Pimalai Resort & Spa review: wellness and wonder on Koh Lanta

Pimalai Resort & Spa dapples and specks its way up Koh Lanta’s dense viridian hillside. Its luxury villas, suites and spa peek out from a forest of figs and palms that sits on the island’s southern coast, overlooking the quiet, kinetic Kantiang Bay. Designed to affect the lush scenery as little as possible, the resort’s construction avoided felling trees, it prioritises natural water reservoirs and does its best to blend into the island’s environment.

Its home, Koh Lanta, lies nearly 700km from Bangkok in Thailand’s south. Technically two islands – larger Noi towards the mainland and Yai to the south – but usually referred to as one, its slim length stretches 25km out into the blissful blue of the Andaman Sea. Koh Lanta is largely overlooked by tourists in favour of big-hitters like Koh Samui and nearby Phuket, but its local beaches, laid-back style and mountainous, waterfall-freckled terrain offers travellers an extraordinary crowd-free break.

Why stay here

Pimalai is arguably the island’s best hotel: its expansive suites are unutterably beautiful and its food and bars are prolific with excellent Thai specialities. Where it truly shines is its award-winning spa – a remarkable haven set in a valley of lush foliage. Treatment rooms are set out as a small village of huts made with native wood, stone and ceramics, each set back from the meandering stream and hugged by the towering greenery.

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Its extensive menu of massages, facials, scrubs, wraps and beauty treatments include hot bamboo massages, balancing facials, after sun care and mud wraps. The ever-calm and smiling spa staff hide hands of iron – massages range from soft, sleep-inducing rubs to powerful fingers finding and releasing deep knots decades in the making. Loping out of the treatment rooms in a near hypnotic state, bathed in an aromatic oil of your choice, you’re brought to the quiet lounge to sip rejuvenating ginger tea and overlook the koi pond and waterfall.

Alongside wellness, the resort works with the local people to encourage sustainable practices, conservation and community support. In late 2022, the resort worked with conservationists to release 50 sea turtles into Kantiang Bay, alongside 2,000 hermit crabs and ten million flower crabs. While the turtle release hopes to boost numbers, the crabs will support beach cleaning and increase fishing stocks for locals.

Rooms and suites

Electric buggies flit up and down Pimalai’s slopes like honeybees, delivering you back and forth from your private portico. Dripping with the jungle, these imposing entrances lead down through giant taro leaves and bamboo, haunted by the occasional frog and monkey, to your villa gate.

Behind this black wood and terracotta lies a breath-clenching suite: two ornately tiled buildings that flank an infinity pool – complete with a bedded pagoda – overlooking a tumbling vista of emerald foliage, glimpses of the hotel’s restaurants, and the large, arcing bay to the sea beyond. It’s arguably the region’s most stunning setting.

The rooms themselves don’t disappoint. In one villa building you’ll find a plentifully stocked kitchen, lounge area and table, spare bathroom and shower, copious fruit platters and a verandah that’s perfect for sipping your morning coffee from the Nespresso machine. Across the courtyard, past the dragons gurgling forth to refill the pool, is the bedroom. Here there’s a desk and a four poster bed large enough to qualify as a small luxury sailing vessel and a bathroom that may as well have its own postcode. There’s a dressing room, huge tub, another waterfall shower, and little touches like a hand-woven, locally-made resort bag for you to use during your stay.

The decor is dark but delightful, making the villas feel traditional with extensive wood and intricate carvings. Lightened by creamy rugs, colourful cushions, and diaphanous bed curtains, the rooms are surprisingly homey, despite affording every luxury. During the day, thoughtful in-room surprises crop up through the day – healthy drinks, cocktails, chocolates and fruit seemingly materialise from nowhere.

Eating and drinking

There are four restaurants and bars spread from the forest to the beach, with Seven Seas western restaurant near the hillside estate villas and Rak Talay’s Thai and seafood bar that sprawls onto the sand. Guests begin the day with a vast breakfast buffet at either Seven Seas or Spice and Rice, where options range from steaming bowls of hearty noodle broth to fresh local fruit and made-to-order pancakes and eggs. These two open-fronted restaurants are also ideal for dinner, where you can dine on international and Thai menus overlooking the property and sun-setting bay.

The best fare is found at Rak Talay where you can work your way through the Thai menu each lunchtime. Local curries, fiery rice dishes veritably littered with crisp, near-black chillies, sweet satay skewers, succulent seafood and whole-cooked fish make Rak Talay an easy choice between swimming and excursions. The best dish is easily the spicy tom kha gai soup: a creamy coconut soup backed by heat and sour citrus, filled with fall-apart locally-caught fish.

What to do

Koh Lanta is very much a nature destination. You can swim straight from Pimalai’s beach or relax in one of the myriad pools, but there’s also plenty of excursions. Take a cruise to paradisiacal Koh Rok, a snorkelling tour to Koh Haa, a mangrove trip or the Talabeng cruise that guides you through rocks and caves akin to a miniature Ha Long Bay. Pimalai also offers complimentary watersports, scuba diving, yoga, Muay Thai, and exercise classes.

The island isn’t a shopping destination, but you can take a transfer to Lanta Old Town to wander the small street of boutiques and tuck into local restaurants. The Old Town’s harbour is also where the majority of Pimalai’s boat tours leave from.

Jo Davey was a guest of Pimalai Resort & Spa. 99 Moo 5, Ba Kan Tiang Beach Koh Lanta, Krabi 81150, Thailand; pimalai.com