Hotel Insider: Iniala Beach House, Phuket, Thailand

Adriaane Pielou checks into the new Iniala Phuket.

The Owners Suite at the Iniala Beach House in Phuket. Kurt Heck / Matt Thorpe

The welcome

Nervily delighted. This hyper-luxe, over-the-top little beach complex of three, three-bedroom villas and a penthouse opened in mid-January, so the staff have yet to get blasé about guests checking in. The owner, Mark Weingard, is an ex-derivatives trader who made a squillion in Asia, abruptly changed his life after his fiancée was killed in the Bali bombings. In tandem with setting up Iniala, he founded Inspirasia, a Bali-based charity into which he is funnelling 10 per cent of Iniala’s revenue.

The neighbourhood

The quiet, casuarina-lined, seven-kilometre-long Natai Beach in Phang Nga on the west coast of mainland Thailand, on which Iniala is set, is off the radar compared to the nearby island of Phuket across the nearby bridge. But that will change as Iniala becomes better known – as it’s sure to among people looking for five-star Thai luxe, who either stay or check out the excellent Aziamendi restaurant. Or, when it opens later this year, visit the adjoining Iniala beach club, cafe and bakery, showcasing the scrumptious breads, croissants, cakes and pastries. There’ll be a market for those among the wealthy villa-owners in the area.

The scene

Staying here means that you get the use of a vehicle and driver (as well as a full-time butler and six hours of spa treatments per day in your private spa) . “But why I go anywhere?” shrugs a Russian TV arts personality who is lounging in the cool, dark-slate pool and waving a manicured hand in the direction of the private 22-seat cinema, the games room, with a Thai boxing ring and a Swarovski-studded pool table, and the children’s hotel, decorated with a fort and treehouse, where children can spend a staff-supervised night.

The room

A suspended bed and gold-domed private spa here; a floor that undulates like sand there. Eleven idiosyncratic designers worked on this place, clearly keen to outdo each other. The Irish master builder Joseph Walsh worked in curved and carved wood, producing a unique bed for one villa. In the Collector’s Villa, the Brazilian Campana brothers retaliated with walls studded with broken china and swathes of pale leather wrapping bucket chairs and a bizarre lounger-type thing that’s shaped like an octopus. The Spanish designer Jaime Hayon has outdone both with his luminously beautiful, all-white-with-flashes-of-jade Owners Suite, which has an exceptionally large and lovely white-marble bathroom.

The service

Exemplary. Smiling, quick, intuitive.

The food

Celestial. In Aziamendi, directed by the three-Michelin-starred Basque chef Eneko Atxa, dinner is of the Ferran Adrià/El Bulli school: delectable and visually astounding. Egg yolks injected with foie gras; a bonsai tree decorated with edible bark and hanging with tomatoes injected with broth. In the more relaxed, private Beach House, breakfast is the standout.

Loved

The originality; the endless extravagances to marvel at and little details to grin at. The staff, from the sweetly serious yoga master and typically delicate-looking but steel-fingered Thai massage therapists.

Hated

That repellent, pale-turquoise leather octopus lounger. And, considering the prices, the lack of space. Individual rooms are all large, but a lot has been squeezed into this small beachfront area.

The verdict

A fascinating one-off that begs to be taken over in its entirety for a family get-together.

The bottom line

Seven-night stays – including transfers from Phuket Airport, which is 20 minutes away – cost from 107,000 Thai baht (Dh12,162). (www.iniala.com; 0066 76 451 456).

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