‘The White Lotus’ Thailand Hotel: A Guide to the Shooting Location

The White Lotus has constantly given the middle finger to escapism.

Sure, the resorts featured in the first two seasons of the HBO show have been stunning. Just seeing saturated, swooping shots of Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea in Maui, Hawaii and Four Seasons San Domenico Palace in Taormina, Italy, have encouraged many fans to book trips—according to Bloomberg, both properties have seen an over 20 percent increase in visitors. And with the third season of the popular satire taking on resort life in Phuket, there’s a hope that it’ll do the same for Thai tourism.

But show creator Mike White populates his picturesque satire with morally gray-zone characters, who, despite their best efforts, can’t leave their emotional baggage at home. (Or casually go full villain and kill their wives—RIP, Tanya McQuoid.)

The juxtaposition makes for great television, even if you want to root for character exploits, not share a hotel wall with them. And there’s no doubt that this season’s characters, played by Aimee Lou Wood, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, Parker Posey, BLACKPINK’s Lisa, Parker Posey, and Patrick Schwarzenegger among other notable names, will bring interpersonal chaos.

Even still, lounging the at poolside bar at the Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas—tipsy on both a glass of champagne and the view of the resort’s slice of private Andaman Sea—I can’t help but think that for this level of luxury, it’s a risk I’m willing to take.

We went to the scene of the…well, scenes. We traveled to Thailand and visited the hotel where the new season of The White Lotus was filmed, to give you an on-the-ground report of the setting for the madness that is about to unfurl on HBO.

The Phuket resort, where we traveled to in November, is one of three filming locations in the upcoming Thailand-based season of White Lotus. (Action also takes place at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui and The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok.)

It’s easy to see the appeal of Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas, both from a narrative point of view, and as someone who regularly dreams of flinging her phone in the sea and disappearing. (That’s a major plot point in the premiere.) The five-star resort has the neat trick of being both 15 minutes from the Phuket International Airport, and secluded enough to feel like you might have discovered a private slice of Thai paradise– provided you’re able to ignore the Starbucks at the resort entrance.

Part of the resort’s sense of exclusivity comes from its size. There is quite simply, more space to stretch out per visitor. Lodging includes 54 villas on the northside, and 37 villas on the southside, grafted onto the resort from the Avani property next door in 2024, that serves as a more family-friendly lodging option. (Think: the option to stay in a child-themed room.)

Each villa comes with bikes on request to navigate the property’s ubiquitous winding wooden walkways, which also help create a sense of separation from the real world. As we walked into the open-air reception pavilion, our arrival was announced by a ceremonial gong, I was taken by the surrounding lotus-flower heavy lagoon, and the unique feeling of being surrounded by more fish than humans. Seeing my delight, the receptionist hands me a bag of fish food and warns me to beware of the resident monitor lizard. (He makes a conspicuous cameo in the season premiere.)

It’s not surprising that a film crew would select this resort as representative of Southern Thailand. (The 2024 Brooke Shields comedy, Mother of the Bride was also filmed at both the Phuket Villas and nearby Anantara Layan Phuket Resort.) Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas are extremely culture-forward.

It’s the small details, like jasmine wafting both from the in-room body products and the wrist garland I’m gifted upon arrival, a signature scent of the resort—and one would argue—Thailand as a whole. (Rude of Walton Goggins’ Rick to refuse it on arrival.)

It’s in the traditions, like the ceremonial, sunset lighting of the torches along the walkways. And it’s in the food at La Sala Thai restaurant, run by Iron Chef Thailand winner, Ian John Thomason. The Thai-fusion dishes are delicious, even if as a regular connoisseur of mild foods who forgot to communicate her preferences, the spice level felt akin to chewing on the sun. (For guests looking for variety, there are seven different restaurants on the property which feature Japanese, seafood, and Western-style burgers, pasta, and salad.)

But it’s the architecture that truly sets Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas apart. Lodging in the “couples” side are exclusively pool villas, ranging from the 195-square-meter Pool Pavilion, to the formidable 530-square-meter Four Bedroom Connecting Double Pool Pavilion.

We are told that a villa with its turquoise-tiled pool and sunken outdoor bathtub plays a “significant role” in the new season of White Lotus—we won’t tease anymore than that. Additional gossip during our visit did seep through, despite an overall agreement that spoilers should be avoided at all cost.

Here’s what we know: a character stops by the shrine to the Hindu god Brahma, located next to the spa. (You’ll see that in the premiere.) A beach party goes down outside of Sea Fire Salt, a beachy, Mediterranean-influenced resort restaurant. And shots are heard while someone is in a sound healing room—and has to swim through the lagoon to safety.

Other setups aren’t as straightforward. The reception, where I frantically filled up my phone with blurry shots of the resident monitor lizard, was cleared out and repurposed to create an open-air spa. The spa then became a shop, and the site of what’s being described as an “action-oriented scene.” That is likely the dramatic robbery that happens early in the season. But if there is one thing we should know about Mike White, we’ll never guess his characters’ true intentions—or who will wind up in the body bag at the end of the season.

Your trip to Phuket, however, will be significantly less eventful. Some might even dare to call it escapist.