Shantaa Resort

Arriving by speedboat or ferry from Trad, guests are met at the pier beside Shantaa and driven the short distance to the resort by truck. That pier was never built for visitors. In 1995 the land was given by the family that still runs Shantaa so the district's west side could reach a boat to the mainland; the resort followed roughly a decade later, and the pier still handles fishing boats, freight and passengers alongside guests watching the sunset from the sand nearby.

Shantaa holds twenty-five rooms across a wide plot on Koh Kood, Thailand's easternmost island, split between two beaches and a private canal. The south beach is part sand, part rock, good for snorkelling, and runs into a public stretch of coconut-lined shore beyond the pier. The north beach is quieter, better for paddle boards and kayaking on the canal than for swimming, and holds the resort's marble pool. A beach bar serves the south side; a small café called Gathi sits by the canal on the north. Staff are largely islanders, trained in English rather than raised on it. The island itself has no chain stores, little nightlife and freshwater that can run short in high season. It is not a polished place. That, guests are told plainly, is the point.