I stayed at the Anantara hotels from The White Lotus in Thailand

The White Lotus has thrust Thailand's luxury resorts into the limelight, but on a tour of hotels where filming took place, unexpected highlights emerged.

The first thing that stuns me in the spa at The White Lotus hotel is the toilet.

Setting foot into the 3000sq m sanctuary that is the spa at Anantara Bophut Resort in Koh Samui, the clues are everywhere. Lotus flower motifs are stamped into the pathway. Door handles are shaped like lotus. So are the taps at the handbasin in the toilet. I’ve dashed in for a pre-massage tactical wee, but my jaw drops when I discover the most exquisitely decorated bathroom. I can’t help but pull my phone out and start taking photos.

Entering the spa at Anantara Bophut Koh Samui.

Toilet touring becomes an unexpected theme of my five-day stay in Thailand, where I visit several hotels where filming for season three of The White Lotus took place. Anantara Bophut is one of them, with the spa one of the key focal points.

So I’m following in the footsteps of the stars when I arrive for a traditional Thai massage. Staff murmur in the reception area, which is surrounded by a peaceful pond featuring – you guessed it – lotus. The spa compound is huge, comprising six treatment rooms set among lush garden surrounds, and taking up about a quarter of the resort’s total area. 

Pre-massage footbath at Anantara Bophut Koh Samui.

Grand doors lead to the treatment room, where I’m invited to plunge my feet into a warm, petal-filled foot bath, while gazing out to a private garden. But here my spa story deviates from the drama-filled plot of The White Lotus. Instead of a Jennifer Coolidge style spiritual awakening on the massage table, I drift off for gentle snooze.

When filming took place in Thailand, several resorts – including The Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, Anantara Bophut Koh Samui Resort, and Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas – were closed for a month or more. I, on the other hand, have just five days to experience some of the same spectacular resort venues and hospitality as the guests of The White Lotus in Thailand.

Main resort pool at Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas.

Royal flush

A new day, a new resort. And more Insta-worthy toilets. This time it’s the bathroom at the restaurant at Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas that’s caught my attention, with its deep green tiles, carved marble handbasins and a bold brass mirror.

There’s good reason the toilets keep standing out. For the most part, the Thai resorts representing The White Lotus are the work of luxury hotel designer Bill Bensley, and bland bathrooms are not in his wheelhouse.

A floral display in a toilet at Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas.

The landscape designer, architect and interior designer is also known for creating magical gardens, and it’s easy to get lost wandering the winding pathways of Anantara Mai Khao. All eventually lead back to a huge lagoon teeming with lotus lilies, fish and birdlife – a key focal point that attracted The White Lotus to the resort.

I stay in a lagoon-facing pool villa that’s virtually identical to the one where The White Lotus spa manager stays in the show, give or take a few furnishings brought in for filming. While the show is famous for its intrigue and sinister undertones, my stay is beautifully uneventful. The only dramatic moment is my near-death of embarrassment when housekeeping stops by while I’ve hung out my handwashed underwear to dry.

Inspired by Thai island villages, the villas are surrounded by lush tropical plants tended by a team of gardeners who work non-stop, except when a guest passes. Then work stops for a greeting, bowed head and prayer-hands.

Pool villa at Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas.

Warm welcomes, cold towels

Greetings and rituals are a constant of visiting luxury Thai hotels. At check-in at Anantara Lawana Koh Samui Resort, we’re given a sai sin bracelet made from cotton blessed by monks, and sound a gong three times for joy, health, and good fortune.

Another constant: being presented with ice cold towels and refreshing welcome drinks. After the first couple of check-ins, the VIP treatment evolves from a luxurious novelty to an expectation. It still surprises me, though, when cold towels magically appear on a rustic long-boat cruise along Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River, despite there being no sign of a fridge or esky on board.

Refreshing drinks and cold towels.

Foodie factor

The Thai dining scene is up there with the world’s best, and it’s much more than pad thai and green curry. Anantara Lawana’s Cay Restaurant celebrates Koh Samui Sino-Thai cuisine with extra wow-factor, with a menu spanning hit after hit of traditional dishes with a twist. Perhaps appropriate given how hungry fans have been for the new season of the hit series, I even dine on lotus flower petals. Wrapped around a selection of flavour-filled morsels, they’re delicious.

Dining at Cay restaurant at Anantara Lawana Koh Samui.

Perched high above the beach overlooking the ocean, pre-dinner drinks at Anantara Lawana’s The Singing Bird – the backdrop for one of the early scenes for The White Lotus season three – come with gorgeous sunset views. Today, the weather’s perfect, but I hear that when filming took place, an unseasonal downpour threw up logistical challenges.

Up a few steps, and dinner at Tree Tops Dining is a theatrical affair, with its eight-course Symphony of Sea & Land menu paying homage to its location on Koh Samui. A smoking box opens to reveal a pastry ball of caviar and gold leaf, scallops are gently grilled at the table, and a calamansi fruit opens to reveal a sorbet inside.

Tree Tops Dining at Anantara Lawana Koh Samui Resort.

A toast to the buffet

The spread at the breakfast buffet is a measure of any resort’s quality, and you only have to take a look around the seemingly never-ending cavalcade of options to confirm that Thailand already has global tourist appeal. At the Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort, for instance, it feels like every corner of the world is represented. Eggs, noodles, dumplings, sushi, Indian dosa, pastries, salads and corn flakes all take their place, along with regional Thai specialties. It takes a full two minutes just to walk around the various food stations, without stopping to pick anything up.

I’m far from the first to discover the joys of staying in a luxury Thailand resort, but with its starring role in The White Lotus tipped to bring even more tourists to the country’s beautiful islands, I definitely won’t be the last.

The writer was a guest of Anantara Hotels. The White Lotus in Thailand is screening on Binge from February 17.

Originally published as I stayed at the Anantara hotels from The White Lotus in Thailand