Irene Pool Villa Resort

The cheapest villa at Irene Pool Villa Resort is also the biggest. The Tree Pool Villa has 138 square metres among tamarind trees, set back from Sunrise Beach, and guests say it feels like a treehouse. The two beachfront kinds give some of that up for sand at the door, the Sand down to 110 and the Sun to 118. All sixteen have a private infinity pool and, up in the attic, a Star Gaze Loft. From above, the beachfront row is a line of steep thatched roofs, each with a strip of turquoise pool reaching towards the palms, and past them the shared pool curls round a thatched restaurant on white sand, with wooded islands across the water. This is Koh Lipe's east side, and the beach's name is a promise about the mornings.

Recommended for couples who want a pool of their own with the sea a few steps past it, and will travel for that: it is about three hours from Hat Yai airport, by road, speedboat and, for the last five minutes, motor-trishaw. Parents of a young child can have a cot or an extra bed put in, for a charge. There is no kids club: the sea does the job, with paddleboards, and snorkelling in water guests praise for how clear it is. The resort's longtail boats cross to Koh Adang in ten to fifteen minutes, for a hike or a picnic on the beach. Walking Street is ten minutes' walk, or a free shuttle, and Sunset Beach about as far across the island, for the end of the day Sunrise Beach faces away from. Dinner is at Bok e'tto, a name the resort defines as the art of gazing into the distance, and the islands across the water give it plenty to work with.