Beachfront Bliss
It’s hard not to be charmed by THE TUBKAAK KRABI BOUTIQUE RESORT, a luxury getaway that still manages to offer an authentic, and organic, local experience. bruce scott checks in to find out more
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hen my parents first found this place, they came by boat,” explains Rachakorn “Jan” Nanthavisai, the current General Manager of her family’s The Tubkaak Krabi Boutique Resort. “They saw this piece of land in the middle of Tubkaak Beach and just fell in love with it.”
As the eldest of two daughters, Jan has many childhood memories that revolve around the building of this popular seaside paradise. “We got this piece of land when I was about four,” recalls the now 27-year-old. “We were kind of the first ones to build on Tubkaak Beach. I remember this place being very hard to get to. There wasn’t any direct road.”
Fast forward to 2021, and not only is there now a nicely paved access road, but The Tubkaak is enjoying almost full occupancy when I check in for a weekend stay. The property has become a word-of-mouth hit amongst Thai society, which is especially interesting when you consider that in recent years almost a dozen high-end, international-brand resorts have sprung up along this same stretch of Krabi’s gorgeous coastline (in the Klong Muang district).
As I chat with Jan over lunch at The Arundina – the resort’s showpiece beachfront restaurant, which boasts a tantalising menu of regional specialties, courtesy of superstar chef David Thompson – I ask her about the resort’s enviable popularity. The obvious question is: what luxuries are well-heeled travellers finding at The Tubkaak that they’re perhaps not finding elsewhere?
“I think people interpret the word ‘luxury’ differently, and very differently now, since Covid,” she says. “For a lot of celebrities, and other guests that come here, they like the warmth and the cosiness of the place, and a lot of people now think of being close to nature as a luxury in itself. Back 20 years ago, people imagined a hotel should be a tall building next to the beach. But we thought differently. We wanted guests to experience nature, so we made our resort like a little village, and the concept was to keep all the trees. No big trees were cut down.”
To help Jan’s parents realise their initial vision, they enlisted the services of Architects 49 Ltd – “The owner is a very close friend of my parents,” adds Jan – and it was to be the company’s first ever resort project. The
first iteration of The Tubkaak consisted of 44 units, with an additional 15 pool villas added 10 years later. The stunning Ocean View Pool Villas measure between 130 and 145 square metres, although making sure no trees were felled means that each unit is unique in its layout. As for the resort’s two ultra-premium beachfront units, The Tubkaak Suite encompasses 300 square metres, while the aptly named Heaven Suite clocks in at 250 square metres and has a tree growing right through the middle of it.
Through the years, the design of the resort has garnered many accolades. The lovely curved roofs of the units take inspiration from the shape of longtail boats used by local fishermen (known locally as gorlea), while the treatment rooms of the onsite L’escape Spa are tall conical structures made to resemble Flycatchers, the pitcher-shaped, insect-eating plants that grow by rivers and streams. Then there’s that beach; a wide expanse of fine white sand offering a mesmerising panoramic view of 13 islands in the distance that rise dramatically from the Andaman Sea. It’s only my first visit here, but it’s not hard to see why The Tubkaak was featured in Patricia Schultz’s 2003 book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.
Of course, the tourism world of 2021 is quite different, and the steady stream of international visitors has sadly run dry. Yet, even before Covid Jan was using social media to attract more domestic travellers.
“Most of our guests were from the UK,” she says, “and it surprised me how Thai people were aware of us but had never been to our property. So I adjusted the marketing and direct sales to the Thai market, and changed the way that we sell.”
Interestingly, Jan doesn’t have a background in marketing – her high school years in Vermont were followed by studies at Northeastern University in Boston, majoring in Accounting with an Art minor – but her knowledge of what makes her family’s resort tick runs deep. Having returned to Thailand from the USA, Jan began her official duties at The Tubkaak in 2017, but her mother, who by that time was running the resort on her own, made Jan work her way up the ladder, with stints as spa receptionist, guest relation officer, guest relation manager, and reservation officer, before becoming GM at the end of 2018.
As for future plans, Jan shares with me that a wellness resort – again designed by Architects 49 – is being built nearby, slated to open in 2022. “I think that what we do at The Tubkaak can be expanded there,” she remarks. “A lot of people are more health-conscious these days, but getting healthy doesn’t have to be something you only do when you’re sick. It’s more of a lifestyle now.”
As Jan and I take an after-lunch stroll, we pass one of the babbling brooks that run downhill from Hang Nak, the mountain directly behind the resort. She tells me that these freshwater springs – four in all – supply all the water needs of the resort, including filling the pools at the villas. The mountain’s name means “head of the dragon”, and according to ancient lore the dragon’s belly is the part of the beach where The Tubkaak sits.
“People who study energy know that this place has the healthiest Feng Shui,” she points outs, and I would be very hard pressed to disagree.