Casa de la Flora - Khao Lak

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this beachfront hotel in Khao Lak and unpacked their bikinis and binoculars, a full account of their luxury Thai break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Casa de la Flora in Khao Lak…

It can be hard to get your five dailies, but not at Casa de la Flora, whose spa treatments feature banana, coconut and cucumber, whose cocktails are packed with tropical goodness and whose restaurant champions local produce. Not that fruit is our favourite thing about this dazzling modernist hideout on quiet Bang Niang Beach. Highlights aren’t in short supply here, but top points go to the utterly amazing staff, who will welcome you with a straw-topped fresh coconut and an essential oil-splashed cold towel, and who will make it their business (and pleasure) to look after you until you leave.

Rooms are packed with hi-tech flourishes – from Apple TVs to touch-screen light dimmers to set scenes of various seduction levels. There are those beckoning beds and baths as big as bathrooms, which take an hour or so (hey, you’re in no rush) to fill, and the thoughtful, generous extras: free high tea every afternoon, cookies at turn-down and the services of your attentive 24-hour butler. We love Casa de la Flora’s flower-inspired rooms, we love its prime position – any closer to the waves and you’d be sleeping with the fishes – and we also love the local area: trips to James Bond Island and Phi Phi are obligatory and the beaches are eye-bogglingly beautiful. The best way to enjoy this hotel, though, is by doing very little at all, simply wandering from one petal-packed path to another, taking in every corner of the Casa.