ANANTARA KOH YAO YAI, PHANG-NGA, THAILAND
A fantasy island just a 30-minute boat ride from Phuket makes a serene setting for Anantara’s understated style.
Words by Carole Annett
I am channelling James Bond as the speedboat accelerates away from its jetty at Phuket heading to the Anantara resort on Koh Yao Yai island. It’s actually 35km away from Koh Tapu where Roger Moore grappled with Christopher Lee’s Scaramanga but the scenery is identical – the Andaman Sea dotted with limestone islets and uninhabited islands scattered irregularly like stones strewn from above by a giant hand. I’m already in the Anantara mindset, happy and relaxed as the journey had already begun back at the resort’s Hospitality Lounge on Laem Sai pier. My taxi drew up at a stylish, air-conditioned reception pod, staff on hand with a warm welcome, cool hand towel, and refreshments. Here my luggage was whisked away, and passport details checked tick box efficiency while I relax – a positive mood-setter after a long flight and a hint of the experience awaiting after the 30-minute boat transfer.
After cruising past a variety of potential final-stops, we alight at Koh Yao Yai. My fellow guests and I are escorted into an open-sided club car and driven a short distance to the resort before being deposited at the bottom of a staircase under an enormous canopy shaped like a leaf, veins becoming the roof’s timber structure. While staff greet and sort luggage, most of us are drawn upstairs by the view which expands at each ascending step. When you reach the top, an Instagrammers dream – glistening pools, fervent landscaping, grey-and-white stripe umbrellas above sun loungers and beyond – beach, sand and sea. If 007 had come here instead, this is the money shot.
Anantara Koh Yao Yai opened late last summer. Once a coconut plantation, Thai architect Pooritat Kunurat of Proud Design Co was given the challenge of turning the 26-acre site into a luxury resort. The overall design takes its style DNA from the local surroundings, buildings with curves and domes that merge into a landscape draped with lush jungle and teeming with birdlife. Garden planning and planting plays an integral role, the owners having encouraged Proud Design Co to use real grass on rooftops, the drainage system similar to a regular roof garden. Foliage fringes much of the design, softening the look of stonework, while a labyrinth of walkways lined with vegetation offers visual delight.
The resort comprises 148 suites, pool villas, and penthouses including dedicated wellness villas with either an exercise or treatment room. My two-bed villa is a lesson in understated style, sophisticated and comfortable with vanilla-hue stone floors, bleached timber sitting against white walls, vaulted ceilings, and furniture and accessories upholstered and decorated with natural colour and texture. The architecture and interior design of the suites and villas are 9d Architect Co., based in Phuket, who clearly know hospitality and how to please.
The villa entrance leads directly into an open plan sitting room containing a rich brown, oval dining table with four wood and rope chairs. A tall dresser to one side houses fridge, snacks, coffee machine and tableware. Further into the room, a curved sofa sits in front of floor-to-ceiling windows opening onto a private wooden terrace and garden. There are two chunky bamboo and rope sunbeds with thick cushions and a round woven daybed – plenty of places to flop as you dip in and out of the pool, its elliptical edges curving around the building. It feels wonderfully private, and the vegetation ensures you’re not overlooked although you catch glimpses of other dwellings through the trees. As well as two bedrooms, the accommodation includes a walk-in wardrobe running the length of a corridor leading to the bedrooms, with a jack-and-jill bathroom in between. Decoration is minimal, colours soft and chic – caramel, stone, warm beige, and the occasional band of black – beautifully contrasting with the views which are everything you need visually in terms of pattern and vibrancy. In the spacious bathroom, taps and sanitaryware are all by Kohler. Generous sized towels and bedlinen are as white and fluffy as clouds, though you won’t see many of those in the sky during your stay. Anantara provides own-label amenities including an after-sun gel, much-needed if you’re caught napping without an SPF.
Families are well catered for in a separate accommodation building set around a waterpark with flumes, jets, and a smoothie station – plenty of options to keep everyone happy. Ground floor suites have direct pool access to the shallow water and all other levels have balconies. The resort offers a full entertainment programme for children.
Anantara has three restaurants – Pakarang, where buffet breakfast and local dishes are served, Beach, the signature beachfront grill offering international dishes, and Tomi, the recently opened Japanese restaurant. In Pakarang, the core design features raffia, rope, mango wood and limestone. The Beach restaurant, by P49 Design and interior designer Mr Trepope Jantaraprapa is inspired by local traditional houses of the south – a proliferation of wood and Sajja materials, known for their eco-friendly credentials. All the dining spaces offer both indoor and outdoor options. I tried each one and enjoyed every morsel. The staff are delightful, efficient and as much emphasis is put on presentation as on taste.
Anantara is a wellness destination and indeed the hero for me is the spa. Positioned near the top of the stairway entrance at ground level, I love the style of the reception area, the desk positioned against a backdrop of burnished gold – the only bit of bling I noticed in the entire resort. It makes the ambience extra special. Once checked in, a uniformed therapist leads you down a wide, curved staircase to the treatment rooms and hydropool, on two tiers making it visible from both levels of the spa. It’s a slickly-run operation, smiling therapists quietly padding up and down bringing guests to their allocated room and serving delicious cold ginger tea, dates and cashews after treatments. The cold towels deserve a mention, infused as they are with a lemongrass aroma – unusual and strangely comforting. I had one of the best massages ever, from the comfort of the room, the bed, the therapist – faultless.
If you’re seeking relaxed luxury, personal service and privacy akin to being a movie star, Anantara won’t disappoint. From wellness to island adventures, from personal villa hosts to private Pilates, cocktails and flying yoga, there is plenty to keep you amused. Me, I spent much of the day staying put, revelling in the solitude of my beautiful pool villa, venturing to the beach as the sun dropped to enjoy a Sundowner while watching ghost crabs scurrying along the beach, perfectly happy in their sandy paradise, just like me.