Best Resort Hotels in Thailand

The hotel’s limo will transfer you from the airport to Cape Nidhra, where you can settle into your suite with its own plunge pool, extra large bed and terrace with sea views. Dine beneath a soft white teepee on the beach, or at Rocks Restaurant, which serves an all-day menu of cosmopolitan seafood dishes. The eatery is set beside the ocean-front infinity pool with overwater cabanas and padded cream loungers. And you can enjoy sunset drinks on an outside sofa at the bar. The resort also has a steam room and sauna, the Cape Spa, a reading room and a golf buggy to chauffeur guests.

Set on a private 100-metre white sand beach, the Conrad is built into a cliffside proffering panoramic vistas. Book a villa on stilts, with your own 10-meter infinity pool and spa bathroom. Dine on fine farm-to-table cuisine crafted with ingredients from the onsite organic farm. Take yoga classes on the beach, sunset boat tours, go kayaking and snorkelling and let the kids burn off some energy at the Little Explorer’s Academy. Or book an excursion from the hotel to nearby attractions, like the Samui Elephant Sanctuary, the Samui Zip Line and the Santiburi Golf Course.

This large hotel boasts the biggest pool in the city, along with 277 guest rooms (designed in a modern Northern Thai style) and four places to eat. The Shangri-La’s range of facilities makes it ideal for parents travelling with kids — there’s cartoon bedding for younger travellers, playpens, colouring sets, everything you need to feed/bathe a newborn, mini-bathrobes and slippers, a splash zone, kids’ club, and supervised creative activities run daily. Then while the kids are being entertained, you can indulge in a traditional Asian healing treatment at CHI, The Spa.

With a whopping seven swimming pools (and a swim-up bar), including an infinity pool with panoramic ocean views and a private beach, you’ll be spoilt for choice for a swim at Sri Panwa. Indoors, you can play pool, table tennis and board games. Dine at the Baba Pool Club, or on street food from around the world at Baba Soul Food, and on contemporary Japanese dishes at Baba IKI. The award-winning Cool Spa provides five-sense tropical wellness experiences in its four large treatment rooms, plus there’s a private salon and a floating yoga deck.

Set within 10 acres of tropical gardens that open onto a secluded stretch of white-sand beach, The Sarojin in Khao Lak offers a serene, highly personalised escape that captures the essence of barefoot luxury. Boutique in scale, with just 56 residences housed in low-rise residential style buildings discreetly dotted around its lush gardens. Dining is central to the experience, with two main restaurants and imaginative private dining options, including candlelit meals beside a waterfall and castaway-style dinners on a secluded sandbank. Guests can shape their stay around their own rhythm, whether that’s sunrise yoga, unwinding in the open-air spa, or beginning the day with a champagne breakfast served until 6pm.

Set on a 58-acre plot on the north-east of the island, the resort was once a coconut plantation and continues to use the fruit’s fibres in its architecture. It’s home to Thailand’s only sea pool (open seasonally), as well as two beaches, a beachfront infinity swimming pool and a swim reef where you can spot more than 50 species of fish. You’ll find a Muay Thai ring, tennis, basketball, volleyball, mini golf, swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding, snorkeling, jogging, cooking classes, a Ritz Kids programme and multiple restaurants onsite. Plus there’s an entire Spa Village, with eight treatment suites, a yoga pavilion and a lap pool with cabanas. 175 bedrooms, suites and pool villas are decorated in neutral colours.

Set right on the edge of the powdery white sand of Nai Harn Beach, this cool and contemporary resort commands one of the most desirable positions on the whole of Phuket. The hotel originally opened its doors to guests in the ‘80s and has received a large number of international celebrities over the years. The infinity pool is set with floating sun loungers where guests can unwind and take in stunning views as the sand slowly gives way to the turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea, where a wide range of aquatic activities are just waiting to be enjoyed.

What has to be one of Thailand’s most dramatic and ultra-luxurious hotel properties the Phulay Bay, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve has just 54 villas and pavilions set across meticulously manicured grounds, a backdrop of cinematic natural beauty and a collection of dining experiences ranging from classic Thai, contemporary fine dining and laid-back Mediterranean-inspired options poolside. This beachfront hideaway offers the intimacy of a boutique retreat combined with the service style and offerings the Ritz-Carlton Reserve brand is synonymous with. Recently recognised with three MICHELIN Keys in Thailand’s inaugural hotel guide, the resort is celebrated for its outstanding hospitality offering.

Originally the Hua Hin Railway Hotel, the Centara Grand Beach Resort dates back to the coming of the railroad, and today it’s considered a classic. Renovations and extensions have tastefully maintained its colonial-style rooms with wood furnishings, complementing its beach-side setting and landscaped gardens, while its central location in a popular part of town makes it ideal for sightseeing and shopping. A fitness centre and spa have brought the resort up to date, with restaurants, bars and a grill completing the process.

An invigorating ten-minute speedboat ride takes guests across the calm and clear waters to this luxury hotel set on a craggy island. This is the perfect place for guests to live out their desert island fantasies without having to skimp on creature comforts as there are 67 private villas to choose from nestled in nature complete with large picture windows and spacious terraces to unwind in while soaking up stunning ocean views. Couples will love the private pools, which allow for intimate island paradise experiences.

The hillside location of this luxury resort allows the most stunning views over the Gulf of Thailand. Just 15 minutes from the airport, Silavadee means ‘beautiful rock’ in Thai, and refers to the pristine, private beach just a few minutes’ stroll from the resort. The 44 villas and 36 rooms are decorated with modern Thai furniture and fabrics. Whether relaxing around the pool, eating in the hillside restaurant, or enjoying a cocktail on the rooftop terrace, the stunning views across the bay will provide memories to last a lifetime.

As soon as guests touch down at Phuket International Airport they are greeted by hotel staff and whisked away to the enchanting Slate Hotel at Nai Yang Beach, which is backed by a stunning palm grove and faces a private strip of golden sand. Each of the rooms and suites here is spacious and luxurious and surrounded by tropical gardens. This huge lush space is set with palm trees and a number of swimming pools, with jacuzzis and swim-up bars where guests can unwind while enjoying the intense natural beauty of this luxurious playground for as long as they desire. If you want to go all out on the luxury book one of their fabulous private pool villas and a trip to the Slate isn’t complete without dining at the incredibly romantic Black Ginger.