Soneva Kiri
Forty-one hectares in one corner of an inhabited island, with the airstrip on a different island entirely.
Soneva Kiri holds forty-one hectares, about a hundred and two acres, of rainforest, hillside and bay in the northwest corner of Koh Kood, in the Gulf of Thailand near the Cambodian border. Koh Kood is the country's fourth largest island and its least populated: mangrove forest through the middle, fishing villages along the coast, homestays and small family places, and nothing taller than about three storeys. The resort holds a corner of it and is the only house of this kind on the island. The rest of Koh Kood belongs to the people who live there.
The estate opened in 2009 with villas among the largest built anywhere, from about 460 to nearly 3,000 square metres, set on the beach, up the hillsides and on the cliffs. Counts are published at twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-four and thirty-six, the last including eleven private residences. Arrival is the unusual part: the resort's own aircraft flies from Bangkok to a private airstrip on a neighbouring island, and guests transfer by speedboat. The dining pods hoisted into the canopy above the mangroves are the property's best-known invention, and the observatory and organic gardens sit inside the same forty-one hectares.
Infrastructure outside the boundary. The airstrip that makes this place reachable is not on this island at all. The estate is forty-one hectares here and a runway somewhere else, joined by five minutes of open water.
A corner, not a kingdom. Koh Kood is inhabited, worked and quiet on its own account. What the resort bought was the northwest bay; what keeps the island empty is that almost nobody else has built on it.
Who it is not for
Soneva Kiri is wrong for travellers who dislike small aircraft, since the only practical arrival is the resort's own plane and a boat. It is wrong for anyone who wants a destination with a scene, because Koh Kood has villages and waterfalls and very little else. It is wrong for guests who need certainty about dates: the property has been reported under renovation and is listed elsewhere under a new name. For a Soneva that owns its whole island, Soneva Fushi is on the same shelf.
Sources
- Independent reviews - site of forty-one hectares, about a hundred and two acres, in the northwest of Koh Kood, Thailand's fourth largest and least populated island; villas from about 460 to 2,926 square metres; arrival by the resort's aircraft to a private airstrip on a neighbouring island, then about five minutes by speedboat
- Operator material - opened 2009; treepod dining hoisted into the canopy; spa, observatory and organic gardens within the grounds
Verification
- Official source
- Not yet checked
- Sources disagree
- accommodation is published as twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-four and thirty-six, the last including eleven private residences.
- Property confirmation
- Pending
- Last verified
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Booking
Private Resorts arranges each stay on request, quoting the rates available for the resort and dates. No benefit should be assumed unless it is confirmed in writing for the individual reservation.
Request a proposalClassified by The Resort Collection House · The Register · Edition 2026 · LHL-E-318
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