Plucking countries from the sky over supper as you brainstorm your honeymoon? One of you is leaning towards a fly and flop itinerary while the other is requesting more culture and adventure? Of the various countries bandied around these conversations, fizzing with excitement, Thailand rarely features, which, when you consider its wealth of culture found in the north, (from Bangkok’s sensual assault to Chiang Rai’s Golden Triangle), its surreal beaches and laid back rhythms in the south, and its dripping jungle interior, teeming with wildlife, is one of life’s great mysteries.
Another mystery, that our Wedding Edition team are yet to solve, is why so many honeymooners try to scrimp on an experienced travel operator, yet in doing so, often spend more and fall down those far-flung pot holes that the industry veterans know how to steer couples around. Luxury honeymoon aficionados, Turquoise Holidays are the insiders worth leaning on for a smooth trip (financial safety, airline savings, VIP perks), and a truly memorable one at that, with finely-tuned itineraries from a team familiar with every experience, stretch of sand and luxurious stay out there.
So here’s the plan: devour Thailand’s rich, spiritual culture, feel the energy of its thrumming cities, then fill up your cups on a bone-white, knockout beach, with Turquoise waving their magic wand at every turn, (and their cleverly integrated honeymoon wedding list serving up treats from your loved ones along the way). Here are 4 reasons to choose Thailand for your next honeymoon.
For exquisite local food
Aware that the modern luxury traveller wishes to feel fully anchored in their location and peer behind the tourist screen into the local way of life, Turquoise Holidays have carefully selected beach stays within striking distance from a warren of authentic restaurants and local eateries. With Thailand offering some of the best street food on the planet, it’s almost imperative that couples wind through the animated streets, where spices hang in the air, enormous woks sizzle and smoke, and wafts of Yam Nua and Gaeng Daeng lure passers by to backtrack.
Tamarind Village in Chang Mai is one of those oases-style hotels – a series of courtyards all smothered in dense green and a tangle of beautiful flowers, while outside its walls, the Old City thrums. It’s the best of both for couples wanting to be in the thick of it while having a serene countrystyle exhale to retreat to after a few hours of exploring the exhilarating streets. And the best way to do this is with the palate. From local cafes and restaurants to the Sunday Night Walking Street Market that quite literally unfolds just outside the hotel’s front door, couples are spoilt for choice on where to taste real, intensely flavoured and taste-bud shifting Thai food. The hotel’s own restaurant is often billed as a top eating spot for those visiting Chang Mai for the first time. For more of a go-slow scene, Zazen in Koh Samui is a thatched, seafronted boutique hotel with only 26 Olde Worlde-styled rooms and the most glorious lagoon-like pools. The food coordinates are stellar – a scenic walk along the beach to a fun hub of restaurants and bars in Fisherman’s Village (here, Turquoise recommends watching the dancers at Coco Tams or tucking into delectable Thai fusion at Thai Tapas). Back at base, couples can learn the ropes with Thai cooking classes, discovering the provenance of ingredients, or lean into the hotel restaurant’s menu – considered one of Koh Samui’s finest.
For industrial-chic interiors surrounded by vast tropical pools and greenery that spill onto the beach, honeymooners can check into the Slate then, having sampled its own restaurants (Black Ginger is the main event), can meander along the beach for home-cooked pad thai. Those wishing to keep itineraries simple and slow will be well looked after at Anantara Rasananda in Koh Phangan. Sprawled across one of the island’s prettiest beaches (Thong Nai Pan Noi), the hotel is a hop skip away from the local village, where its colourful labyrinth of restaurants and cafés offer a welcome cultural side dish to the beachy resort stay. And if going all out on a beach resort, couples can save the pennies at the affordably chic Riva Suraya in Bangkok – a boutique hotel gazing out across the river and moments away from Khao San Road’s famous string of eateries. Although, the most romantic way for honeymooners to explore Bangkok’s foodie scene is surely floating along a tarry-evening river on a water taxi, hopping off onto restaurant jetties with linen (fresh from your suitcase) flapping in the hot breeze.
Enjoy 14 nights from £3,250 per person, including all flights, transfers and activities. Staying 3 nights in a Deluxe Riva Room at Riva Suraya in Bangkok with breakfast, 1 night in a traditional guest room with all meals at Khum Lanna in Chiang Mai, 3 nights in a Lanna Room at Tamarind Village in Chiang Mai, and finally 7 nights at Zazen in a Garden Villa in Koh Samui including breakfast.
Discover more here.
For extraordinary landscapes and views
Geological marvels surging from calm, brightly-coloured bays, jungle-carpeted islands ring-fenced by flawless powdery sand, temples brushing the clouds and lording over mist-strewn valleys. Thailand’s natural beauty is staggering, ethereal even – the sort that Europe, try as it might, could never compete with. The water colour is so absurdly turquoise, and the vegetation so intensely green, it’s as if the contrast dial has been hoiked up while no one was watching. While Turquoise’s guides-on-the-ground can take couples on hikes, boat rides or drives to some of the most epic, iconic viewpoints, some of the best are reserved for Thailand’s top-rung of hotels – often from a balcony or honeymoon bed, with killer sunsets.
At the plush and predictably wellness-focused Six Senses Yao Noi, honeymooners can look forward to exhilarating views over the iconic limestone shards surging vertically out of Phang Nga Bay’s vast, serene expanse of emerald water. Particularly those having their bags dropped by an affable butler at ‘The View’ – a cavernous villa whose infinity pool, sunken dining area and mezzanine floor are all choreographed around that heart-thumping panoramic. Less beachy but no less dramatic is Anantara Golden Triangle’s sweeping views of Laos and Myanmar, from its private balcony. Along with these temple-focused, spiritual views comes a standout, highly ethical experience where couples can accompany elephants and their mahouts on treks through bamboo forests and valleys neatly illustrated in rice paddies. Turquoise recommends couples sleep over in one of the elephant camp’s ‘Jungle Bubbles’ – glass domes immersed in the jungle on wooden decks for surreal views of a star-studded sky and elephants chomping through the forest at dawn.
Pimalai Resort is perched high on a hillside, like a bird roosting over the achingly pretty Kantiang Bay on Krabi’s Koh Lanta. Everything surrenders to the far-reaching Andaman Sea view, including the hotel’s showstopper of a cliffside pool, and temple-style suites and restaurants tumble down acres of tropical green to meet the dreamlike Kantiang Beach (all 900 metres of it). Turquoise recommend the pool villas to couples eager to hide away from the world – all effectively walled compounds with their own infinity pool tipping over the bay and every corner a theatre seat for the dramatic views across the bay. For something a little different to the classic Thai beach resort, Four Seasons Chiang Mai in the Mae Rim Valley offers a tropical spin on the rural escape. Only half an hour from Thailand’s cultural capital Chiang Mai, the hotel is cleverly stitched into a landscape that feels miles an hours away from anything remotely urban, with a rice terraced perch offering hair-raising views over the surrounding paddies and distant mountains. Turquoise advise honeymooners to bag the higher levels of the Rice Terrace Pavilions (‘the box’ seats, if you will) for views that will imprint themselves indelibly in couples’ shared memory of their Thai honeymoon.
Enjoy 14 nights from £3,455 per person, including all flights and transfers. 3 nights in Bangkok at Riva Surya in a Riva Room with daily breakfast, 4 nights at Raya Heritage Chiang Mai in a Riva Room with daily breakfast, and 7 nights at Six Senses Yao Noi in a Hideaway Pool Villa with daily breakfast.
Discover more here.
For its wildlife
While Thailand’s beaches are like no other, their otherworldly beauty tends to eclipse key components of this Southeast Asian country’s allure – frequently its wildlife. Thailand is home to 10% of the world’s wildlife species, with leopards, monkeys, macaques, deer and bears among them. But perhaps the most majestic creature to behold here, and, in many (ethical) cases, become acquainted with, is the Asian elephant: Thailand’s national symbol. The aforementioned Anantara Golden Triangle, found high in the jungle hills of northern Thailand with an elegant, old world feel, offers one of the country’s most special wildlife experiences. Having whiled away hours gazing down from their dark teak balconies at the Mekong river and surrounding rush of green, couples can join a mahout at the nearby elephant sanctuary for bathing time, or a peaceful walk along the river, trudging through dense bamboo groves with these majestic creatures. Just north of Phuket, Elephant Hills Khao Sok National Park sits in plum position at the foot of jungle-smothered karst mountains, with rolling rainforest in all directions for couples to explore. Beyond the staggering landscape, the Thai massages, and rustic-luxe tents pitched along the river is the main event: the elephants. Honeymooners can spend privileged time preparing their food, feeding them and observing them as they bathe in their natural environment.
Deep in the mist-strewn jungle valleys of Northern Thailand, The Bush Camp Chiang Mai by Elephant Hills offers a similar safari-style experience. All but 10 luxurious tents (crafted by local artisans) convene around the river, their raised decks framing the inky silhouette of the mountains in the distance, with nothing between them but dense, dripping jungle. Couples can immerse themselves in the mahout lifestyle, enjoying their traditional cooking and, most memorably, spending time with the elephants they are almost spiritually connected with. Stays at these sanctuaries, along with the national parks of Chiang Mai, such as the Elephant Nature Park, get booked up so it’s worth booking as far in advance as possible.
Enjoy 12 nights from £3,250 per person, including all flights and transfers. Staying 5 nights in Phuket at The Surin in a Hillside Villa with daily breakfast, 2 nights in a Luxury Tent at Elephant Hills with all meals, and 5 nights in Koh Lanta at Pimalai Resort & Spa in a Deluxe Room with daily breakfast.
Discover more here.
For its underwater world
With mesmerising, jungle-meets-sea beaches and some 1,500km of coastline comes a tropical underwater realm of vibrant coral reefs to explore as well as hidden coves, ancient caves and lesser known islets. The surreal colour of the water and its positively balmy temperature lures in those who’ve just landed and barely had time to throw on shorts or a swimsuit. Those rushing into its warm, salty embrace rarely pop up disappointed, particularly divers and snorkellers with rays, turtles and great bursts of tropical fish often performing for them. Couples parting the smooth water with an oar on a canoe or paddle board will glance back at the heaving mass of green rainforest and smooth, blonde beaches, and feel that thrilling pinch of being far, far away.
This is particularly true of Pimalai Resort and Spa on Koh Lanta Island, south of Krabi, where the absence of motor sports guarantees that sacred-grade of peace in Kantiang Bay. Thatched, temple-like villas stitched into the hillside peer over it, tracing couples windsurfing or canoeing along the coast. And while the island itself is a wild beauty, with its limestone cliffs of Koh Krandan, Koh Ngai and Koh Mak, its worth hopping on a boat and pootling south to some of the lesser known islands, with a guide and some cold Thai beers. For honeymooners taking their beach time seriously, Paradee in Koh Samet lays claim to one of Thailand’s most extraordinary stretches of sand, one that abruptly emerges from a dense tangle of palms and exotic flowers. Newlyweds can sprawl across it, safe in the knowledge that only other hotel guests can access the beach. Guests are encouraged to paddle out with one of the hotel’s complimentary snorkels or kayaks, absorbing this magical, isolated setting from the water. For a smaller, boutique stay, couples can drop their bags at Tubkaak in Krabi – a tropical labyrinth of lagoon-like pools, palms and dark-wooded villas that feel at one with the surrounding jungle. But the main act is the spine-tingling views of the limestone karst archipelago rising from Phang Nga Bay’s calm, glassy waters. Their presence makes those Thai sunsets all the more ravishing (giant beach bags form comfortable theatre seats with flickering lanterns wedged into the sand). For something far-flung, with epic diving, couples should stay at The Racha, Koh Racha near Phuket, whose gin-clear waters reveal a whole host of tropical wonders, from rare turtles to lionfish., With its own dive centre and complimentary snorkels and kayaks, even those with supine afternoon agendas are soon tempted into the intensely turquoise waters, or out of the resort’s contemporary, suitably techy suites.
Pimalai offer: 7 nights from £1,495 per person, including all flights and transfer in a Deluxe Room with daily breakfast. Valid for travel 1 May- 30 September 2024 and 1-10 November 2024. Must book by 31 January. Includes a 40% discount.
Discover more here.
For more than 20 years, in partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Turquoise have been creating tailor-made honeymoons by listening to what you want to see and do, providing inspiration and crafting unique itineraries that feature exceptional hotels they’ve experienced first hand.
For more information: turquoiseholidays.co.uk
To enquire, visit: tuquoiseholidays.co.uk
Call the team: 01494 678 400
We highly recommend making an appointment to chat through your honeymoon with Turquoise Holidays in person.
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