The Future of Sustainable Luxury Travel — Banyan Tree Phuket
The Future of Sustainable Luxury Travel — Banyan Tree Phuket
We visited Banyan Tree Phuket as it celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. In the buoyant mood ahead of a major milestone in the group’s history, we saw both the refined standard of luxury travel the resort offers and a model of sustainable travel, one in which the environment and people live in harmony and balance.
Words Chloe Kim
Materials and In collaboration with Banyan Tree Phuket
Resort Holidays Korea (Banyan Tree’s PR office in Korea)
Banyan Tree Phuket sits in Laguna Phuket, on Bang Tao Beach on the northwest coast of Phuket, Thailand. Laguna Phuket is known as a quiet resort area where luxury resorts cluster around a lagoon, but it looked entirely different when Banyan Tree’s founders, a married couple, first set foot here. They saw potential in a wasteland that had once been a tin mine, and they completely transformed the landscape by planting some 7,000 trees and purifying the water. After that tireless effort, Banyan Tree Phuket opened in 1994 and became the starting point of Banyan Group, which now operates more than 70 resorts and hotels in over 20 countries worldwide.
Given how the brand began, it may be only natural that environmental protection and coexistence with the local community run through the spirit of Banyan Tree. The first thing that greets you past the resort entrance is an enormous banyan tree. It looks dependable and natural, much like Banyan Tree Phuket itself, which has kept to the brand’s philosophy over the years and established itself as one of the island’s signature resorts.
A Private Sanctuary of Your Own
Lush greenery fills every corner of the grounds, so it is hard to believe there are more than 200 villas tucked inside. Filled with flowering trees and birdsong, Banyan Tree Phuket has 218 rooms in total, all of them pool villas. As a resort credited with setting the standard for pool villa resorts in Phuket, it has maintained its quality through continual renovations, and new room types have been added little by little to suit increasingly diverse travel styles. Options vary by travel taste and party size: the ‘Banyan Pool Villa’ combines traditional Thai beauty with a spacious outdoor deck, the ‘Serenity Pool Villa’ has a modern interior where opening the full-length window in front of the bed leads straight to the pool, and the ‘Double Pool Villa,’ true to its name, has two pools. Among them, the Double Pool Villa sits in a quiet villa cluster facing the lagoon, making it a favorite of travelers who want a more private and romantic getaway. Banyan Tree’s service of hanging a guest’s name or a special message in front of the villa like a nameplate is a thoughtful touch that makes you feel as comfortable as at home. Whichever villa type you choose, the garden behind high walls and the private pool let you savor the calm of a sanctuary all your own. Most in-room amenities are made with naturally derived ingredients, free of parabens and surfactants and not tested on animals. Because they touch the skin directly, they also avoid chemical ingredients such as unnecessary fragrances and colorants, which makes them reassuring to use.
Dining That Nourishes Body and Mind
There are six restaurants and bars in all, led by Saffron, which reinterprets traditional Thai cuisine in a modern way. The Watercourt serves a lively breakfast buffet in the morning, and at sunset it offers a romantic seafood dinner as the sun settles over the lagoon. For those who want a quiet breakfast, Tre, located within the Double Pool Villa cluster, is also a good choice. Veya, a restaurant serving Asian and Mediterranean dishes, practices farm-to-table dining with fresh ingredients grown in the resort’s organic garden. Its refreshing pool view is as much of an asset as the fresh food. If you want a light meal between the morning buffet and an atmospheric dinner, visit the casual Banyan Café, which faces the golf course. Here you can find smoothies, salads, pizza, and light Thai dishes, and on game days you can watch the match together on a big screen.
Finally, the recently opened Tin Tapas Bar is decorated with tin objects that recall the area’s past as a tin mine. Its beauty doubles after dark. When the moon in the sky meets the full-moon-shaped lights hanging in the bar, you may not be able to tell whether it is the cocktail or the atmosphere that has you tipsy. On days when you want to be thoroughly lazy, we also recommend booking a floating breakfast or a barbecue, both of which can be enjoyed in your villa’s pool and garden.
Diverse Activities and the Ultimate Wellness Experience
Banyan Tree Phuket offers cultural programs that let you experience Thailand’s culture and nature, along with wellness activities to bring rest to body and mind. Once you decide to sign up for every program that appeals to you, the time at the resort feels especially short. The Healthy Raw Cooking Class begins with a visit to the resort’s garden. The vegetables, herbs, and fruits grown there are used in the resort’s restaurants, and the garden also supports local employment by hiring local farmers. After a stroll through the garden, the class itself takes place at the recently opened Nature House. Making som tam (Thai green papaya salad) yourself with fresh papaya under the chef’s guidance and then eating it is a different kind of pleasure from having it at a restaurant. Here you can also learn about locally grown herbs in workshops such as the Herbal Potpourri Workshop, and there are spa-related classes as well.
The resort also has facilities for more active pursuits, including an outdoor pool, an 18-hole golf course, and tennis courts. For those who want an easy introduction to wellness programs, we recommend mat Pilates and Conscious Grounding, a barefoot walk. Held in the resort’s garden on quiet mornings, the barefoot walk lets you feel the earth’s energy with your whole body as you walk as if meditating, making it a great way to start a refreshing day.
Banyan Tree’s wellness offering is incomplete without the spa. Banyan Tree emphasizes its expertise to the point of running a separate spa brand. A treatment begins with choosing your preferred essential oil in a private spa villa, guided by a therapist. A variety of programs inspired by massage traditions from Thailand and across Asia are on the menu. For the duration of the treatment, you can focus on all your senses and let even your spirit rest.
True Luxury Travel Rooted in Responsibility and Preservation
At Banyan Tree, sustainability is not something imposed on travelers as an inconvenience. It is an utterly natural part of the experience, one that helps guests become conscious travelers during their stay. Thought for Phuket’s natural environment and local community is evident throughout the resort. Minimizing single-use plastics and sorting and recycling waste are just the basics. In its restaurants, the resort runs the Zero Waste Food Project: scraps from cooking are set aside and turned into pickled vegetables, kombucha and more, and whatever remains is used as compost for the resort’s vegetable garden. Plans are also under way to expand that garden further, which cuts the carbon emissions from transporting ingredients and benefits the community by employing local farmers.
Guest activities include visits to an elephant sanctuary and a cleanup program in which guests walk along beautiful Bang Tao Beach together. Since the resort opened, it has also worked hard on sea turtle conservation, protecting and returning more than 2,000 hatchlings to the sea, and it is committed to reforestation in the area as well. Thanks to these efforts, it has received the Gold-level Green Hotel Award, which Thailand’s Department of Environmental Quality Promotion presents to eco-friendly hotels.
If you find it hard to leave Banyan Tree Phuket, stop by the Gallery shop. There you will find a range of local products curated by Banyan Tree: natural essential oils used in the Banyan Tree Spa, crafts made by Thai artisans, polo shirts made from recycled plastic and more. These eco-friendly products reflect the character of the region, which makes them perfect as souvenirs or gifts to remember your trip by.
Banyan Tree Phuket has proven that travel and consumption can coexist with the preservation of the local community, strike a harmonious balance with it, and even have a positive impact on it. This is not sustainability consumed as a trend. For the past 30 years, the resort has set the model for a truly responsible luxury resort, and that is why we keep looking forward to what Banyan Tree does next.