentally friendly design and authentic Thai touches. www.neverlandresort.com ; from about £30 per night. www.shantaakohkood.com ; from about £50 per night. www.soneva.com ; doubles from about £595

Most interesting place to visit

Thai Hua Museum is one of the finest examples of Sino-Portuguese architecture in Phuket . Formerly a Chinese-language school, the building in the Old Town now holds exhibitions of local history, which is influenced by the Chinese diaspora who came to the island for tin mining. The displays are informative, using original artefacts as props and mini mock-ups to show what life was like in the 19th century. +66 76 211224

The most incredible location in Thailand

Phang nga bay.

Phang Nga Bay is hard to beat. Get here in a traditional longtail fishing boat to explore transparent waters, white-sand coves that are great for a lunch stop or a quick swim, and limestone islands that provide an epic setting (they featured in the 1974 James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun : the fiendish Scaramanga was a resident in these parts).

Best hotel shop

What stands out most at Phuket's Point Yamu by COMO are the impeccable details, from the antique Buddha hands repurposed as door handles to the vintage cart serving organic ice cream. At the hotel's boutique, masterminded by owner Christina Ong, the edit is small but flawless. The shop's version of Thai trousers favoured by gap-year travellers comes cut in dashing silk, and the swimsuit selection includes pin-up numbers by London-based Prism. Other must-buys include gold bangles, which look great stacked on a tanned arm. www.comohotels.com

Best late-night party

As soon as the plates of curries and green-mango salad have been cleared at Ka Jok See , a restaurant and cabaret bar in Phuket Old Town , a ladyboy in glittery platforms and a sequined dress belts out 'It's Raining Men'. Everyone joins in, banging on bongos and tambourines, putting on cowboy hats and pink, plastic, heart-shaped sunglasses. It's eccentric to say the least, and dancing on tabletops is absolutely encouraged, as is initiating a conga line with the rest of the guests. Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell have been spotted kicking up their heels here. +66 76 217903

Buzziest new hang-out

If you spy a frenzy of paparazzi and a private jet when you land at Phuket International, chances are its passengers are heading to Iniala Beach House. A mix of modern architecture, MoMA-worthy art and a white-sand beach has made it one of Asia's most talked-about openings in the past few years. If it's a stretch to pay £10,000 a night to rent it all out, dip into the jetset life at restaurant Pärla. The dishes by Seumas Smith offer a unique mix of Scandinavian and Hebridean flavours with a strong focus on seafood and fresh produce. Maybe this is your chance for a selfie with a Kardashian. www.iniala.com . Tasting menu at Pärla about £107. Suites from about £654

Best clubbing

When Koh Samui 's beachside Gecko Village was destroyed by fire, the owners relocated to Bophut Hills . Gone are the Bali-style interiors: the Gecko Bar & Supper Club , as it's now known, is slick with polished concrete, soaring ceilings and an infinity pool. By night, it's a different creature. Techno and house fans spill in for the Sunday sessions that are now legendary thanks to the famous names that play, including Dirty Vegas.

Best spa retreat

Scattered through dense bird-filled jungle on the edge of a boulder-strewn beach, Thai wellness institution Kamalaya changed the spa scene when it opened 10 years ago. This results-driven holistic hotspot on the island of Koh Samui is built around an ancient monk's cave, and its therapists are some of the best in the world. Recharge your physical and emotional batteries on one of three different stress- and burnout-therapy programmes, which include invigorating yoga, Chinese acupuncture, Ayurvedic medicine and Thai massage. www.kamalaya.com . Doubles from about £140

Best interiors shopping

Known for his industrial-leaning designs, John Underwood creates copper ceiling fans, ornate steel screens and stone-carved bathtubs that can be seen in some of Asia's slickest hotels, including Indigo Pearl in Phuket. Find his furniture and sculptures at the Underwood Art Factory under Phuket's Mu Ban bypass . www.underwood-phuket.com

Loveliest hidden beach retreat

Ask any Bangkok insider where to escape the city's chaos and totally unwind and Railei Beach Club in Krabi is bound to come up. On an idyllic bay bookended by limestone cliffs and fronted by a crystal sea with bobbing fishing boats, the Robinson Crusoe-styled wooden bungalows are set just back from the water and are a refuge for expat and well-heeled locals who happily rent them out to visitors when they're not in residence. The beach bar is not to be missed (try the passion-fruit Margarita) and the chefs adopt a market-to-table approach when they come and cook for you. The only drawback? The word is out, so book early in high season, especially for Christmas and New Year, when a seven-night minimum is required. www.raileibeachclub.com . From about £65 per night

Quirkiest places to stay

All eyes are on Phuket this December, when the fantastical Keemala finally opens its recycled wooden doors. The hotel looks like a cross between Avatar 's Pandora and The Hobbit 's Middle-earth, and you can choose to stay in mushroom-shaped clay cottages, billowing tented suites, bird's-nest villas or bamboo houses looped into the palm trees like massive Christmas baubles. Vegetables in the restaurants will come straight from the kitchen gardens and fruit will be plucked from the surrounding orchards. The spa has therapies including vibrational attunement and Tibetan singing bowls. Expectations couldn't be higher. www.keemala.com . Doubles from about £355

For the best sleep of your life

Getting a good night's sleep is serious business at the dreamy Six Senses Yao Noi. Tucked away on a sparsely populated island sandwiched between Krabi and Phuket, this do-gooding, eco-luxe hotel has always been a den of tranquility, but its Yogic Sleep programme takes snoozing to new levels. Guided meditation sessions, calming qi gong classes, yoga nidra - learning how to achieve a kind of conscious dream state - are combined with dream-catcher head massages, pandan -scented steams and detoxing scrubs, all under the guidance of doe-eyed yoga master Dorelal Singh from India. www.sixsenses.com . Doubles from about £280

Most amazing outdoor bathrooms

On Mai Khao beach in the quiet north-west of the island, Sala Phuket is peaceful and private, and completely removed from the party scene. The design is contemporary and sleek: lots of lime-washed wood, pale grey and taupe linen, and daybeds piled high with cushions. Most of the 79 suites and villas come with their own swimming pool but all of them have an open-air shower and a huge, egg-shaped marble bath outside for breezy evening bathing. www.salaresorts.com . Doubles from about £80

Best seafood

It may be off the beaten track but the pier at Bang Bao , a village in southern Koh Chang , has the most fantastic fish. It doesn't matter which restaurant you pick, though if you want to choose your seafood specifically, Lom Talay and Chow Lay have large tanks teeming with various knobbly crustaceans. Local specialities include grilled mantis shrimp ( kung pao ) and stir-fried spider crab in red curry sauce ( boo paht pong karee ).

Most aromatic place to stay

Koh Samui meets colonial Indochina at The Scent Hotel on Bang Rak beach , where Provençal-style armchairs sit beside apothecary dressers. Choose your room fragrance on arrival. www.thescenthotel.com . Doubles from about £65

Best reinvention

The town of Pattaya, on the east coast, is cleaning up its act. Forget the sleazy girlie bars, ear-splitting music and seedy massage parlours, it now has chic cafés, bars and restaurants. Check out A' La Campagne with its French-style interiors, modern European food and amazing coffee. Pop next door to Somtum Villa for a cracking green-papaya salad and end the day with sunset drinks at Silver Lining on the beach. For healthy smoothies, head to the Spa Café in nearby Chon Buri, and the funky Conpanno Café has delicious ice cream.

For bespoke itineraries to Thailand and personalised service, contact Cleveland Collection +44 20 3111 0805; www.clevelandcollection.co.uk

Contributors: Lee Cobaj, Ondine Cohane, Anna Chittenden, Michael Paul

This feature was first published in Condé Nast Traveller December 2015

Read our feature on more of the best winter sun destinations [SkyScanner]

Kamalaya Spa, Koh Samui

Pool at Soneva Kiri, Ko Kood

Soneva Kiri, Ko Kood

Villa at Samujana, Koh Samui

View from the den at Six Senses Yao Noi

The Aziamendi restaurant at Iniala Beach House, Phuket

Villa Siam at Iniala Beach House, Phuket

The presidential suite at SALA Phuket

The Scent Hotel, Koh Samui

A' La Campagne restaurant in Pattaya

Drinks at A' La Campagne, Pattaya

La Sirena restaurant at Point Yamu Hotel, Phuket

Sunset at Baba Nest, Phuket

Bathroom at Keemala, Phuket

Catch Beach Club, Phuket

Phang Nga Bay

Condé Nast Traveller

• Link to Twitter - Opens in new window
• Link to Facebook - Opens in new window
• Link to Instagram - Opens in new window
• Link to LinkedIn - Opens in new window
• Link to Pinterest - Opens in new window
• Link to YouTube - Opens in new window

Luxury Hotels, Spas and Venues in Phuket

See our selection of luxury hotels in Phuket, Thailand . The Condé Nast Johansens team of Local Experts inspects each property year-on-year, so you can be sure to receive a premium experience.

Trendy Phuket, off the Andaman Coast, is Thailand’s largest and one of its most popular islands. Despite the heavy flow of tourism, the island remains blessed with shimmering white sand beaches and warm, turquoise waters. You’ll also find a sublime selection of luxury resorts, glamorous drinking spots and high-end restaurants. Off the shores of Phuket wonderful diving and snorkelling is available with beautiful reefs, walls and banks hailed as some of the finest in the world.

Please use our site to send a booking enquiry directly to a property and enjoy savings, special offers, a warm welcome on arrival, room upgrades and VIP privileges.

• Regions in Thailand
• Change Country
• All Thailand
• Koh Samui 2
• WORLDWIDE 354
• Mauritius 1
• South Africa 3
• Indonesia 5
• Philippines 6
• Republic of Singapore 1
• Saudi Arabia 2
• Sri Lanka 2
• Channel Islands 2
• Montenegro 1
• Northern Ireland 1
• Portugal 32
• Scotland 12
• Costa Rica 5
• Guatemala 1
• The Caribbean 10
• Argentina 1
• Property Type (All) --> Full Collection Hotel Exclusive Use Spa Villa Day Out Find

I'm going on a trip for...

• Boutique Retreat
• Corporate Day
• Countryside
• Eco Friendly
• Exclusive Use
• Food & Drink
• Island Hopping
• Meeting/Conference
• Party/Celebration
• Pet Friendly
• Private Dining
• Sightseeing
• Sports & Adventure
• Walking Holiday
• Weekend Break

In a place with...

• Audio visual equipment
• Beach access
• Canal views
• Children's playground
• Electric car charging point
• Entertainment
• Exclusive use
• Family friendly
• Guided tours
• Horse riding
• Hydrotherapy
• Medical spa
• Michelin starred restaurant
• Pet friendly
• Picnic area
• Rasul room/pool
• Refreshments
• River views
• Spa boutique
• Spa cuisine
• Spa on-site
• Special group rates
• Syndicate rooms
• Technician on-site
• Thalassotherapy
• Translation services
• Visit by appointment
• Walking routes
• Water sports
• Wedding licence
• Wheelchair accessible
• Yoga/Pilates
• Sort (Our Favourites) A - Z Most Popular Our Favourites What's New Update
• Total Results: 3

Please visit the Condé Nast Publications Ltd. Privacy Policy to know more about how Condé Nast Publications Ltd will process your personal data.

Amatara Welleisure™ Resort

Phuket , Thailand , Phuket , Thailand

From the very edge of Phuket’s southeast corner in Cape Panwa, Amatara Welleisure™ Resort presides on a peninsula above a pretty beach lapped by the turquoise Andaman Sea. Each one of its luxurious rooms, suites and villas overlooks this endless watery vista, which is also ever-present through floor-to-ceiling windows of studios and open-air pavilions where various exercise, yoga and... More info

V Villas Phuket MGallery Collection

Phuket , Thailand

Purposely built to enjoy the majestic Andaman Sea view, V Villas Phuket - MGallery Collection sits on a private hilltop surveying the natural beauty of Ao Yon Bay below and beyond. The resort’s gourmet Yon|Ocean House restaurant, rooftop AKOYA|Star Lounge and communal infinity pool all take in this uninterrupted watery scene; so do many of the 19 private villas where butler service is at... More info

A little bit eccentric, uniquely awesome and wholeheartedly sustainable, Keemala is an otherworldly realm ensconced in lush tropical rain forest. Pioneering, opulent design is its theme and warm, all-embracing Thai hospitality is the philosophy. The inspiration for this architectural wonder came from the surrounding landscape, and there is nothing else quite like it. Managing to be all-at-once... More info

Amatara Welleisure™ Resort Spa

Keemala Hotel

V Villas Phuket MGallery Collection Hotel · Villa

• Destinations
• Hotels & Homestays
• Food & Drink
• People & Culture
• Mindful Travel
• Readers' Travel Awards
• Escape to Rajasthan
• READERS TRAVEL AWARDS
• #LOVEGREATBRITAIN
• TAJ SAFARIS
• BOUTIQUE HOTELS
• CNT TOP RESTAURANT AWARDS
• DESTINATION WEDDING GUIDE
• DON’T TRAVEL WITHOUT IT
• #UNDISCOVERAUSTRALIA
• ESSENTIALLY RAJASTHAN

Top 5 family resorts in Phuket

Snooze, sun, sand and sea during a vacation with kids: sounds too good to be true?

With our list of child-friendly resorts in Thailand’s popular tourist island Phuket, you can peacefully unwind as entertaining activities distract and engage your kids. Circus-training programmes, kid's yoga, cafes and spa treatments – these resorts have left no stone unturned in ensuring that both your kids and you have the holiday of a lifetime. Babysitting services are available in all the listed properties.

Holiday Inn Resort Phuket

Don't be surprised if your kids throw a tantrum over taking home a room from this resort; they can hardly be blamed for making such demands. The rooms come in jungle or pirate themes with bunk-beds or boat-shaped beds, a television, DVD, Xbox and toy box. Family suites consist of a superior room connected to a kid's room that can sleep the whole family together.

Kids between 5-12 years have access to the Kid's Club that has a wide array of daily activities ranging from introduction to Thai greetings to tuna sandwich-making as well as arts and crafts sessions, games and videos. The 'parent-free' Club 12+ caters to teenagers where they have access to videos, games, internet, karaoke and Playstation.

This resort has a special family pool that comes with a toddler pool as well as a kid's activity pool, complete with water caves, sliders, water guns and water spouts.

Kid’s menus are available and children under 12 eat free at the breakfast and dinner buffet.

Holiday Inn Resort Phuket, 52 Thaweewong Road, Patong Beach, Phuket 83150, Thailand (076 370 200; www.ichotelsgroup.com ) Doubles from Rs 12,155

JW Marriott Resort and Spa Phuket

The kid's club at this property is open from 9 am to 8 pm, giving parents a complete day to rejuvenate. Children from 4-12 years can learn hair braiding, Thai dancing, kid's yoga and simple science experiments. Teens are not forgotten, with yoga, pilates, t-shirt batik painting, Muay Thai boxing and origami, amongst a long list of activities to select from.

This resort also offers a long list of activities that the entire family can enjoy together. Family Thai cooking classes at the Ginja cooking school, t-shirt batik painting and snorkeling are just some of these.

And now for the piece de resistance – an actual circus training and flying trapeze programme run by Kidz Sole. Children, under the expert guidance of Kidz Sole, can learn the arts of circus training such as the big trampoline, pyramid building and much more. Teens, adults and families can try their hand at the flying trapeze.

Your tots can also go wild in the children's pool with a water slide, statues of turtles and a bubble pool.

JW Marriott Resort and Spa Phuket, 231 Moo 3 Mai Khao,Talang  Phuket 83110, Thailand (076 338 000; www.marriott.com ) Doubles from Rs 10,181

Angsana Laguna Phuket

Your little cherub will feel like royalty at this paradise hotel that has spa treatments designed especially for children, including nail art, hair braiding, body polish and even massages.

The property’s kids club is built around a unique tree house concept for teens up to the age of 16. The Tree House Kid’s Club is spread over two stories and features its very own check-in area for little ones. The club has four separate areas including a library, arts and crafts laboratory, a cafe serving treats like hot dogs and milkshakes as well an internet and video corner with laystation and Kinect Xbox (always a hit with the older lot).

The club offers more than 60 educational classes and enrichment programmes including Muay Thai instruction, Thai cooking and coconut leaf folding.

There is also a performance area where the children display their newly acquired skills on stage, dressed in traditional Thai costumes.

Also, watch them squeal with joy when the resort's in-house baby elephants Lucky and Joey drop in everyday to say hello.

For outdoor fun, nature walks are organised and telescopes are provided on a regular basis. Kids can also plant trees and adopt them.

Angsana Laguna, 10 Moo 4 Srisoonthorn Road, Phuket 83110, Thailand (+66 76 324 101; www.angsana.com ) Doubles from Rs 11,061

Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort

The property encourages kids to go to its Penguin Club after they drop you off by the pool. Talk about a role reversal.

The Penguin Club is choc-a-bloc full of fun activities for your little tykes; it includes sports like basketball, swimming and tennis, creative pursuits like card designing and flower making, games for building that team spirit and Thai dancing for the ones that simply cannot sit still.

Housed in a large room strewn with toys and an assortment of fun little trinkets, the Penguin Club at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort is sure to keep your kids entertained while you and your spouse spend some much needed alone time.

Additionally, being a part of Starwood Hotels, Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort accepts the SPG Kids Pass entitles those under 12 to access a selection of dining options including special children’s menus.

Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort, 29 Soi Karon Nui, Tambon Karon, Amphur Muang Phuket, 83100, Thailand (+66 76 370 100; www.starwoodhotels.com ) Doubles from Rs 7,833.

Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa

What does being a child at the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa entail?  To begin with, the property extends its child-friendly arm by way of multiple services including babysitting and a child care centre within its Kidz Paradise Club, apart from organising a host of children’s activities.

The Kidz Paradize Club is housed in an entirely separate building, ensuring that your kids can shout and scream and run about as much as they want without you having to worry about them bothering adult guests at the hotel.

There is a shaded playground, a sandpit for younger guests and a host of electronics like Playstations and DVDs for cool, sheltered fun. Hilton staff actively organises fun workshops and activities like batik painting, sculpting, sand art and more.

Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa, 333 Patak Road, Karon Beach, Muang, Phuket, 83100, Thailand (+66 76 396 433; http://www1.hilton.com ) Doubles from Rs 5,353

This story was originally published on 4 May 2012

Review: Amanpuri, Thailand

An A-list favourite, with an enviable vantage point on a quiet peninsula of Phuket bay, Amanpuri is well known for offering transformative experiences. Retreats combine Thai healing practices with Chinese medicine sessions and modern science to offer bespoke holistic treatments. Movement is a big focus here too; learn Muay Thai boxing in a professional ring or perfect your serve thanks to tennis pro Philippe Dupuy. The resort, which is made up of 40 private, traditional Thai style pavilions, revels in its location by the quiet waters of Andaman Sea, so if water sports are more your thing, there’s plenty to try to keep moving off land.

Asia Chevron

Thailand Chevron

Phuket Chevron

The Rebirth of Phuket

Never doubt the bankability of Leonardo DiCaprio. When the 2000 film The Beach, starring a young Leo as an American backpacker looking for paradise lost, hit theaters, it might as well have been a promo video for Thai tourism. The promise of untouched beaches prompted hordes to descend on Koh Phi Phi, where the movie was filmed, and anything in its vicinity, particularly nearby Phuket. “When the movie came out, everyone was looking for that utopia. It was a double-edged sword, because it brought business to the island but it also killed some of the charm,” says Wan Issara, managing director of Sri Panwa , a luxury hotel in southeastern Phuket that opened in 2010 and unveiled a new enclave of rooms in 2016.

The year the movie came out, the total number of visitors to Phuket leapt by more than a quarter of a million visitors, mostly foreign. Everyone wanted a sliver of that pearly sand and emerald ocean—until there was hardly any pearly sand left to roll out your beach towel . But in 2004, the western coast of Phuket—along with much of Thailand, and countries throughout the Indian Ocean—faced a magnitude 9.1 earthquake and resulting tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters on record . Tourism plummeted.

Despite the grave circumstances, the government was quick to get involved and implement rescue and recovery efforts, which ultimately, helped change the landscape of Phuket tourism. “The tsunami put Phuket on the map in the wrong way,” says Issara. “It was quiet for a year, but Phuket rebuilt itself fairly quickly, and the following December, the island was full again."

The new Rosewood Phuket is set to open before the end of 2017, in the largely undeveloped southeastern part of the island.

Today, Phuket continues to rebuild itself and reclaim the limelight, but this time, as a luxury destination. Long known as an island lined with all-inclusive resorts and colorful nightlife, Phuket has never had a hard time attracting entry-level tourists . With this constant stream of travelers comes serious traffic management problems that the island is currently attempting to solve. The government has allocated $2 billion to the infrastructure of Phuket province, which will fund the opening of new international and domestic terminals at the airport and the implementation of a 12-lane express highway and light rail project set to be completed in five to ten years.

With these upgrades on the horizon, Phuket is starting to rebrand itself as well—and luxury hotels are looking to the island as an accessible emerging destination. Baba Beach Club , a swanky 40-bedroom and 16-villa hotel and beach club inspired by the famed beach clubs of Ibiza , will open before the end of 2017, as well as a Rosewood Phuket , which will have 71 villas and pavilions overlooking Emerald Bay in southeastern Phuket. There are an astonishing 33 other hotels set to roll out across the island in the next few years, including an Anayara Retreat Panwa, a beachfront property overlooking Chalong Bay slated to open in December, and an Anantara Vacation Club Mai Khao, which will have 97 luxury apartments and pool villas in northwest Phuket; it's set to open toward the end of 2018.

For those who go to tourist hubs like Patong, their experience of Phuket will indeed be one filled with all-you-can-eat buffets, bro-packed bars, and umbrella-crammed beaches. But for those who venture to the less discovered northern part (where Baba Beach Club will open) or the less-developed southeastern coastline (where the Rosewood is set to open and Sri Panwa is located), their experience will be markedly different. The southeastern coastline has cliffside peninsulas with views of the ocean, flecked with small islands and long-tail boats. The sense of tranquility and privacy overwhelms and the only sound that breaks the silence is the periodical chirp of cicadas. “Phuket has been perceived incorrectly,” says Issara. “Yes, there are parts that are touristy, but there are many other parts that are also undiscovered.”

Recommended