101 Holidays

By Mark Hodson, Editor Before you book a holiday on the Thai island of Phuket, study a map. Phuket is big and, because of its ever-growing popularity as a tourist destination, it’s very busy. Some resorts are over developed and roads are frequently congested. It can take two hours to drive from one end of the island to the other. But there’s a solution. Mai Khao Beach in the far north-west of the island is a blessed haven, where the forest meets the sea, far from the urban sprawl.

By Mark Hodson, Editor I first went to The Tubkaak Resort for dinner to experience a menu of Southern Thai food created by the renowned Australian chef David Thompson. The dining experience was so memorable and the hotel and beach so beautiful that I vowed to go back to the hotel and stay a couple of nights. I was able to do just that in December 2024 accompanied by my daughter who was taking a break from a backpacking trip to enjoy a few days of five-star pampering. Neither of us was disappointed.

By Mark Hodson, Editor If there’s a hotel in Phuket with a more spectacular beach setting than The Nai Harn, I’d love to see it. The Nai Harn is built on a forested hillside overlooking the beach of the same name, and the clear sparkling waters of the Andaman Sea. It’s also a lesson in how to run a guest-focussed luxury hotel. The Nai Harn claims to be the first luxury resort in Phuket, when it was known in the 1990s as the Royal Phuket Yacht Club.

By Mark Hodson, Editor Chiang Rai has long featured on tourist itineraries of Thailand. The city is best known for two particularly photogenic temples, the White Temple and the Blue Temple, and the weird-and-wonderful Black Museum. All three sights can be done in a day and – frankly – there’s not much more to detain you in the city itself.

Thailand has more than 1,400 islands but only a small handful are private. One of those is Koh Fan Noi located just off the north-east coast of Koh Samui, which since 2018 has been the exclusive home of Cape Fahn Hotel. At low tide you can walk across a sandbank to reach the tiny island. At other times the hotel runs a small motor boat across the narrow strait between it and the mainland.

When I first visited Koh Samui as a backpacker in 1991, the island was already developed for tourism. Most of the action was focussed around Chaweng Beach for the simple reason that it was the best stretch of sand on the island, almost five miles of fine white sand, clear shallow water and dense tree cover. Dotted along the beach were makeshift bars and restaurants with plastic stools in the sand and fairy lights strung between the trees.

The Thai island of Koh Samui has – to some extent – been a victim of its own success. Its reputation for beautiful palm-fringed beaches pulls in more than 2 million visitors a year and has meant that many of the simple guest houses and backpacker haunts have long been replaced by resort hotels. The most naturally beautiful beaches of Chaweng and Lamai are heavily developed.

I’m showing my age here, but I first visited Koh Phangan as a backpacker in 1991 when the Thai island’s famous full moon party was in its infancy and I managed to bag a beachfront bungalow for slightly less than £1 a night (mosquitoes and rodents included in the price). Fast forward 17 years to 2008 and I was back on Phangan for the soft opening of the Rasananda, said to be the island’s first five-star hotel.

Koh Samui is back in the spotlight with the imminent release of the third season of HBO’s White Lotus, most of it filmed on location there. Samui was one of the first Thai islands to be developed for tourism and it’s been written off countless times as “ruined” and “overcrowded”. And yet more than 2 million visitors come every year and seem to have a wonderful time. What’s going on? It’s true that the main beaches of Chaweng and Lamai are heavily developed – and scruffy in parts.

By Catherine Leech Located on the waterfront in popular Paphos, Asimina Suites is a luxury adults-only hotel with a rare sense of intimacy. From the moment you arrive to a welcome glass of fizz and canapés right through to the 15 minute drive back to the airport for the flight home, it wraps you up in a warm hug of traditional Cypriot hospitality. There are just 111 suites overlooking the pretty gardens, a vast swimming pool and glittering Mediterranean.