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It’s been a while since we stepped inside the five-star luxe of The White Lotus, but this month we’re finally back. Having confirmed a new season in November 2022, the show that joyfully combines farce, black comedy and just enough closely observed sympathy to skewer the more problematic aspects of luxury travel returns.
With it comes a new cast of characters, every bit as enticing as the previous two star-studded line-ups. There’s North Carolina financier Timothy Ratliff, played by Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs, with his ennui-ridden wife Victoria (Parker Posey) and three children played by Patrick Schwarzenegger (son of Arnie), Alessandro Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook. There’s a trio of three friends carrying their childhood bonds into middle age, played by Carrie Coon (Fargo, The Leftovers, the Ghostbusters sequels), Michelle Monaghan (Mission Impossible III, True Detective) and Leslie Bibb( Juror #2, Iron Man). We’re also treated to suspiciously odd couple Rick (Walton Goggins, of Fallout and Justified) and, as Chelsea, Aimee Lou Wood of Sex Education fame.
As before, White presents this season’s tangle of privileged problems around a theme. We’ve had money in Hawaii and sex in Sicily, and this time, it’s what he calls, “a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality”. We’ve known for a while that the setting would be Thailand, and this outpost of the fictional White Lotus would be on the island of Koh Samui. And again, proving that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, filming took place in a real-life Four Seasons resort. As before, it’s a backdrop that justifies binge-watching by itself, even before you factor in the exquisite torture White inflicts on his characters.
Keep reading to find out everything we know about the latest season, and for our guide to the paradise settings used in each series.
Where is the hotel in season three of The White Lotus?
Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui
The hotel in Season three is the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui. Opened in 2007, this five-star establishment covers over 40 acres of former coconut plantation (retaining 856 coconut trees on its grounds) on the island's north-western tip. It is built into the hillside, giving spectacular views of the Gulf of Siam. Designed to echo traditional southern Thai architecture with thatched roofs and teak timbers, it’s particularly notable for the number of monkey statues that overlook the entire hotel—a feature used to dramatic effect by White in the show.
The hotel comprises 71 villas, of which 11 are superlative private residences, with up to four rooms and private infinity pools, as occupied by the Ratliff family. Filming took place in various rooms, with the cast also staying at the hotel during the filming period—a mixed blessing, according to Jason Isaacs, who told The Guardian, “It’s a kind of crucible, a five-star gilded cage. There’s no question that sometimes it is absolutely fabulous, and sometimes it’s Lord of the Flies.”
We see the full gamut of the hotel’s amenities, from the swimming pools and palm-lined paths to the gym and Spirit House (a small prayer room) and the wonderful water hammocks suspended over the water just off the beach, which, uniquely for Koh Samui, can be accessed only by the hotel guests.
Also featured heavily is the hotel’s Koh Thai Kitchen restaurant, which is also featured heavily, with a series of open pavilions used for breakfast and lunch scenes. For dinner scenes, however, the production used the Ta Khai restaurant at another hotel, the Rosewood on Phuket, the much larger island that acted as the secondary location for the series. Meanwhile, The hotel bar was at a third location, the Anantara Lawana Koh Samui Resort, on the island's north-east coast, close to the famous Chaweng beach. Constructed in line with the top branches of an ancient tree, the Singing Bird Lounge is famed for the background of birdsong.
Where is the spa in season three of The White Lotus?
Anantara Mai Khao Phuket
A highlight of the season is the return of Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), the spa manager we first met in Season One’s Hawaii. While most of the hotel locations are at the Four Seasons, scenes in her Wellness Centre were filmed at the Anantara Mai Khao Phuket, on the island's north. Here, visitors can connect their minds and bodies surrounded by lotus ponds and pools in pavilions open to the air or glass-walled, choosing from a treatment menu that includes bamboo massage, chakra crystal balancing, and Thai warrior massage.
Where is the Buddhist monastery in season three of The White Lotus?
Wat Pu Khao Thong, Koh Samui
Following the lead of Season Two, our visit to the White Lotus world takes us out of the hotel environment as characters explore the area around them. One of the most intriguing of these visits is to a temple, which was filmed at Wat Pu Khao Thong on the north coast of Koh Samui.
The ornately decorated exterior of this small building and the Buddha inside were filmed as they appear in real life. The garden, however, is, in fact, part of the Dusit Dheva, a fine arts and cultural centre to the west of the island. A treasure trove of artifacts from Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Laos, this centre lends the show its landscaped lawns, which are filled with the sculptures we see, depicting mythical figures from Buddhist stories.
Koh Samui
In addition to the hotel, Koh Samui has several other locations for season three. The new visitors to The White Lotus arrive at Mu Ko Ang Thong National Marine Park, an archipelago west of Koh Samui, previously featured in the film The Beach. We also visit the white sands of Choeng Mon Beach on Samui’s northeastern peninsula. Another beach featured is Haad Rin on the neighbouring island Koh Phangan, which hosts the famous Full Moon Party, which is heavily featured in the series trailer.
Also appearing is the Fisherman’s Village, also on the north coast, famed for its night market, which has grown from stalls selling clothes, souvenirs and food into a major destination. The venue hosted partying scenes and a Songkran water fight, a Thai New Year tradition. According to Der Spiegel, it also became a cast favorite, with Walter Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood becoming regulars at the Thai Tapas stall on Thanon Bo Phut.
Phuket
For the season’s secondary location, shoots took place across the island, including further arrival scenes shot on Ya Nui Beach at the very southern tip. We also visit the Phuket Yacht Haven Marina on the north-east coast, and Café Del Mar on Kamala Beach to the east, a spot favoured by those looking for a chilled atmosphere advertised as “where Ibiza meets Phuket”.
A key location is Bangla Boxing in the Pa Tong area, where the trio of Kate, Laurie and Jaclyn watch Muay Thai (Thai boxing) with the hotel’s Russian yoga instructor Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius) and, this being The White Lotus, tensions inevitably surface.
Bangkok
Filming also took place in the Thai capital, though the production has been tight-lipped about just where. Definitely in the frame is the revered Mandarin Oriental, the country’s first hotel, originally opened in 1876. The word is that its Bamboo Bar, the teak-lined '50s jazz bar, features, but for the answer to this mystery we’ll have to tune in.
Where was season two of The White Lotus filmed?
San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel
For the second series, just Jennifer Coolidge and Jon Gries returned from the cast as the emotionally incontinent Tanya and her lover (now husband) Greg. Joining them was a roll call even more impressive than first time round, including Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos, F Murray Abraham (Homeland, Amadeus), Aubrey Plaza of Parks and Recreation fame, Will Sharpe of Giri/Haji, Theo James (Divergent, The Time Traveler’s Wife) and the brilliant Tom Hollander (The Night Manager, Pirates of the Caribbean).
This time, most of the action takes place at the San Domenico Palace hotel in Taormina, on the northeast coast of Sicily. Situated high on the rocks a little inland, it overlooks the Ionian Sea, Mount Etna and an ancient amphitheatre, built in the Greek style by the Romans. As well as the still-active Etna, the town is famous for its proximity to the Isola Bella nature reserve and for its medieval architecture, which put it on the map for the aristocratic Grand Tour of the 19th century.
The San Domenico is almost as famous itself, built on the site of a 15th-century monastery and incorporating several historic features. In its original incarnation, opened with the addition of a Grand Hotel Wing in 1896, it hosted famous faces – from Oscar Wilde to Audrey Hepburn and Edward VII—and its fame has not been lessened by its 2021 refurbishment as a member of the Four Seasons Group. With 111 rooms including suites and speciality suites, it features a spa, fine-dining restaurant Principe Cerami and pool-terrace diner Anciovi, courtyards and gardens that date back to the time of the monks, and an outdoor infinity pool that wins plenty of screen time in The White Lotus.
This is certainly not its first time on film, either. Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1960 classic L’Avventura ended in the hotel, and it was also where the divers of 1988’s The Big Blue stay while preparing for a big competition.
Noto
Unlike season one, filmed under strict covid lockdown conditions, this season allowed the characters to leave the confines of the hotel. As Mike White told Entertainment Weekly, this was a bonus: “I'm not going to complain about being at the Four Seasons Maui, but you do start to feel like it was a Hawaiian Shining. It was cool this season to be able to feature more of the city and some of the iconic places in Sicily. The canvas gets much bigger and that's a huge improvement.”
As well as the town of Taormina, and a yacht trip on the Ionian, this included a visit to Noto, in the south-east of the island. Famed for its baroque architecture, dating to the early 18th century following a devastating earthquake, this town featured in the recent big-screen adaptation of Cyrano. For The White Lotus, it became the venue for a day trip where Harper (Aubrey Plaza) and Daphne (Meghann Fahy) converse in the limestone piazza and take in the Palazzo Ducezio and the cathedral on Corso Vittorio Emanuele.
Cefalù
This coastal town close to Palermo on the island’s north coast provided another outing for the assembled characters. The architecture here dates back to medieval times, with a Norman cathedral and streets blending into a popular beach resort. The harbour featured in the film Cinema Paradiso as the venue for an outdoor screening of Kirk Douglas’s Ulysses. It’s close to the Piazza Marina that features in The White Lotus, though most of the filming for the series took place on the seafront by the Sea Palace Hotel on Lungomare Giuseppe Giardina.
Where was season one of The White Lotus filmed?
Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea
As well as Jennifer Coolidge, season one's pitch-perfect cast included Connie Britton of Nashville fame and the immaculate Murray Bartlett as highly complicated hotel manager Armond, but really it was all about creator/writer/director Mike White—and the location, that is: the very real Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea.
The two came together when HBO asked White to dream up a show that could be made under covid guidelines. With a single location a necessity, his thoughts turned to childhood holidays, which for him were in Hawaii. He liked the place so much, he bought a house at Hanalei on Kauai, and the recent arrival of billionaire ‘tech bros’ as his neighbors fed into the story. “At first, it’s, like, ‘It’s so beautiful! I’m in touch with nature and it’s so healing,’” he told The New Yorker. “Then you realize it’s on the backs of people who’ve had a complicated history with people like me.” The result was The White Lotus, written at speed in August 2020 and filmed at leisure from October to December, with cast and crew quarantined in the resort for the duration.
Opened in 1990, the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea lives up to the tropical-paradise clichés with ease, with some of the suites we see in the show costing up to $26,000 a night. Alongside the 380 guest rooms and suites, its 15 acres house three pools, three restaurants (including Wolfgang Puck’s Spago), three golf courses, a spa and an art museum. Amazingly, White and his crew were given almost free rein, from the entrance and lobby to the restaurants, the spa and even the neighboring Wailea Beach.
Key to the drama are the suites, all carefully decorated to reflect their occupants while keeping to strict ground rules laid down by the resort. While they couldn’t paint the rooms, they could change the materials, bedding and curtains – an important factor, as production designer Laura Fox explained to Architectural Digest: “They’re lovely rooms, but not to film in. I think [my job] was trying to find a version of a new hotel that was kitschy and flawed and rich, like the characters.”
The Palm Suite, home-from-home to honeymooners Shane (Jake Lacy) and Rachel (Alexandra Daddario), is one of the resort’s Elite Oceanfront Suites – given what Fox called an ‘anti-beach’ makeover with vintage greens, velvet and hanging lights. The White Lotus’s other honeymoon suite, the Pineapple, is the Lokelani Presidential Suite – at 4,500 square feet, the hotel’s (and Hawaii’s) largest, with three bedrooms, five bathrooms and two living rooms. This was given a palette of yellow, green and brown with, of course, pineapple motifs.
For volatile Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge), who arrives with her mother’s ashes in a plastic bag, the Hibiscus Suite was created in one of the Oceanfront Prime Suites, with pinks and reds expressly designed to clash with her sartorial fondness for bright prints. Then, for the Mossbacher family, led by tech exec Nicole (Britton), the Tradewinds Suite was created from the Maile Presidential Suite, with a range of blues and very Seventies Hawaiian art. This was the biggest departure from the real hotel: in the show’s Tradewinds, the Mossbacher kids sleep in the living room, but the Maile is in fact the Four Seasons Maui’s second-largest suite, with three bedrooms, four bathrooms and full sauna included.
Wailea Beach
Outside the rooms and restaurants, it’s water that matters. Beach scenes focusing on Quinn Mossbacher (Fred Hechinger) were filmed on Wailea Beach – steps away from the hotel, just as we see on screen. For the swimming pools, meanwhile, the action focused on two of the three, leaving the child-friendly Waterfall Pool in the background. For Quinn and his father’s scuba lessons, it’s the Fountain Pool, which sits at the centre of the property. We spend plenty of time at the Serenity Pool, where Shane and Rachel take a cabana, the Mossbacher girls read waterside and Quinn is seen wading to the swim-up bar carrying his phone and console at arm’s length, like holy relics.
