If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (THB5,923.08), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Space is the superpower of Cape Nidhra Hotel – not only the neatly landscaped area it occupies between beach and town on the Gulf coast, but also the generous proportions of its sleek, contemporary interiors – even ‘entry-level’ suites have a private pool and sun terrace. Then there’s the figurative breathing room that Cape Nidhra affords: an elegant spa, from-the-grounds beach access, and alfresco dinners and drinks at Rocks bring a cosseting sense of calm to any stay at this boutique bolthole.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A 30-minute back, neck and shoulder massage or 30-minute foot massage each
Noon; earliest check-in is at 3pm. And if you arrive earlier or need to loiter after check-out, you’re welcome to store your luggage and use the hotel’s communal spaces.
Prices
Double rooms from £150.04 (THB6,930), including tax at 17 per cent.
More details
Rates include buffet breakfast. Over New Year, a three-night minimum stay applies.
Also
Although there’s ramp access to communal areas, and ground-floor suites available, unfortunately none of Cape Nidhra’s rooms are specifically adapted for wheelchair users.
Please note
A minimum stay of three consecutive nights is required from 29 December until 1 January and there's no check-out on 31 December.
At the hotel
Kayaks to borrow; reading room; gym; gift shop; chauffeured golf cart around the resort, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: widescreen LCD TV, Bluetooth speaker, air-conditioning, minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, bathrobes, slippers, and custom bath products.
Our favourite rooms
There’s a suite for everyone at Cape Nidhra: all are sleek and contemporary in style with a private plunge pool and views over the grounds, starting with Sky Pool Suites. Deluxe Sky Pool Suites come with a ‘swimway’ between bathroom and pool; ground-level Garden Pool Suites have less natural light, but more space for families and the biggest pools of all; Moonlight Pool Suites are duplex with an upstairs sun terrace, and crowning the bunch is the Nidhrarom Suite, set over two floors, and the only suite with a sea view. A Family Pool Suite, with two of everything, is your multi-bedroom option.
Poolside
Between the restaurant and the beach, Cape Nidhra’s saltwater infinity pool is an accomplished number, edged by sunloungers and parasols at one end, and timbered-cabana day-beds to one side. Throw in sea views, and proximity to the hotel’s bar and restaurant, and this is a spot you could easily linger at all day. It has submerged, step entry and no lifeguard, and is open from 7am until 8pm daily. On a palm-dotted grassy terrace between the pool and the beach, there are more sea-facing sunloungers and parasols, as well as some lounging furniture on the sand itself.
Spa
New addition Cape Spa has a starring role in this boutique hotel’s allure – with six treatment rooms, a steam room and sauna, fashionably dressed space to lounge, and a good choice of therapies for face and body, including treatments for two, using the hotel group’s custom spa products. A glass-sided fitness centre is equipped with cardio machines, resistance trainers and free weights; yoga classes and personal training are also available.
Packing tips
Beach attire, yoga gear, glamorous threads for evening, and if you’re a devoted outdoor diner, insect repellent (just in case).
Also
Cape Nidhra is not Smith’s only Cape hotel, but joins its sister stays in our collection – the Thai island escapes of Cape Kudu and Cape Fahn.
There’s a grown-up feel to the luxurious suites at Cape Nidhra, but some are family-friendly and accommodate under-12s on extra beds, plus the hotel can arrange babysitting.
Sustainability efforts
There are nods to sound environmental practices at Cape Nidhra Hotel in the form of energy-efficient lighting and air-conditioning in rooms, water-conserving plumbing, and options to reuse your towels and turn down room-cleaning. In addition, efforts are made to keep the supply chain local and there’s no single-use plastic at the hotel.
On the terrace, poolside tables come with ocean views, but we also love the tables in the light-filled, glass-sided annexe.
Dress Code
That’s a green light on dressing for dinner – Rocks is an elegant space where, by evening, candlelight combined with diners in their finery bring the sense of occasion.
Hotel restaurant
Rocks is the hotel’s all-day restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner in a smartly appointed, high-ceilinged dining room of polished wood, oversized pendant lanterns, and sea-hued upholstery. As well as the main restaurant, tables extend into a conservatory-style annexe, and outdoors to tables beside the pool. Breakfast is a buffet affair of hot and cold plates, both sweet and savoury. For lunch and dinner, a seasonal menu focuses on Thai cuisine with a few Western comforts thrown in, and an emphasis on seafood; the fish (whatever’s fresh) is recommended, and occasionally the hotel hosts dining events such as barbecue nights. If you’ve an appetite for dining à deux soundtracked by the lapping ocean waves, staff can arrange a private dinner on the sand under a romantically draped timber-frame (book at least 24 hours ahead).
Hotel bar
On the Rocks Bar is the hotel’s evenings-only drinking den, set on a roof terrace above the restaurant, with a legion of scatter-cushion-plumped sofas taking advantage of the ocean views that its elevated perch affords (although there are tables indoors, too). Arrive for sunset cocktails – return for glasses of wine or spirits and mixers, after dinner until late.
Last orders
Rocks is open all day from 6.30am, serving breakfast until 10.30am, lunch until 6pm, and dinner between 6pm and 11pm. On the Rocks is open from 5pm until 1am.
Room service
You can order from the restaurant menu between 7am and 11pm, following breakfast, lunch and dinner service hours: between 11pm and 6.30am, a limited selection of snacks and drinks can be brought to your room.
Cape Nidhra Hotel is at the heart of Hua Hin, with an entrance off the main drag, and grounds that stretch to the resort’s sandy beachfront.
Planes
Hua Hin has a regional airport for domestic flights, but for international arrivals, Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports in Bangkok are the nearest, each around three hours and 15 minutes by road from the hotel, which will arrange private transfers from THB4,600 one-way for up to three people.
Trains
Hua Hin station is just over a kilometre from the hotel, and is served by trains from Krung Thep Aphiwat (KTW) in Bangkok, a four-hour journey away.
Automobiles
There’s free parking directly at the hotel, which is just off National Highway 4.
Other
A passenger ferry runs across the Gulf between Hua Hin and Pattaya, with a crossing time of around two-and-a-half hours.
Worth getting out of bed for
The concierge at Cape Nidhra can arrange a number of classes, including Thai cookery, and fruit carving; active options include yoga, Thai boxing or the art of Thai massage (should your treatments at Cape Spa so inspire you). The hotel has kayaks you can borrow for a paddle along the shoreline. Early-risers and/or the spiritually minded may wish to make an offering to the monks on their 6am constitutional along the beach (the hotel can arrange a suitable gift). Evening spectacles include the nearby Cicada Night Market (Friday to Sunday), which has all kinds of craft stalls, street food, and an entertainment ‘amphitheatre’. For a slightly gritter take on night markets, open daily, try the two blocks of stalls at the night market by Hua Hin Clock Tower, which is home to a colourful riot of stalls, peddling on-the-spot massages, fresh produce, and piles of seafood, in addition to its abundance of suitcase-filling souvenirs. Further afield, Monsoon Valley Winery runs tours of its vineyard and has an on-site restaurant. Or head an hour south to Khao Sam Roi Yot, a national park, where there’s a much visited (and posted on social) network of caves, Phraya Nakhon. For glimpses of Thailand’s wild elephants and more than 200 other wildlife species, it’s Kui Buri National Park (an 80-minute drive away) you want.
Local restaurants
At Cape Nidhra, you’re a 10-minute walk from Naresdamri Road, home to a scattering of indie seafood dining spots. Also nearby, Cicada Night Market and neighbouring Tamarind Market come with eateries to explore. For fine dining amid covetable coastal panoramas, Hua Hin’s larger resort hotels, dotted along its 12-mile-long beach, are also worth checking out. A 10-minute cab ride north of the hotel, Ko Mark restaurant is a modern warehouse-like dining spot that serves Thai plates of fresh seafood without pretension and has tables indoors and out. For finessed fish and shellfish (pan-fried fillets, clam noodles, piles of octopus and meltingly good ceviche) paired with a strong wine game, make the 20-minute trip south to Khao Tao beach and Som’s Table.
Local bars
Monsoon Valley Winery has a wine bar at Villa Market where you can taste its locally produced Shiraz, Merlot and Colombard.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this Thai beach hotel and unpacked their soap carvings and silks, a full account of their tropical getaway will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Cape Nidhra Hotel in Hua Hin…
Three hours along the coast from Bangkok, sprawling coastal town Hua Hin is populated with weekenders from the capital rubbing shoulders with international visitors. It’s a resort that’s evolved to span the 12 miles of superb sandy coastline here, and tucked among its glossy flagship hotels, boutique retreat Cape Nidhra Hotel is a welcome addition. The term ‘hidden gem’ is bandied about to the point of cliché, but in the case of this 60-suite stay turns out to be literal – its setting off the main national highway is the unlikeliest of entrances for what is a sleek, contemporary hotel of spacious suites, each with a private pool. Its service, too, is as slick as its polished timber and marble-decked interiors. An ocean-view infinity pool, smart restaurant and rooftop bar add to this beachfront hotel’s fly-and-flop appeal. And when you can manage to rowse yourself from your day-bed, there are kayaks to borrow, classes from cookery to boxing to try, and expeditions beyond Hua Hin to the region’s ravishing national parks to savour. Just make sure you leave time for a signature treatment at finessed oasis, the Cape Spa.
