This was published 8 years ago
Review: Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin, Thailand
By John Borthwick
THE PLACE
Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin, Thailand.
THE LOCATION
The Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin has a faultless location.
Occupying 13 manicured hectares on the Gulf of Thailand beachfront is a flying start for any resort. The country was still called Siam when Hua Hin's first resort, the Railway Hotel – now known as the Centara Grand Beach Resort – opened in 1923 to accommodate visitors to King Rama VI's nearby summer palace. (You can tell when today's royals are at home by the Thai navy vessels moored just offshore.)
THE SPACE
The Centara Grand Hua Hin has 207 guestrooms and suites in a range of six configurations, plus 42 luxurious villas, some with private pools. A consistent visual aesthetic of "Old Siam" is maintained across the property, including in more recently added wings. Part of the original Colonial Wing, now the elegant Museum Coffee and Tea Corner, featured in the 1984 movie, The Killing Fields, doubling as a Phnom Penh foreign embassy. The true scene-stealer here, however, is in the grounds: a wondrous, motionless stampede of topiary elephants, deer, peacocks and giant rabbits.
The tepid gulf waters are generally calm with mostly ankle-slapper waves.
THE KIT
My room, a Junior Suite, is in the Colonial Wing. Full-length windows with wooden shutters, a broad, well-shaded balcony, polished teak flooring and silk fabrics retain the period ambience without descending to retro twee. There's a lack of direct sunlight – which was probably a virtue in the non-airconditioned tropics of 1923 – but the rooms have ample lighting (and cooling), and are not over-furnished. The marble-floored bathroom, with walk-in dressing room, has a classic, deep bathtub where a clutch of aromatic French products encourage one to soak there with a good novel or companion or both. A fine mosquito net ascends like a cloud over the four-poster bed when the turndown team visits each evening. Internet, mini-bar, safe, television, and coffee and tea facilities are all present and functioning.
COMFORT FACTOR
One of the pools at Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin.Credit: John Borthwick
At the in-house Cenvaree Spa, I opt for the aptly named muscle melt massage, which dissolves me into an endorphin daze. I recover to note the resort's sportif options, including beach volleyball, tennis, table tennis, petanque, sea kayaking, putting greens and a fitness centre – which I promise, sort of, to get back to. And don't. Instead I take plunges into two of the Centara's four large swimming pools, and revel in just striding out on the long ocean beach. Beyond the beach, bath and feedbag, comfort here is also wandering, unmediated, in the vast green gardens and fresh sea air.
THE FOOD
Moderation is hardly on the menu. The Centara is serious about quality dining in its five outlets. I sample lunch in the Suan Bua Thai restaurant (go for the crabmeat with glass noodles, plus steamed prawns with lemongrass) and another at the Palm Seafood Pavilion (char-grilled salmon and tartlet of grilled vegetables). If you stretch a late lunch long enough you can then just roll a few paces over to the adjacent seafront Palm Terrace for sundowners. Meanwhile, the Museum Lounge, all wicker whatnots, palms and tessellated marble, dishes a daily afternoon high tea of sandwiches and killer scones. By night, the themed Railway Restaurant features Thai and Western mains, with especially good pasta, foie gras and tiramisu. There's even a fair shiraz, a "new latitude" wine, from Hua Hin's Monsoon Valley Winery. My last supper (so to speak) is an eclectic combo of sashimi and flash teppanyaki at the Hagi Japanese restaurant.
STEPPING OUT
The beach at your doorstep is free of the rental chairs, touts and jet-skis that plague many popular Thai beaches. The tepid gulf waters are generally calm with mostly ankle-slapper waves. Just inland of the hotel sits Hua Hin Railway Station (its historic Royal Waiting Room looks like a cross between a Buddhist temple and a ticket office) plus the vibrant Night Market. North of town is the vast Maruekatayawan Palace, a restored treasure billed as "The Longest Golden Teak Palace in the World", while to the south you'll find uncrowded Khao Takiab beach and Khao Sam Roi Yot ("Mountain of 300 Peaks") National Park with its beautiful Phraya Nakhon Cave. Golf is still the hottest game in town and with nine quality courses nearby this is virtually the gulf of golf.
HOW TO GET THERE
Hua Hin is 200 kilometres by road south-west of Bangkok. The drive from Suvarnabhumi Airport takes three hours; fares are about $300 for a hotel limo, $100 for a meter taxi and $12 by coach. Express trains run from Bangkok's Hualamphong Station. There is no air shuttle.
THE VERDICT
Each time I've visited here, across two decades, this retreat has raised its game a notch higher. Its uniqueness endures, thanks to the aristocratic provenance, massive grounds and excellent service. The flash-bang world outside stays right where it belongs – outside. The Centara's pavilions, balconies, louvres and "grand entrance" staircases are an analogue of a different time – a reminder that they don't make hotels like this anymore.
ESSENTIALS
Online sites offer a room rate from $262 a night. Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin, 1 Damnernkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Khirikhan, 77110 Thailand. Phone: +66 (0) 3251 2021. www.centarahotelsresorts.com
John Borthwick was a guest of the hotel.
Highlight: A sense of historic time and gracious space.
Lowlight: A dark room, but it was built well shaded "back then" before airconditioning.
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