Rosewood Phuket

The road from Patong climbs over a headland and drops to Emerald Bay, a cove of pale sand closed at both ends by rock and jungle. Rosewood Phuket opened here in late 2017, the group's first resort in Thailand, with 71 pavilions and villas laid along 600 metres of beach and up the slope behind it.

History

The bay, also known by its Thai name Tri Trang, had stayed outside the development that filled Patong in the 1990s and 2000s, protected by its headlands and by a single owner. Rosewood announced the resort in the middle of the decade as part of its expansion across Asia under New World Development, and opened it in November 2017. It was followed in 2019 by Rosewood Bangkok. The Phuket resort was also the first to carry Asaya, the wellness brand Rosewood created to replace the Sense spa name in new properties, and the Asaya name has since gone to Hong Kong, Vienna and Munich among others.

Architecture and design

BLINK Design Group of Bangkok, under its founder Clint Nagata, designed the resort to sit low in the landscape. The pavilions have pitched roofs, timber screens and walls of local stone, and they are set among the trees that were kept across the site. The arrival pavilion is open to the breeze, with the bay framed below. Paths run through gardens rather than along corridors, and the restaurants stand on the beach and in a lagoon garden so that the whole resort reads as a village along the shore.

Rooms and suites

Every one of the 71 keys has its own pool. Pavilions on the beach open straight onto the sand with a plunge pool and a daybed; those on the hillside look over the bay from terraces. The villas have one to four bedrooms with larger pools, kitchens and staff, and the largest sit at the quieter ends of the bay. Bathrooms are open to private gardens.

Dining

Ta Khai is the Thai restaurant, built in the form of a southern Thai fishing village with wooden huts, a terrace by the water and a menu of grilled seafood and curries from the surrounding provinces. Red Sauce is the Italian restaurant, with a wood-fired oven and a terrace. Mai is the beach bar and all-day restaurant on the sand, and The Shack is a smaller beach bar for drinks at sunset.

Wellness

Asaya was born here. The spa occupies its own garden with treatment pavilions, a hydrotherapy area, a yoga sala and a programme that mixes Thai therapies with longer wellness stays, and it was the model for the Asaya spas that followed. The main pool runs along the beach, and the water sports centre offers paddleboards, kayaks and boat trips to the islands.

Weddings and events

Weddings take place on the beach and on the lawn above it, with receptions at Ta Khai, in the villas and under tents on the sand. The resort has a small indoor event space for meetings and incentive groups, and villa buyouts serve family celebrations. Large conferences go to the bigger hotels of the island.

Location

Emerald Bay lies on the west coast of Phuket, at the southern end of Patong and about ten minutes by car from Patong town. Phuket International Airport is roughly an hour and a quarter by road. Phuket Old Town is about 40 minutes away, and the resort runs boats to the islands of the Andaman coast. Among luxury resorts on Phuket it is the one closest to Patong that keeps Patong entirely out of sight.