PHUKET QUALITY

Just 15 minutes from the airport and on a secluded stretch of Mai Khao Beach is the sprawling 265-room JW Marriott Phuket Resort and Spa. The hotel sits next to Sirinath National Park on Phuket’s northwest coast, one of the quieter and more beautiful parts of the island. The lobby bar has a cedar humidor stocked with Cuba’s finest cigars.
Occupying a generous spread at one end of the Laguna Phuket development, but not directly on the beach, is the villa-style Banyan Tree Phuket. There are four meeting rooms, which can hold up to 80 people theatre style.

In the same complex, the Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket is on a scenic isthmus with its
355 rooms and Grande Villas circling the lagoons. Villa guests can opt for a boat to shuttle them to the lobby. There are six meeting spaces, the biggest can seat up to 400 guests. Floating meetings can also be held on pontoon boats on the lagoon.
The 226-room Dusit Laguna Resort Phuket has a free-form pool, beachfront gardens and
a low-rise, Thai-style design. There are five meeting areas, as well as beachside function
venues among the resort’s tropical Columbia Gardens. The ballroom can hold up to 255 people.

Hilton Phuket Arcadia Resort and Spa is a modern and massive presence on Karon Beach. The hotel has 685 rooms in three wings and seven different buildings. The landscaping is a little stark but the elevated pool and sun-deck offer views of the bay. The grand ballroom can hold up to 1,200 people.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Evason Phuket Resort & Six Senses Spa is set in a remote corner of Rawai. Check-in is conducted in four open-sided salas set in a central lotus pond and a tram transports guests down to the restaurants, three swimming pools and villas. Bon Island has a private beach exclusively for the use of guests staying at the resort.
The all-new Indigo Pearlwas relaunched last November with double-sized rooms featuring stone-walls, timber headboards and relics from its days as a tin mine. There are three swimming pools with bars, hectares of manicured gardens and a new lagoon.
Conference facilities and a spa are also planned. Groups staying at Trisara can expect to stay
in hyper-stylish freestanding villas with teak sundecks and generous marble infinity pools.
Located on the northwest coast of Phuket, the property has 22 one-bedroom and 18 twobedroom villas.

The beach is a bit rough for swimming but Trisara’s crewed private yachts are available for day trips to the surrounding islands and snorkel and dive spots.

COMING UP
Opening next year, the 151-room Hyatt Regency Phuket is on the west coast’s Nai Yang beach. The hotel is ten minutes from Phuket International Airport and the Blue Canyon Country Club’s championship golf courses.

Another west coast development, the Shangri-La Phuket Resort and Spa is on the
five-kilometre-long Bang Tao Bay beach, which is a 25-minute drive from the airport.
The 315-room resort will also feature 92 deluxe villas. Meeting and banquet facilities include a grand ballroom with a capacity of 400 people.