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and bamboo decor. For total feelgood
factor, recommend the pool villas, each
with their funky waterfall-fed infinity
Thailand hotels are
pool on the first floor.
Dining options include the signature
offering previously
Baan Vijitt restaurant, set in a renovated
Sino-Portuguese villa, offering an
unheard-of high- extensive menu of fragrantly authentic
season deals and
traditional dishes such as white snapper
with ginger and curried tiger prawns. The
special offers to
place has a romantic ambience, attracting
couples and honeymooners – it offers the
trade partners
full range of wedding facilities – but with
its kids’ club, sports, cooking classes and
activities it’s also popular with families.
Up the other end of the island,
overlooking the Andaman Sea, is the new
Anantara Phuket (phuket.anantara.com).
Each of its 83 villas is a charming private
a stylish sunken cocktail bar. The colourful enclave with decent-sized swimming pool,
rooms have a faux-vintage Japanese vibe garden and “sala” – a covered outdoor
with a twist, while the duplex club suites lounge with daybed strewn with bright
on the fourth floor have a spectacular cushions, and a handsome dark wood
mezzanine layout. The delicious cuisine dresser containing minibar and chilled
features authentic Thai favourites premium wine cellar. Set into the pool is a
presented with contemporary visual flair. glass-sided bath – filled with warm water
Pimrapee Phanwichartikul’s family and sprinkled with rose petals on arrival.
own four resorts in the region, including Inside the villas, a fresh Asian blend
Red Ginger. She says business is about 35% of dark woods and bright silks, it seems
lower than last year. “Now is the time for they’ve thought of everything, from iPod
buyers to get the best hotels and the very docking station and espresso machine to
best prices,” she says. “The ‘Land of Smiles’ chic beach bags and mosquito lotions.
is even cheaper than ever.” It’s a suitably blissed-out setting for
Anantara’s renowned spa brand, while for
Phuket peace the more active there are bicycles,
Cheaper then to fit in another few luxury watersports and tennis.
resorts in Phuket. The resort’s gardens, designed by Bill
Both the Vijitt and Anantara resorts Bensley, are a triumph that will enchant
are havens of peace and quiet in Phuket, even the most jaded of visitors: much of
island of Ko Kred, shopped in the night contrary to the perceptions some clients the resort seems to float in a watery world,
markets, saw a fashion shoot at the hip might have about the island’s rowdy with lounges and jetties on stilts over
Long Table restaurant – and still found nature. Vijitt (vijittresort.com) is a limpid lagoons, framed by tall slender
time for plenty of dining and partying. secluded all-villa resort, opened last year palms. And at night the whole thing comes
on a hill overlooking islands in Chalong to life, with hidden spotlights and
Stylish stopovers bay. Its spacious villas are well appointed flickering kerosene lamps
Bangkok has a host of five-star options, with tasteful pale shades and teak wood reflected in the still waters.
from established landmark The Peninsula
to the new boutique 12-suite colonial-style
mansion, Eugenia. The new Centara Grand
(centralhotelsresorts.com) is not the most
obvious option for leisure travellers, as it
adjoins the Bangkok Convention Centre.
But it has a glamorous high-rise urban vibe
– including Lifestyle, a 26th-floor cluster of
facilities comprising a sumptuous spa, bar,
gardens with hot tubs and panoramic pool
– which can be the perfect setting for a
sophisticated stopover. Yet another 30
floors up is the Sky bar and restaurant,
with its awesome cityscape views and a
spectacular two-storey illuminated glass
wine cellar, complete with abseiling “wine
Previous page: Anantara, Phuket
angels” soaring up on ropes to pluck fine
Opposite page: Phang Nga Bay; a Vijitt Pool
vintages from the upper shelves.
villa at the Vijitt Resort, Phuket
A popular next stop from Bangkok is
This page, clockwise from left: outdoor
Krabi, with its traditional main town,
bathtub in the Anantara Spa, Phuket; Centara
complete with fascinating food market Grand, Bangkok; the Red Ginger hotel, Krabi
and temple complexes, while Au Nang is a
lively cheerful resort, without the
hardcore hustle of Patong in Phuket.
A new star on the hotel scene here
is the delightfully funky Red Ginger
(redgingerkrabi.com). Typical of its fresh
approach is a novel take on the private
pool concept: here, “pool access” rooms
have their personal terraces descending
straight into the main pool, which features
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