Princely pampering at a right royal Thai resort

Three hours' drive south of Bangkok - on a typically terrifying journey of near-misses - is the town of Hua Hin, little more than a shop-lined wide spot in the road for most tourists.

But though the islands of southeast Thailand are becoming a clutter of beach bungalows and you are likely to run into your neighbours in formerly quiet islands such as Ko Samet and Ko Chang off to the east of Bangkok, Hua Hin is coming into its own.

The area has all the cliches we love about Thailand - friendly people, beautiful beaches, temples, cheap bars and good restaurants. But it also has something more - a lack of sleaze and a royal blessing.

Hua Hin, with a population of 35,000, was where the Thai royal family built their summer palace in the 1920s. Even now the King and Queen spend much of the year in area.

Although Hua Hin is no longer a quiet fishing village, there is still something of an undiscovered quality about it.

I'd never heard of it until I turned up to wander its beaches and streets and luxuriate in one of the finest hotels I've ever enjoyed. I came home having achieved very little other than a tan and a working knowledge of elephant polo.

This being the domain of the King, a moratorium has been placed on high-rises. That's good, because the Hua Hin area which is next to Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park, is to be treasured for the leisurely pace.

Hua Hin is the kind of place that slows you down. The town itself isn't much, just the usual aggregation of cheap tailors and electronics shops, restaurants and a market that comes alive at night. And there are still plenty of modest accommodation options. Comfortable mid-range hotels go for $30 to $40 a night, but the high end is particularly well catered for.

The Anantara Resort and Spa, the new Veranda Resort and Spa, Springfield Village Golf Spa, the Hua Hin Golf Village, Casa del Mare and others aim for those who have the money to luxuriate in secluded and quiet rooms, often with a private pool just outside the door.

For $1500 a week you can get a luxury two-bedroom serviced apartment with a pool and cable television, and only 50m from the beach. For those who want to get just that little further out of Hua Hin, there's the beach-kissed Evason Spa and Resort, 40 minutes south. Here you can idle away your days beside the huge pool, swim in the warm ocean, and watch the squid boats at night. And although there are 145 guestrooms, the tropical setting of gardens and pools, wooden walkways and spacious dining areas make the place quiet and restful even when fully booked.

No cars are allowed past the main gate. From there, small and silent electric vehicles take guests around.

The Evason chain is scrupulously environmentally friendly. Even the flowers you see on the tables and in your room are not plucked from the trees but picked up from around the property.

In the holistic Six Senses Spa, where ancient Ayurvedic principles are combined with modern knowledge, you can be pampered and massaged, given facials and beauty care, and experience herbal remedies that get that jaded and battered body back in balance.

 

This resort has an extensive wine cellar, a DVD movie library, and three extraordinarily good restaurants.

The Evason is also child-friendly. The Just Kids area has its own swimming pool and entertainment programme for little ones, and supervised sleepovers can be arranged.

Should you wish to tone up or get physical, there are sailing, windsurfing and snorkelling trips, plus mountainbike and hiking adventures.

I never made it to the royal palace. But I couldn't imagine the King and Queen could live much better than I did at the Evason.

My suspicion is that people mostly go to the Evason to do what I did - lie around, swim and then, at the end of the day, sit on the upper floor of the open-air bar and gaze vacantly at a blue ocean turning turquoise then black, while someone brings you drinks.

The genial manager liked my idea of a writer-in-residence scheme as the hotel's point-of-difference in the luxury market. But unfortunately I never heard any more about it.

The Evason Hua Hin Resort and Six Senses Spa defines itself by its exceptional service and attention to detail. You find yourself taking photographs of small things, like lotus plants in the corners, the shimmer of clouds reflected in the pool, and lizards sunning themselves or under the lights at night waiting for a fly-by meal.

The extraordinary thing is that while this kind of sumptuousness is indulgent and discreet, nearby is a newly opened and even more private Evason spa that is is one step further up the ladder in luxury.

If that is possible.

* Graham Reid stayed at the Evason Hua Hin Resort and Spa as guest of the hotel after winning the Small Luxury Hotels of the World award at the Cathay-Pacific travel awards.