Exploring Idyllic Phuket

The Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa

As beach resorts go Phuket has a lot to recommend it, beginning with lovely beaches and beautiful water. Thailand’s largest island has many gorgeous bays and coves, as well as smaller islands around it in the Andaman Sea. Add in friendly people, excellent service, first rate facilities and prices so inexpensive that once you get through the exchange rate calculation you’ll have to remember to haggle at the markets, and you’ve got a destination that is definitely worth the trip. 

Patong, the main tourist area of Phuket, is rather what you’d expect— a huge number of bars and restaurants, lots of street-side night market stalls, and plenty of street food to be had—I particularly remember a bottle of pomegranate juice I bought from a man with a supermarket cart full of the fruit. On the child’s seat he had a bowl with a steel colander and a large serving spoon, which he was using to mash the juice away from chunks of pomegranate seeds. Like everything-even in the tourist trap areas-it was so cheap you can forget to haggle (a bottle of local “Leo” beer, with which I share a name, was a whole 50 cents in a tourist trap bar on the main nightclub street). It’s a fun place for a bar crawl.

While it would be a shame to visit Thailand without trying street food, many groups avoid it because of the uncertain hygiene and liability issues. There are plenty of permanent places to eat in town, ranging from take-away grills outside hotels to higher end spots like the well-reviewed trio of restaurants the Baan Rim Pa group has running down a shallow Patong hillside to a beach on the Bay of Kalim. 

At the top is Baan Rim Pa itself, known for Royal Thai cuisine. Below it is Joe’s Downstairs, offering a taste of home with tropical white modern décor, a long white terrazzo bar, and several outdoor dining decks. The food was excellent. The seaside restaurant next to Joe’s is Da Maurizio, a first rate Italian place. All three share a Wine Spectator Award-winning wine cellar. 

One of the best meals we had in Thailand was in Tung Ka Cafe & Restaurant, well up on a hill at the top of the island. The views from Tung Ka, which is roofed but open, are awesome, and it is considered one of the best places for a sunset meal on the island. The décor is very casual: it’s a laid-back place with a decent walk upstairs, but the food is memorable and the coffee is renowned. 

We took a speedboat out to Phang Nga Bay for some snorkeling and at a small fishing community with some restaurants and bars and great sealife in crystal clear, blue, and sheer limestone cliffs. If it seems vaguely familiar, rent a copy of the James Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun.

Another must-do is an elephant trek or safari with Siam Safari Nature Tours, an award-winning group that is deeply involved in elephant conservation and runs the only elephant camp in the country’s south to receive the “Standard of Elephant Camps in Thailand” certification from the Thai Government’s livestock department. All the elephants were rescued from teak-logging plantations and are treated well—which isn’t the case with all camps. Our 45-minute ride around a jungle path, followed by the opportunity to feed “our” elephant a basket of fruit and see the baby elephant, was an incredibly memorable experience. Half and whole-day safaris are available. 

We stayed at the 262-room Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket, a five-star property in the most secluded area of Karon Beach in Phuket, with direct access to the beach and lush hills behind the property. All rooms face the bay and have private terraces or balconies with breathtaking views of the Andaman Sea. Taking its décor inspiration from 19th century Phuket’s Sino-Portuguese influences, the resort is set in a landscaped water park with a meandering river and four swimming pools. The rooms start at 474 square feet and the smallest balconies are nearly 100 square feet and get substantially larger. There is a large ocean-view fitness center and the lovely Spa Cenvaree. The meeting facilities include a 6,200 square foot divisible grand ballroom, three meeting rooms, and two board rooms. There are five restaurants and nightclubs. 

 

One of the properties that impressed many of the planners in our group was the five-star Indigo Pearl, a resort on Nai Yang Beach on Phuket’s northwest coast. It is extremely distinctive, with an industrial chic décor that takes blackened steel and concrete, exposed wood beams, smoked glass and brass rivets, and lush tropical greenery and hardwoods, and makes it very attractive and inviting—it’s a bit hard to picture, but planners looking at Thailand should include a site inspection on the fam trip. Facilities include the eight-room Coqoon Spa, and six restaurants and bars, including the over-the-lagoon Black Ginger and tables-on-the-beach Cotemer. Its Conference Pavilion has 15 function rooms, including Tongkah Hall, which can hold 630 for cocktails or 500 banquet-style. Outdoor areas are available as well.

The five-star JW Marriott Phuket Resort and Spa is a lush and elegant resort situated right next to Sirinath National resort on Phuket’s northwest coast. It made the Conde Nast Traveler Gold List of the world’s greatest places to stay for the seventh consecutive time this year. A contemporary Thai décor has the open-air lobby set around a huge reflecting pool. The 252 rooms are spacious and elegant. It has 15,600 square feet of meeting and event space, including the 6,500-square foot Mai Khao Ballroom and 10 breakout rooms. The five restaurants range from high-end steak to Italian, and the Ginja Taste Thai restaurant has an attached cooking school available to guests (and, obviously, groups). Set among 27 acres of tropical gardens with pools, ponds, and preserved coastal wetlands, the 17,000-square foon Mandara Spa has five double spa suites and 11 double spa rooms. 

The Angsana Laguna Beach Resort (formerly the Sheraton Grande) is closely surrounded by a lagoon on all sides, and a destination beach club at Bang Tao Bay. Reopening in December, it has 409 luxury rooms and suites, five dedicated board rooms and four meeting rooms, as well as a nearly 3,900-square foot ballroom that can accommodate up to 400. There are five restaurants and bars, a 1,000-foot freeform pool that spans the entire property and the Angsana Spa.

Movenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket, opened in 2006, has 175 rooms in the main building, as well as 159 suites and secluded villas equipped with sundecks and outdoor rain-forest showers, most of which have their own plunge pools. The Swiss hotelier’s property has an impressive decor, and it’s a lovely and relaxing place on a spectacular beach. The huge, open circular lobby area is distinctly Thai, and the wooden-caged circular lounges in it are a very interesting place for a chat. With the largest meeting ballroom at nearly 8,200 sf, and able to accommodate 800 theater style, as well as seven breakout rooms, it can accommodate groups of up to 1,260. It has five restaurants including a Brazilian churrascuria, and the spa Sala, with gardens and a peaceful courtyard.  

The Swiss company took over another Phuket property last month, the former Palm Beach Club, rebranding it Mövenpick Residences Laguna Beach Phuket. It is located on Bang Tao Beach, one of Phuket’s most pristine beaches, which is famous among golfers. The new property is near several world-class golf courses, including Blue Canyon Country Club and the Laguna Phuket Golf Club. The 40-room, all-suite property has an all-suite spa and The Palm Cuisine and Terrace restaurant. 

  

Also on Karon Beach is the Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort & Spa, which has 676 rooms spread over three wings (two of which reopened after a four-month refurbishment in November); the smallest starts at 474 square feet. It has a 16,000-square foot spa with 15 self-contained treatment villas, set amid 75 acres of tropical foliage and lagoons. There are six restaurants and bars, as well as three pool bars by the five pools. Meeting facilities include the divisible Arcadia Grand Ballroom, which is 9,200 square feet and can accommodate up to 1,200 for cocktails. Outdoor or marqueed spaces are also available.