Villa Shanti at Jivana

Villa Shanti sits right on the sand at Natai Beach, just north of Phuket, a long, quiet shore of fine pale sand backed by coconut palms and open to the Andaman Sea. The villa is a cluster of five Thai-style pavilions with dark timber, steep tiled roofs and wide sliding doors, spread across around six and a half thousand square metres of lawn running down to some sixty metres of beach frontage. It feels serene and spacious, a place where the loudest sound is the surf.

At its heart is a twenty-five-metre infinity pool tiled in black, so still that it mirrors the palms and the sky, with sun loungers and big umbrellas along its length and a separate shallow wading pool for toddlers. A poolside sala with a cushioned day bed looks out over the lawns to the sea, and at dusk the whole garden glows as the pavilions are lit up. The Great Room, the open-sided main living pavilion, catches the sea breeze, and a long dining table seats up to twenty beside a modern, well-equipped kitchen.

The six air-conditioned bedrooms are split between two pavilions of three, each with direct access to the garden or the beach, generous wardrobes, a sitting area and its own bathroom. A family room in a separate pavilion has a television, a library and board games for slower afternoons. A villa manager, an in-house chef cooking Thai and Western dishes, housekeeping, gardeners and security look after everything, breakfast is included, and massages can be arranged in the villa.