Six Senses Yao Noi

Phang Nga Bay is a sea planted with limestone: towers and stacks standing straight out of the water, forest on their tops, in rows running back into the haze. Six Senses Yao Noi has the hillside opposite, on the quieter of the two Yao islands, and has built there in local teak under palm-leaf roofs. The slopes between the villas have been replanted, and Oriental pied hornbills come to the trees. Every villa has a pool of its own, and from the Ocean Panorama villas the karsts are in full view. In one bedroom the mosquito net hangs from a pale branch slung on ropes, a spiral stair of rough timber climbs to a loft, and a pane of glass is set into the floorboards beside the bed, for anyone who tires of looking at the bay.

Recommended for couples who want the bay to look at and an island quiet enough to cycle round, and for families with children of four and over. There is no kids club, but activities start at four, babysitting can be arranged and two of the villa types have a second bedroom. The beach is directly below. The hotel's bikes take the ring road out to the village, about half an hour's ride past rice paddies and rubber plantations, and the ride is best finished in one of the spa's two open-air treatment rooms. For dinner there are the six courses of the Chef's Table, or The Hilltop, where the bay does most of the work. The hotel's boats go out among the islands as far as Khao Phing Kan, which means hills leaning against each other. Hardly anyone calls it that: since The Man with the Golden Gun hid its villain there in 1974, it has been James Bond Island.