Anantara Rasananda Koh Phangan Villas

Koh Phangan is famous for one night a month on the beach at Haad Rin, and Anantara Rasananda keeps eleven kilometres of road between itself and the party. It stands on Thong Nai Pan Noi, a curved bay of white sand on the island's quieter north-east coast, forty minutes by speedboat from Koh Samui. The buildings are two storeys of thatch among the coconut palms, and the house colour is red: a row of red umbrellas down the beach, and deep red walls inside against native wood. Every room has a plunge pool of its own, and in a garden room the sliding doors open onto a wooden deck and a thatched sala with a day bed, behind a bamboo fence. The Ocean rooms come with sunbeds kept for them on the sand, and for anyone who finds a private pool lonely, a shared infinity pool with a swim-up bar lies between the bistro and the beach.

Recommended for couples who want Koh Phangan's beach without its reputation, and for families who can manage without a kids club: the Two Bedroom Pool Villa sleeps six, and most rooms take a cot or an extra bed. Minor Affair, the resort's twenty-metre yacht, can be chartered out to Ang Thong National Marine Park for snorkelling and kayaking, and yoga is on a platform over the sea. Dinner is the bistro, with sand for a floor and cane lanterns overhead, or Yukinoya, where a chef works the teppanyaki grill with local lobster and Tajima beef. The full moon shines on Thong Nai Pan Noi too, and here the hotel will lay a table for two on the sand under an arch of palm fronds, with only torches and a string of lights to compete with it.