Bangkok--Mar 8--Anantara Resorts and Spas
For those wanting more from their holiday than a tan-line, the Anantara’s new Islands and Highlands package gives holiday-makers a chance to experience the diversity of Thai beauty and culture: sun, sea and sand in the south and a Mekhong adventure in the north.
The 10-night holiday includes 7-nights at the newly opened Anantara Resort and Spa Koh Samui followed by 3 nights at its award-winning resort in the evocative Golden Triangle in Thailand’s northern border-lands where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos converge. Both resorts are members of Small Luxury Hotels.
Priced at US$1500++, the package includes accommodation for two people sharing, daily breakfasts and round-trip airport transfers for both resorts. Connecting flights and any activity programmes are not included.
The Anantara Koh Samui lies on the island’s northern shores on palm-fringed Bophut Bay next to Fisherman’s Village, a quaintly preserved cove of old houses and shops, now home to discreet bars and restaurants but still relatively sleepy compared to frenetic Chaweng further round the coast.
As well as the prerequisite infinity-edge pool spilling onto the beach and a spa menu of Ayurvedic and Thai treats which could tame the most harried urbanite, the Anantara Koh Samui also offers a variety of wellness options: a choice of Hatha and Ashtanga yoga, Reiki massage and tuition and guided meditations. For the more aquatically-minded, a range of water sports is available including diving courses and excursions, snorkelling, catamaran and yacht hire.
After a week in the south, the adventure continues in the far north at the Anantara Resort and Spa Golden Triangle; a resort so close to the edge of Thailand that the Ruak River, a narrow waterway which forms the Thai border with Myanmar, flows past the end of the resort’s 160 acres of gardens and natural jungle.
Float in this resort’s infinity-pool and you get a 3-country panorama: Thai gardens, Burmese grasslands and Laotian mountains plus the glint of the mighty Mekhong River. The resort’s biggest claim to fame is its elephant camp, located within the resort’s extensive grounds and home to four female elephants. Appearing on the BBC’s Holiday show this spring, the camp offers guests the chance to learn how to ‘drive’ an elephant with their mahout-training programme: a one or three-day course in the basics of elephant manoeuvring.
Experience-gatherers can also learn to cook at the resort’s Cooking Academy or do a whistle-stop tour of the local area with the 3-countries in 1-day tour: a trip over the Friendship Bridge from Mae Sai to the Burmese town of Tachilek followed by an exhilarating long-tail boat ride up the Mekhong River to the Laotian island of Don Xao. No visas are required for either cross-border excursion thanks to some clever immigration loop-holes and day-passes.
The package price is valid until 31st October, subject to availability. Reservations can be made online at www.anantara.com or through travel agents. Telephone bookings can be made on +66 (0) 2477 0795 or via regional toll-free Small Luxury Hotels reservations offices.
A hi-resolution photograph to accompany this story can be downloaded online at http://www.anantara.com/press_release/islands_highlands.html.
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Other hi-resolution photographs of Anantara Resorts can be downloaded free of charge from www.anantara.com. Click on PRESS/PHOTOLIBRARY on the homepage and then PHOTOLIBRARY.
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