Luxury in Style

A Phuket and Khao Lak Exposé  

Le Méridien Khao Lak Beach & Spa Resort
Khao Lak, the region’s ‘most undisturbed coastline’ – apart from one infamous blip – is a fast-developing national park flanked by cloud-covered mountains on one side and vast stretches of wide beach on the other, and is proving a hit with 30-something couples, young families, and honeymooners, all happy to be well away from Phuket’s hedonism.

A stay at sprawling Méridien Khao Lak should be attempted from the comfort of one of their nine beachside pool villas. Why? They’re incredibly reasonably priced (from USD 149 in the low season), and this way you can have your cake and eat it. Eat, drink and work-out in public areas (and drift through the resorts mammoth twisty-turny pool – its myriad sunbeds never run out), but enjoy a self-enclosed, indoor-outdoor space to return to for private pool plunging, over-sized stone bath bathing, under-sala yogic manoeuvring, somnolent hammocking, and running from your own back garden to your own slice of empty beach and near-deserted sea (a few paces away, you can join everyone else baking a few degrees bronzer at the main pool/beach area).

A pontoon raft floats enticingly a few metres out to sea. Forty-two-inch plasma screen televisions will keep those needing to be entertained entertained, and wireless broadband internet connection will keep you connected to creditors and in-laws. The villas are currently being outfitted by a new sound and mood lighting system, upping the ambience ante.

Indulge in one of Le Spa’s eight private villas – or, better still, summon a therapist to your villa’s outdoor pavilion, (although you’d be missing out on the Spa’s steamroom and wider range of treatments). Not an especial spa fan, preferring more energetic pursuits, I was nevertheless moved by the signature Le Méridien Massage: two therapists working in tandem to rub oil into four parts of the body at once.

The property offers a choice of five restaurants, all with al fresco dining: one beachside, one poolside and one spa-side, serving exquisite Thai cuisine, while the Mediterranean-influenced menu of the former two eateries have got the resort-fare equation just right. A nightclub/grill, named The Kuk Kak Bar & Grill, has recently opened on the grounds, suiting those who like to let their hair down while on holiday: In a gazebo overlooking the lake, a Korean and Japanese menu is on offer, while Tex Mex and Indian bites are served inside. You will eat well at Le Méridien.

Activities are very much on the agenda here: windsurfing off the resort’s 11km beachfront; jaunts on the catamaran; kayaking; mountain biking; tennis; the list goes on. Parents can drop their little ones off at the well-run Penguin Club, safe in the knowledge that they will be kept amused for as long as it takes to do any of the above activities.

Australian General Manager Greg Anderson is a big fan of the resort he has been overseeing for a year now, telling me that, “This property is truly unlike any other in that it provides upscale solace and tranquillity without interfering in the natural beauty of the area… the pace is decidedly slow… and there is so much space – room to contemplate and room to explore.”

From January through April rates from USD 150 (rooms) and USD 325 (villas); breakfast included. 

Tropical Thai village living at The Village Resort & Spa
Down on quiet, ‘older-couple’-centric Karon Beach on Phuket’s south coast, famed for having the island’s softest sand, lies a family-run (read: warm, personal) property of two distinct parts. On one side is the six-year-old Chino Portuguese-style Front Village Hotel, and on the other is the small, quirky all-villa boutique resort The Village Resort & Spa, which has just celebrated its first birthday. 

The unique aspect of this property is the honeymoon-tastic pool-Access villas (no under-twelves please). These three-section rooms recall a Japanese ryokan, with sliding doors leading to walk-in wardrobe, bathroom, and bedroom (mattress on plinth). A sizeable living area with comfy daybed overlooks the pool – and one can literally bound from one’s deck-chaired verandah into the long and winding pool which snakes around the resort. This waterway system occasionally reveals a swim-up bar (Happy Hour, 5.30pm), a water-fountain bed and a ‘mountain Jacuzzi’ towering above the pool.

The bizarre pool, compounded with the cupola-style architecture symbolic of Southern Thai Islamic designs, makes for a resort markedly different from the generic Ramadas and Best Westerns nearby. One cupola houses the Thai restaurant – top-class Siamese grub here, take an addict’s word for it – another covers the lobby, and a third the pool bar.

What I loved about my time in The Village was the variety of smells. The scent of flowers, trees and plants, which are abundant, flanking every path, every boardwalk, every villa – I hadn’t experienced such olfactory stimulation in months. The banana and lilawadee tree gardens can best be experienced from the Tropical Villas, steps away from the pool, with more sizeable bathrooms.

Facilities-wise, The Royal Spa provides a more than reasonable array of treatments, and their signature Royal Experience Massage is 60 minutes of oily pleasure. An outdoor pavilion is conducive for a traditional Thai massage. For those like me who can’t live without it, complimentary LAN broadband access in the lobby provides a quick inbox fix.

Foodies will enjoy the bi-weekly excursions to a local market followed by a cooking class, but any number of beachy activities can be arranged, as can wedding parties, on the beach or at the resort itself. But romance is hard to avoid in the evenings here: scull up to the pool bar after sunset, the well-lit pool glowing around you under the dark, all-encompassing vegetation.

Rates from USD 300 at The Village Resort & Spa and USD 125 at Front Village Hotel. 

By Peter Myers

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Courtesy of lifestyleandtravel.com