The taxi driver couldn’t help himself. Driving past Surin Beach, he mentioned that Leonardo DiCaprio had once stayed on this stretch of Phuket’s coast during the filming of The Beach, and that rumour has it that in a resort just up the road, Shakira had been persuaded to sing for her supper – or at least for a bowl of green mangoes. We’re not sure we need to know if it’s true.
What is true is that this part of Phuket sits in stark contrast to the other West Coast beach strips you’ve just left behind. The heaving, hurling, lurching Patong, the Cyrillic-signed strip of Karon… They are twenty minutes but feel worlds away. Here in Surin, secluded hotels have discretion built into their architecture, a residential calm that the louder southern beaches have long since surrendered. The Twinpalms feels like the apotheosis of it all.
When Swedish entrepreneur Carl Langenskiöld opened Twinpalms in Surin in 2004 (in Phuket terms, a lifetime ago), his ambition was straightforward: to bring a different kind of luxury to Phuket – one defined by considered design and understated calm rather than scale and spectacle. Two decades on, that vision holds. What he built, with Argentinian architect Martin Palleros, is a property of laid-back luxury in the most honest sense of the phrase: built-in, thought out. Felt, not furnished.
The Location
Surin Beach sits on Phuket’s north-west coast, between Patong to the south and Bang Tao to the north, around thirty minutes from the airport. It is a calmer, more residential stretch of the island, one that has attracted money without making too much noise about it. Just up the coast lies Pansea Beach, a private cove shared by Amanpuri and The Surin Phuket.
The resort itself sits around 175 metres back from the water – close, but not beachfront. You cross a road and a small car park to reach the sand, which is public and, since a second clearance of all commercial premises in May 2025, now completely free of the beach clubs, vendors and sun-lounger operations that once lined it. Whether that reads as a loss or a restoration depends on what you want from a beach. For guests staying at Twinpalms Surin, it is largely academic – the pool is the main event, and the beach is there when you want a change of horizon rather than a destination in itself.
Inland, Surin Village is a predominantly Muslim community with a small market and an indulgence of dependable halal restaurants, and just along the road, Masjid Mukaram in Bang Tao is the island’s largest mosque – a welcome reminder that this part of the island has a life beyond the resorts.
The Welcome
On arrival you’re greeted with a choice of welcome drinks, champagne among them, which sets the tone for the stay – you’re on holiday after all, and this is a grown-up greeting fit for a grown-up place.
The hotel encourages guests to download its app, which handles everything from requesting extra water to room cleaning. It’s practical rather than gimmicky, and in keeping with a property that has thought about the friction points of a stay.
You’re also given a jasmine flower bracelet to wear which, apart from anything else, smells great.
The Vibe
Tranquil, serene, oasis? The brochure words that hotels reach for and rarely justify. At Twinpalms Surin, they do.
The moment you pass the moat that encircles the lobby, the world outside feels decisively left behind. The main reception sets the tone immediately, taking its cue from traditional open-sided Thai wooden pavilions. But Palleros pushes it into something more dramatic – a soaring pitch of dark timber and steel that draws the eye upward before directing it through the length of the building toward the lagoon pool beyond. Three antique chofa, the curved gilded finials that crown Thai temple roofs, are arranged inside and bronze stupas flank the entrance steps. All stripped of their original context, but no less commanding for it.
Palleros trained in both architecture and landscape architecture, and at Twinpalms the two disciplines are inseparable. Indeed, the pool, the planting, the pavilions and the pathways were conceived as one from the outset, which is why the property feels so coherent. It’s a site that grew from its gardens rather than one that had them arranged around it afterward. He describes his approach as “Contemporary Tropical”, and on arrival you understand what he means.
Twinpalms Surin is deliberately low-rise, which keeps the scale human and the atmosphere leisurely. There’s a pleasing tempo to the place that you notice without being able to immediately label it: no music thumping at the pool, just the sound of trickling water from the features and birdsong from the gardens. No scramble for deckchairs either, no towels left out all day as denoters of selfishness. People seem to prefer just to drop in and duck out elegantly. It is, without any effort to perform the fact, serene.
The lagoon pool that sits at the heart of the hotel gives the property much of its rhythm and cadence. Its soft organic curves wind through the lush verdure around it, passing frangipani and palm trees. The gardens that surround the pool are noticeably better-tended than most resort grounds, with a horticultural precision that extends to the flower beds and smaller planting throughout.
If you’re up early enough, the grounds reward it – gardeners tending to the plants, birdsong threading through the palms, the air still cool, the light still low. It’s enough to make you embrace gökotta, the Swedish practice of rising early to listen to the birds, which they claim brings happiness for the rest of the day. At Twinpalms, it requires no alarm clock.
Part of what makes this hotel so absorbing is how the property holds Phuket’s changing light throughout the day. In the morning, sun filters through the palms at a low angle, catching the cordyline and tropical planting in deep reds and greens that seem almost implausible in their intensity. By midday, the pool has stilled to a mirror, the dark angular geometry of the sala roof reflected cleanly against open sky. At dusk, the sky behind the pavilion turns soft gold and the water takes it up. And after dark, the property shifts register entirely. The gardens are lit with the same care that went into planting them – uplighters picking out the palms, the pool electric against the night sky, the sala dramatically lit up. It is the kind of place that repays being watched at every hour.
The Rooms
The rooms at Twinpalms Surin have the quality that the best hotel design always aims for and rarely achieves: they feel timeless. All dark wood and white linen and the hum of a ceiling fan – the tropical hotel room of the imagination. There’s no trend-chasing, no statement pieces that will date and decay, just considered materials and clean lines.
There are ninety-seven rooms, suites and lofts across fifteen configurations. We stayed in a Lagoon Suite, positioned at close quarters with the pool. A rust-red throw lay across the foot of the super-king bed; the rug beneath it matched. It reads, at first glance, more Scandinavian hygge than Phuket tropics, but it works, giving the room a cosiness uncommon in this part of the world, and making perfect sense once you know the property’s lineage and ownership. On the table, a fresh orchid. On the walls, paintings by the Thai artist Nong Bin Bin. Both a sustained, deliberate conversation with the lush nature just outside the glass.
The details accrue without fanfare. A ceiling fan – so many hotels have quietly dispensed with these, but the movement they give a room in tropical heat is irreplaceable. A leather key wallet to keep your room keys. A laundry basket for towels instead of just leaving them on the floor when you want them changed. A dedicated dressing area with doors that close off your suitcase from the rest of the room, a small mercy for anyone who has lived out of luggage for a fortnight. In the bathroom, a bespoke lemon body scrub sat beside the tub – the kind of small provision that constitutes a spa moment without requiring you to leave your room. A home hub that controls lighting, air conditioning and the fan from a single panel, sparing you the usual archaeology of switches and remotes.
The room smells wonderful too. The in-house reed diffusers carry a tea and sea-salt fragrance the owner designed himself; quite masculine and nothing like the floral sweetness common across Thai hotels. It’s worth saving suitcase space for. Inside the room is a glass cabinet stocked with Twinpalms branded products – polo shirts, caps, the reed diffuser and candle in that tea and sea salt scent – available to buy at your leisure. It could easily feel like a gift shop that wandered into your bedroom, but it doesn’t. By the time you leave, you’ve spent enough time with the brand that you actually want to be associated with it, to take a piece of it home.
Facilities & Spa
The pool is the centrepiece of the resort and one of the best reasons to stay here, an attractive prospect for guests who prefer a pool to the oceanfront. Shaped with the organic softness of something found rather than constructed, it is large enough to lap and shallow enough to wade, with multiple entry points and semi-private zones that eliminate any scramble for position.
The double cabanas dotted around the hotel sit beneath mature palms; on a hot afternoon in the shade of one, with the sound of water moving through the features and a koel calling from the palms in lieu of an ‘Ibiza tropical chill’ playlist, the sense of being genuinely removed from ordinary time is immediate and convincing.
There is a pool bar, with a menu running from healthy smoothies and seasonal salads through to Thai and Western dishes, classic cocktails, beers, wines and spirits, served until 6pm. There is a call button by every deckchair – you don’t even have to move to get your next pina colada.
The pool stays open until 11pm – most hotels stop at 8 – which on a warm Phuket night is exactly the right call. Before 11am, towels are collected from the reception lobby rather than poolside; worth knowing on your first morning.
Morning yoga is hosted in an open-sided Thai sala framed by palms, with the lagoon stretching out in front and the gardens still cool in the early light. The gym is a serious one – not the afterthought two-treadmill arrangement that some hotels get away with – and comes with towels and shower access, making it a useful option for waiting out the post-checkout hours before a late flight.
The onsite Palm Spa offers a focused menu of massages and treatments rather than an overwhelming list – traditional Thai, aromatherapy, an energy rebalance deep tissue, a candle massage using warm oils applied to calm and nourish the skin, plus a body scrub, facial, foot massage and upper back treatment. Prices start from 1,200 baht for 30 minutes. Book ahead to guarantee availability. On rainy days especially, everyone arrives at reception with the same idea.
Elsewhere there is a wine room which hosts a complimentary wine and cheese hour every afternoon. There’s also a small library with convenient computer stations for those doing the whole digital nomad thing, and a little onsite boutique for those who whisked their partners away on a spontaneous trip and need to replenish their wardrobe as a result.
If you do decide to venture out of the resort’s warm embrace, then there’s a complimentary ‘Take Me To’ shuttle that runs from 11am until late, connecting guests to Catch Beach Club and Kalido on Bang Tao, and to the group’s sister property Twinpalms MontAzure on Kamala Beach, where Shimmer restaurant sits directly on the sand. It turns what might look like a location concession into something more useful; access to several of the best spots on Phuket’s north-west coast without arranging your own transport.
Food & Drink
One of the most unexpected things about Twinpalms is the coffee. The beans are roasted to the owner’s personal preference, and he’s built his own brewing machine specifically for the property. The result is a distinctive, delicious cup, with the hotel’s logo pressed into each cappuccino. And once more, we’re buying into the brand all over again.
The Oriental Spoon is Twinpalms Surin’s all-day dining offer. The space itself is gorgeous, with raised dining platforms, and alfresco and covered areas. All these different zones give it a considered and private vibe. Food-wise, it bills itself as an east-meets-west place and serves comforting classics from both traditions. On the Thai side, a chicken pad grapao is particularly good – a dish that Thais call ‘no idea’ because if you have no idea what to order, you often just order this, and it always – as it does here – delivers. The Wagyu Cheeseburger is full of flavour and, likewise, an excellent option for those lingering in the realm of indecisiveness.
Speaking of wagyu, the hotel has its own Michelin-recommended restaurant: Wagyu Steakhouse, a place that leans more Bangkok than beach resort in its ambition, with dark wood panelling, plush leather, and a dimly lit two-storey interior that has no interest in reminding you the sea is nearby. Here, choosing your steak from the display fridge, then your knife from a box of bespoke blades, is exactly as enjoyable as it sounds. Behind the pass, chef Nok leads an all-female brigade working a Josper charcoal oven and a beechwood grill. We’ve named it one of the best places to eat steak in Phuket for good reason.
The wine list is broad and crowdpleasing, with the Coravin system allowing by-the-glass access to some serious vintages. Above the restaurant is a small Art Deco bar where the cocktails are punchy and seriously good. Bookend your evening here; your room’s only a stumble away, after all.
Breakfast is served back at the Oriental Spoon. It’s a calm, considered affair – jazz low in the background, chefs carving fresh fruit as guests arrive, a bottle of champagne on ice should you be so inclined.
The head chef is there in the morning, attending to the stations. The bread selection warrants particular attention: baked each morning by the hotel’s own bakery operation, BAKE, which has been feeding the north-west coast of Phuket for close to two decades and operates a standalone café in nearby Cherngtalay. Sourdough with a pleasingly hefty crust, croissants that shatter at the touch, pastries arranged carefully… It’s not a table you pass by quickly. Elsewhere there’s the usual Thai and Western classic breakfast staples, a baked bean tray generous enough to suggest someone on the team really, really likes baked beans, and a salad station with a parmesan wheel and roasted tomatoes completes the picture.
Ideal For…?
Couples, first and foremost. The atmosphere, the lagoon pool, the candlelit steakhouse, the spa treatments for two… It has honeymoon written all over it.
Design-conscious travellers who cherish the fine touches. The Swedish ownership’s stamp on things, the Palleros architecture, the considered details in the rooms – this is a property that rewards attention.
Repeat Phuket visitors ready for something different. If you’ve done the big beach clubs and loud southern beaches, Twinpalms offers something more residential and grown-up.
Food-focused guests. With BAKE’s bread at breakfast, a Michelin-listed steakhouse and the owner’s custom coffee setup, there’s genuine substance to the food programme here.
Solo travellers and remote workers. The calm, undemanding atmosphere means no pressure to be sociable, the pool is the kind you’re happy to spend a full day beside with a book, and rooms come with a good desk. The library has computer stations, and the overall peace of the place makes entering a flow state considerably easier than at livelier resorts.
It’s perhaps less suited to anyone seeking nightlife or beach-front action. Surin’s cleared beachfront and the resort’s set-back position mean this isn’t a toes-in-the-sand-from-your-sunbed kind of stay. Families with young children may find the atmosphere geared more towards adults.
Why Stay?
There’s a cultural logic to how Twinpalms Surin feels. Swedish ownership brings lagom to the tropics. That distinctly Scandinavian instinct for exactly enough, nothing in excess is evident in every considered detail of the place. It finds an easy partner in sabai sabai, Thailand’s settled contentment with the unhurried and the unforced. Two philosophies arriving from opposite ends of the world, bringing out the best in each other.
Twinpalms Surin has the rare quality of reminding you why you came away in the first place. As we left, we learned that the hotel has a handful of residential apartments – people who have, in effect, decided never to leave. How we’d love to join them.
Address: 106, 46 Moo3 Surin Beach Road, Choeng Thale, Thalang District, Chang Wat Phuket
Website: twinpalmshotelsresorts.com/surin-beach-phuket
Rooms start from around 3,900 baht per night (£90).
