Phuket was already home to some of the most fabled luxury resorts in the world, long before it became the hideout of well-heeled Russians and work-from-pool villa types. And this southern Thailand slice of paradise continues to evolve. From its airport on the verge of over-capacity to the standard issue open-air bars and other nightspots in bustling Patong, it can be overwhelming for some. But at the paradisiacal hill-embedded Rosewood Phuket, the crowds and the cacophony are instantly put on mute—even if the resort’s beach takes up a serene corner of the in-your-face and very tourist-friendly Patong.
Designed in a honeycomb-like sequence, villas here are either beach-facing or hill-hugging. For the former, Rosewood Phuket’s recent addition of a series of opulent ‘houses’ ups the luxury stakes on an island with properties for which the term ‘barefoot luxury’ was coined. Known as The Beach House, The Coral House, The Ocean House, and The Palm House, these are unabashed representations of the types of places that offer the comforts of home, if indeed your residence is a multi-million-baht villa with a movie theatre, gym and direct access to the warm waters of the Andaman Sea.
Accommodations at both the houses, the pavilions, and the villas (which are smaller in size yet retain Rosewood’s low-key luxe vibes) are akin to staying at your wealthy best friend’s holiday summer house. Expect various objets d’art, carefully selected coffee table tomes, and ceramic pieces that would gain the instant approval of any curator-in-training.
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Colour schemes, too, follow a less-is-more code, with various shades of solid greys and creams given added design resonance with cerulean and azure colour blocks. In retrospect, it was only yesterday when the Hong Kong-based chain’s mid-century aesthetic was introduced at Rosewood Phuket—the property being the its Southeast Asian flagship. Amazingly, this style of interiors (and the herculean efforts of the housekeeping teams to keep each item on display bright and glistening) continues to be relatively unique in a vast sea of luxury hospitality brands.
Another recent addition at the resort is the resort’s Padel court—for people too lazy to play real tennis—while families on holiday are drawn to the Rosewood Explorers Club that offers immersive ways of distracting children while their parents catch some rays with beachside cocktails in hand. These activities include lessons on making paper; beach clean-ups; fashion design with eco materials; and treasure hunts (with parents in tow). Mealtimes take a similar family vibe as well. At the casual yet still relatively chic Red Sauce, Southern Italian flavours are replicated by Chef Luca de Negri. As part of Rosewood’s emphasis on sourcing local produce, the restaurant has a list of chosen suppliers, including pork from Sampran Farm; duck from Klong Phai Farm; fish from EcoAquaculture Farm; and goat cheese from Little Goat Farm.
This combination of local produce with authentic and generously portioned Italian dishes such as truffle pizza and pan-fried snapper with mussels, clams and dill makes dining in-house way more fun than slumming in downtown Patong. Likewise, the southern Thai flavours at Ta Khai, courtesy of local chefs Khun Nun and Khun Yai, take diners on a rustic and satisfying odyssey of local delicacies (think riffs on homestyle Thai staples with emphasis on just-caught-in-the-hydraulic-pond seafood) savoured in the open, beneath a majestic banyan tree with enough stories contained within it to last a century.
