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A quarter century ago, Anantara Hotels & Resorts began its journey with the opening of its first resort on the shores of Hua Hin, Thailand. Today, its unique brand of authentic luxury can be experienced around the world.
BY PAUL HENDERSON
The Riviera Sailaway experience at Anantara Plaza Nice Hotel
Anantara has quietly revolutionised the luxury hotel market. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the future looks brighter than ever.
Sailing the seas of southern Thailand, gliding underwater with manta rays in the Maldives, uncovering the cultural wonders of Europe’s most captivating cities – journeys with Anantara stretch near and far. This year, the brand reached a proud milestone, celebrating 25 years of delivering extraordinary experiences since the launch of the first Anantara resort in Hua Hin.
Anantara was created with the aim of bringing immersive and authentic luxury to travellers – a special type of hospitality characterised by the warm-hearted nature of Thai service culture. The brand’s founder, William E. Heinecke, felt there was something missing in the big luxury brands that dominated the luxury market at the time.
“We wanted Anantara to represent authentic local luxury that felt natural, not formulaic,” he recalls. “We wanted to create something that had a true ‘sense of place’ and make it a real destination experience.”
The recently renovated Anantara Hua Hin Resort
What followed was Anantara’s debut property: Anantara Hua Hin Resort, in Thailand’s royal resort town. Overlooking the Gulf of Thailand, the resort to this day invites guests to find respite in its serene seaside gardens – landscaped by Bill Bensley – and in its elegant Thai-style villas dotted amid tropical plants and palm trees. In the centre of the resort, a lagoon-shaped pool with a thatch-roofed swim-up bar set the blueprint for luxury poolside lazing in Thailand. Beside a lotus-flecked lagoon, the now-iconic Anantara Spa has inspired many imitations with its petal-strewn stone tubs and private suites cloistered behind towering ochre doors.
A picnic with elephants at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort
The Anantara name is inspired by the Sanskrit word meaning ‘without end’, a symbol of the heartfelt care that lies at the core of every Anantara experience – and a hint at endless adventures into local culture, nature and heritage. Bringing that ethos to new destinations, Anantara found roots in other parts of Thailand, offering experiences in more remote locales and explorations down lesser-trodden paths. In Chiang Rai, Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort made it possible for guests to walk jungle trails beside rescued elephants. Further south, Anantara Bophut Koh Samui Resort created a seaside space for Ayurvedic wellness and brought travellers island-hopping through limestone karsts to hidden turquoise coves.
Overwater dining at Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas
Beyond Thailand, there was a place for the Anantara footprint to make its mark overseas. “The obvious destination was the Maldives,” Heinecke recalls.
Anantara Dhigu Maldives Resort was the first to open in the archipelago, with overwater villas floating above a translucent lagoon and beach villas that opened up to powder-fine sands. The resort has since been joined by more in the Maldives: the refined, adults-only Anantara Veli Maldives Resort and the multi-award-winning Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas, where guests survey the constellations from the resort’s private observatory.
Guests have immersed in Omani heritage at Al Baleed Resort Salalah by Anantara, taken safari adventures at The Royal Livingstone Victoria Falls Zambia Hotel by Anantara, and stayed in grand, historic buildings of Anantara Palais Hansen Vienna Hotel and Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Rome Hotel in Europe. In Vietnam, rail travellers have boarded The Vietage by Anantara vintage carriage in Hoi An and alighted in Quy Nhon after a gourmet-catered day trip along the spectacular Vietnamese coast.
Anantara delivers much more than just luxury experiences. For a quarter of a century, the brand has been committed to environmental sustainability, wildlife protection and community welfare. At many Anantara resorts around the world, guests can contribute to this work, whether walking with elephants, planting coral fragments or supporting local farmers and makers. For all the guest-facing initiatives at Anantara, there are as many – or more – happening behind the scenes.
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