Inside Thailand’s spectacular real-life White Lotus hotels

The White Lotus came to an end this week in an explosive finale. Now, take a peek inside some of the luxe Thai hotels where the action played out.

“This is where the dead body was floating,” Angela, director of PR at Anantara Mai Khao, announces proudly as she gestures to the peaceful lily pond in front of us.

“And the shooting was just back there.”

Welcome to the world of The White Lotus – or rather, the real-life hotels featured in the third season of the show, a season that opened with an apparent mass shooting and has since offered up extramarital affairs, incest, drug taking (both prescription and otherwise) and about six different women putting in a hell of a fight to win the Best Supporting Actress trophy at next year’s Emmy.

Usually someone in Angela’s position would be super-protective about preserving her hotel’s public image, but when The White Lotus comes knocking, you have to “embrace the chaos.”

There wasn’t much choice once they’d said yes, really: Scenes in the Mike White-helmed show that were filmed at this and other Thai hotels were kept top secret, even from hotel staff.

Anantara Mai Khao: Recognise this from the opening scene of The White Lotus, season three?

On the day that chilling opening scene was filmed – gunshots disturbing the serenity of a meditation session, with character Zion climbing into the water to hide, only to bump into a floating body – large black sheets were erected so even those working at the hotel couldn’t see what was taking place.

Angela and her staff had been watching the season along with the rest of us, and were waiting to find out exactly what happens (and quietly hoping the shooter wasn’t revealed as a White Lotus hotel employee during this week’s feature-length finale).

WARNING! White Lotus finale spoilers to follow: It turns out, the Anantara Mai Khao did very much play a starring role in season finale, as the entire extended shoot-out that marks the final episode’s most dramatic scene plays out amid the hotel’s lush grounds:

Scenes from The White Lotus season finale.

Another one bites the dust.

While the Four Seasons in Ko Samui is the location for many of those wide shots this season, thanks to its spectacular hillside setting, those at Anantara are quick to tell you that when it comes to close-ups, their hotels have it beat. So writer / director Mike White and co turned to Anantara, among other hotels, to provide the settings for everything from guest suites to the spa where so much of this wellness-themed season takes place.

Inside the Anantara Bophut Ko Samui resort.

For both the Anantara Mai Khao in Phuket and the Anantara Bophut in Ko Samui, it meant a full hotel buyout of around five to six weeks at each, as cast and crew moved in. In Ko Samui, the hotel ballroom became White Lotus costume department, filled with rack upon rack of glam resort wear. In Phuket, executive chef Ian John Thomason swapped his usual role crafting complex dishes in the restaurant for a gig that he said felt like a holiday: Feeding a hungry cast and crew en masse each day.

My White Lotus-themed journey starts with a stopover in Bangkok, where the city seems to stretch on forever as I order a sundowner cocktail on the Avani Riverside hotel’s rooftop bar and restaurant – 27 floors up, and home to the DJ booth with perhaps the best view in Bangkok.

The Avani hotel in Bangkok …

Cocktails at the Avani Riverside’s rooftop bar.

The hotel’s riverfront location makes it easy to explore the city’s smaller waterways, and our party ventures out on a longboat, just like the troubled Rick (Walton Goggins) during his Bangkok visit on this season.

The hotel can organise a longboat tour, and it’s a perfect way to make a city that can feel overwhelming – the traffic, the heat, the sheer scale – a little more intimate. As we navigate through narrower canals, we see giant water monitors lying lazily on the banks, as children cast lines from pedestrian bridges above us, hoping to snag catfish.

From there, it’s a short flight to Ko Samui, where the White Lotus vibe really kicks in, from the moment we drive up the grand driveway of Bophut, which served as the entrance to the fictional White Lotus hotel.

Stopping for a cocktail in the intimate Bua Bar at Anantara Phuket.

There’s even a “Taste of the Lotus” banquet on the menu at Mai Khao.

A guard’s outpost was erected and then dissembled by the crew for filming; staff tell me they’re considering erected a plaque in the spot to let guests know that the world’s most adorably inept security guard, Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) is permanently “on a break.”

We’re greeted at the lobby by general manager Thomas, who confesses he sees a lot of truth in The White Lotus, in both the depictions of clientele and staff.

It seems among the hotel management community, Armond, Aussie actor Murray Bartlett’s ill-fated hotel manager from season 1, remains a White Lotus favourite. Thomas says a good hotel manager is like a swan: Gliding gracefully on the surface, paddling like hell below.

A short drive away is another White Lotus filming location, perfect for sunset drinks and dinner: The Singing Bird Lounge at Anantara Lawana Koh Samui. It was used for a bar scene in the show, and manager Frederik intends to milk his venue’s relatively brief screen time for all its worth.

The Singing Bird Lounge is making the most of its White Lotus association.

Our tip: Head straight for the Mook.

There are several brand new additions to the cocktail menu, among them the Mook (a tequila and chilli concoction that “reflects the fiery spirit of its namesake”) and the Gaitok (mezcal and lychee liqueur that the menu somewhat improbably proclaims is as “rich and mysterious” as the character himself).

From Koh Samui, it’s another short flight to Phuket and on to the Anantara Mai Khao, an undeniably spectacular hotel that’s big on luxury: The 100-odd villas are set across lush, pond-filled gardens so vast the staff will collect you in a golf buggy for dinner each night.

Lilypad-filled ponds are an Anantara trademark.

The villa I stay in, complete with private pool and outdoor bath, is identical to the one returning character Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) stays during her White Lotus work exchange – and yes, where she and fellow spa therapist Pornchai (Dom Hetrakul) log some, uh, extra work hours.

The serene (and brand new) Layan Life wellness centre.

No, they’re not making pizza – this is one of the many unique wellness treatments you can get at Layan Life.

There’s a big mind / body / soul element to this season of The White Lotus, and in that spirit, we take the 20-minute drive south to one of the newest – and arguably the best – high-end spa in Phuket, Layan Life by Anantara. Only a few months old, this multi-level pavilion is a temple offering just about every health and wellness treatment you could imagine, from colonics to cryotherapy and everything in between.

It’s an easy, serene stumble from there to dinner at Dara Cuisine Phuket, where chef Supakarn Lienpanich offers up an array of inventive dishes, some (including an intergalactic dessert plate) playing on the building’s star-gazing theme.

After dinner, we take to the restaurant’s roof to look up at the night sky. After an absolutely lush few days of great food, beautiful rooms and lush spa treatments, I couldn’t feel more zen – and I didn’t even need to pack the Lorazepam.

The writer travelled to Thailand as a guest of Anantara Hotels.