Is The White Lotus season 3 hotel real?

The series always features beautiful hotels, but viewers want to know if the The White Lotus hotel seen in season 3 actually exists.

The highly anticipated third instalment of the excellent anthology series, The White Lotus, has finally landed. The darkly comic series with the spot on social commentary, takes dramedy to a whole new level. While seasons 1 and 2 filmed in Hawaii and Italy respectively, the season 3 location is Thailand and the island of Koh Samui.

Although we're still getting over the season 2 dramatic ending, the larger than life characters and longer length (eight episodes) of season 3 is so far easing some of the pain. The first two outings of the show also filmed in real hotels, and that's led to inevitable questions surrounding whether you can actually stay at the one featured in season 3 - we take a look.

Is The White Lotus season 3 hotel real?

Yes, the hotel found in The White Lotus season 3 is real, but there's a twist - different parts of four different hotels across Thailand were used for filming. Viewers won't be aware of this however, as the final edit of the show brings all four hotels together seamlessly, and they easily pass for just one hotel.

Hotels used for season 3 include the Four Seasons Koh Samui, Anantara Bophut Koh Samui, Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas and Rosewood Phuket. There's quite a distance between the locations, with the first two being situated on Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand, and Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas and Rosewood Phuket located around 200 miles away on the island of Koh Phuket.

The White Lotus Season 3 | Official Trailer | Max - YouTube

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According to People, series creator Mike White was initially reluctant to film in Thailand and didn't even want to scout for locations in the area - for quite an amusing reason. The filmmaker twice appeared on The Amazing Race, an American reality show in which teams of two race around the world.

First appearing in season 14 of the show along with his father Mel, the pair lasted for seven legs before being eliminated in sixth place in Phuket. Once in Phuket, White had to stay at the elimination station there, and didn't want to return to a place holding memories of losing.

However, he changed his mind when he heard about an exciting party happening at the Four Seasons Koh Samui and reluctantly sent a scout there anyway, to check it out. The hotel was found to be pretty perfect, with executive producer David Bernad saying, "It called our name, and I think it's fair to say that Mike has avenged his Koh Samui demons after shooting there."

However, while The Four Seasons ticked many lavish boxes, it didn't quite tick them all and showrunners needed to locate some equally stunning locations to fill the gaps.

The spa scenes were filmed at the Anantara Phuket, while the dining scenes were filmed across the different hotels - the characters eat breakfast at the Four Seasons Koh Samui, but evening dinner scenes were shot at the Rosewood in Phuket.

The reception at the Four Seasons although beautiful, couldn't accommodate the film crews shooting scenes where characters were checking in. Therefore, the much larger and more practical reception area at the Anantara Mai Khao was used instead.

Although the location hunt in Thailand didn't start out with much passion, it ended with the crew falling in love. "I get emotional talking about it. We really love the people and the culture," David Bernad says, concluding, "It's hard to put in words, just the warmth you feel as you travel through Thailand. We just fell in love."