In the new season of HBO’s The White Lotus, Jason Isaacs plays wealthy North Carolina businessman Timothy Ratliff, who learns his fortune and freedom are at stake while vacationing with his wife (Parker Posey) and kids (Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola). The veteran character actor spent the better part of last year filming in Thailand, a place he found dramatically beautiful but “tooth-meltingly hot” as he put it while listing his top recommendations for a visit.
Located in the lesser-developed northwest of the island Koh Samui, the Four Seasons offers 60 villas and private residences cascading into a valley redolent with tropical flowers and alive with birdsong. Residence No. 9 served as the Ratliff family villa, a luxurious hilltop multi-level domicile featuring four bedrooms, two infinity pools, a private chef, and stunning views.
The Four Seasons combines with several hotels to make up the series’ fictional White Lotus, including the Anantara Lawana and the Anantara Bophut on Koh Samui, as well as the Anantara Mai Khao Phuket. That hotel’s jungle pathways, charming footbridges and removed lotus-strewn waterways is where masseuse Belinda (Natasha Rothwell, from Season 1) learns new spa techniques and searches for the killer of Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge, from Season 2). Shooting locations there include Belinda’s room, (Suite No. 45), as well as the show’s spa (with massage parlors shot at Anantara Bophut). Their “Lotus Awakening” ritual includes chakra crystal balancing and sound healing therapy while its restaurant, La Sala, has a menu called the “Lotus Season” dinner.
But the best place to eat, according to Isaacs, isn’t at a hotel. It’s at the night markets prevalent throughout Thailand. “We went where Thai people ate and other places where Thai people were circulating. I like the spring rolls,” he says. “On the first night I went out with my family, we went to a market and there was a stall that had locusts and crickets and big bugs and worms and cockroaches and stuff. And I challenged them to eat it.”
Lying on the beach is always a welcome reprieve, but during the summer temps can rise to 115 degrees with 100 percent humidity. So best to stick to shady jungles like the kind you find at Khao Sok National Park in Southern Thailand. “We did a day safari. We were walking in, amongst and around poisonous snakes and gibbons and tarantulas and monitor lizards,” Isaacs recalls. “This guide loved the jungle and lived in the jungle. There’s a freshwater lake and you can live in floating bungalows on the lake.”
Getting there is a breeze on Cathay Pacific, transferring in Hong Kong for Bangkok with a one-hour connection to Koh Samui. Business class offers Michelin-starred inflight dining, care of Duddell’s (Cantonese) and Louise (Italian), as well as sommelier-selected wines or teetotaler specialties like coconut milk, kiwi or mint. If you plan to go, book now. After Season 1 of The White Lotus aired in 2021, the show’s location, Maui’s Four Seasons, saw patronage jump 25 percent. Season 2, filmed at Four Seasons San Domenico Palace in Sicily, sold out the hotel for 2023. And Thailand has registered a 21 percent jump in tourism since the beginning of the year.
“It’s a country that has so much to offer, so much incredible natural beauty and spiritual beauty,” offers Isaacs. “The sights are amazing, the temples are amazing, all of it is amazing. It will have a lasting effect on you.”
