Step into a world of natural beauty and indulge your senses at one of the world’s best-known and trusted luxury hotel brands, with super-spacious, luxury villas.
Where is it?
The award-winning Banyan Tree is ranked as one of the most luxurious five-star resorts on the island of Phuket. It is situated within Laguna Phuket, overlooking Bangtao Beach on the island’s northwest coast. It’s nestled between a tropical lagoon and the Andaman Sea, and sits within Laguna Phuket’s exclusive community, a 400-acre destination resort featuring top-class hotels and restaurants. The nearest airport is Phuket, which is a 30-minute cab ride.
Style
We visited around Christmas and, with the hot days and balmy evenings, December felt like the perfect month to escape the dreariness and cold winter back home. The hotel, run by the Banyan Tree hotel group, is probably one of the best-known luxury global brands and it certainly lives up to its reputation. The Banyan Tree Phuket resort is where it all began in the mid-1990s, and still remains their flagship resort. After experiencing the world-class service alongside the undeniable stunning facilities, you can see why.
The resort is in fact a collection of three boutique hotels, all operated under the same Banyan Tree brand: the original Banyan Tree Phuket hotel, the Banyan Tree Phuket Spa Sanctuary, and Double Pool Villas by Banyan Tree Phuket.
On arrival, we were greeted by an Instagram dream of an open lobby, made up of a floating island nestled amongst a backdrop of the turquoise waters of the lagoon. We were gifted a necklace of jasmine flowers and sank into pure relaxation after a long flight, cold drink in hand, while the exceptional staff completed the check-in process, quietly and discreetly.
The three hotels are part of the same vast property, with guests from all three hotels using the same spa, restaurants, and extensive first-class facilities. The main difference between the three hotels is the standard of accommodation, which ranges from luxe (Banyan Tree Phuket), to ultra-luxe (Spa Sanctuary), to the super luxe of in-villa living (Double Pool Villas). The all-pool villa hotel style is pure elegance and the entire property blends nicely into the natural landscape and lush surroundings of the tropical lagoon — all infused with top-notch spa facilities, healthy cuisine, and a programme of wellness activities guaranteed to indulge and soothe your senses.
Bangtao beach is a short buggy ride away and the hotel offers a luxury private beach club experience, including cold towel services and iced water, situated conveniently next to a decent beach restaurant offering cool cocktails and plenty of delicious local Thai dishes.
Which room?
We stayed in a Serenity double-pool villa, designed with pure luxury and relaxation in mind. This was a stunning and modern, glass-encased villa that included all the five-star amenities you would expect from the Banyan Tree brand.
Each villa has huge king-sized beds, a pillow menu, flat-screen TVs, espresso machines, private swimming pools, daybeds, and heated jet pools. Little touches, like the scented jasmine tea lights, nightly aromatherapy, and meditation bowls combined with high-end toiletries create the signature Banyan Tree luxe experience which never disappoints.
The spaciousness and general comfort of these villas deserve the reputation that they have and the stunning bathrooms were as lavish as the bedrooms.
Facilities
The facilities here are impressive and include the stunning Laguna Phuket golf course, set against the picture-perfect backdrop of mountains and sea, tennis courts, yoga pavilions, multiple pools with family-inspired jet cannons, and a lazy river, a serene lap pool, extensive gym facilities, a children’s club, and a long list of complimentary classes ranging from cookery to cardiovascular workouts.
The spa is the standout, though, and has won many awards and it is easy to understand why, from the range of treatments and massages from the trained therapists, all centred around pillars of wellbeing and sensory stimulation, guaranteed to soothe and calm the body and mind and help you drift into an instant deep state of pure relaxation and bliss.
A new programme of wellness, Veya, was introduced to the hotel which encourages connection to self, others, and nature and combines the total mind, body, and spirit experience lacking in other spas that I have experienced across the world. The Veya experience involves embodiment therapies and somatic practices and we loved the conscious grounding throughout the beautiful and verdant gardens, scented by bougainvilleas, led by a practitioner based at the hotel.
It was a brilliant thing to do as a couple, offering connection at a deeper level. The kundalini yoga also enabled us to completely enter the silence of the mind and switch off from the distraction of emails, phones, and thoughts about life back home. This is one not to miss and the programme offers a daily choice of activities for you to choose from.
The hotel is also family-friendly. The Rangers Kids’ Club offers a range of activities for all ages and has an impressive choice, including local batik painting, discovery trails, water activities, and bird watching.
The resort grounds are spread out and golf buggies are at hand to take you wherever you need to go. You can also use the free bikes for the duration of your stay to explore the surrounding area and travel between the different areas of the resort.
Food & Drink
There are five dining options for you to choose from. Thai cuisine at Saffron Restaurant, Japanese cuisine at Tamarind Restaurant, international fare at Banyan Café, the exceptional Watercourt Restaurant, and in-villa dining — all the cuisine on offer has the ability to cater for everyone and the quality is world-class. Our favourite experience was the Thai tasting menu from their signature Saffron restaurant, overlooking the lagoon. The cooking here is award-winning and the dishes were all presented with an artistic twist and flair that would not be out of a place in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Stand-out dishes included the fried soft-shell crab and green papaya salad with kaffir lime leaf, chilli, lemongrass and ginger.
The breakfast was an absolute highlight and included an eggs station, a Thai buffet, a children’s station, international cuisine buffets, a noodle bar, a sushi station, a pancake and waffle bar, cereals, pastries and sliced meats, all accompanied by good-quality champagne if you’re not tempted by the extensive fresh juices on offer. Everything was freshly replenished and the choice on offer will delight even the fussiest of palates.
Details
Entry-level Banyan Pool Villas in low season (May to October) are THB 13,000 per night (£293) and THB 28,000 per night (£631) in high season (January to February). banyantree.com
