Soneva Kiri

Koh Kood — the island’s name means “island of water” in Thai, referencing the rivers and waterfalls that run from its forested interior to the sea — sits in the southernmost corner of the Gulf of Thailand, close enough to the Cambodian coast that its development history has kept it remote. There is no regular ferry from the mainland; access requires a charter boat or a seaplane from Trat, which means Koh Kood has avoided the backpacker infrastructure that has transformed Koh Samui and Koh Phangan. The beach in front of Soneva Kiri — 1.5 kilometres of white sand with no commercial presence whatsoever — is what Thai beaches looked like before the tourist industry arrived.

Soneva Kiri’s thirty-six villas range from beachfront one-bedrooms to six-bedroom jungle estates. All are constructed from reclaimed timber, bamboo, and natural materials in the Soneva group’s characteristic barefoot-luxury style: floors are sand or smooth concrete, shoes are dispensed with at the property entrance, children wander freely between the organic garden and the ice cream bar. The aesthetic removes all pretension and substitutes genuine informality, which is either exactly what wealthy guests want or exactly what they don’t, with little middle ground.

The BistrOTeK is the property’s signature and marketing anchor, and it earns the attention. Guests are seated in a harness and winched along a flying fox cable from the main restaurant level into a pod suspended in the canopy of a giant tree. Inside the pod, a private dinner is served by a dedicated server who reaches the pod by separate means. The elevation — 10 metres above the forest floor, surrounded by canopy — and the theatre of getting there makes it genuinely memorable.

Koh Kood is reached by seaplane from Bangkok (Donmueang or Suvarnabhumi) or by charter boat from Trat. Soneva Kiri operates its own seaplane service.