Aquella Golf and Country Club

The verdict

Aquella is the marquee course of a vast coastal development at Thai Muang Beach in Phang Nga, the quieter province on the Andaman Sea just north of Phuket. The Australian firm Pacific Coast Design opened it in 2021, and it arrived with real ambition, a gently undulating par 72 of just over 7,000 yards routed across a wide, open site with the sea on one side and the limestone mountains on the other. In a region long served by a handful of older courses, Aquella is the new headline act.

What sets it apart is the space and the scenery. The design uses the rolling terrain and a network of lakes to frame long views in every direction, and the conditioning, on a course barely a few years old, is among the best on the Andaman coast. It plays to a fair par 72 from the right tees, generous enough for the holiday golfer yet long and varied enough to interest the better player. For the travelling golfer building a Phuket trip, Aquella is the reason to drive an hour north.

The holes worth the trip

Aquella plays bigger than its yardage suggests, not because it is brutally long but because the design uses width and movement to ask questions on every hole. Pacific Coast Design shaped broad, rolling fairways and tied the round together with lakes that come into play on the approach as often as off the tee, rewarding the player who picks a line and commits. The bunkering is generous in scale and clean in style, framing the targets against the open coastal sky.

The greens are the strength of a course this new, large, smooth and true, with enough contour to make position off the tee matter. The par 3s are particularly photogenic, several of them played across water with the sea or the mountains beyond, and the closing holes gather the course's best scenery into a strong finish. It is a modern resort course done well, built to be enjoyable for the holiday foursome and substantial enough to satisfy the low handicapper.

For the travelling golfer, Aquella is the freshest round on an Andaman golf trip. Pair it with the established courses around Phuket, the Blue Canyon layouts and Laguna, for a varied week, or combine it with the beaches of Khao Lak just up the coast for a golf and resort holiday away from the Phuket crowds.

Where to stay nearby

Most golfers play Aquella from a base in Khao Lak, the relaxed beach strip just up the coast in Phang Nga, where a run of resorts offers a quieter, more natural alternative to Phuket within easy reach of the first tee.

For a livelier stay, the resorts of northern Phuket, around Bang Tao and Laguna, sit roughly an hour south and put Aquella within range of a wider golf and beach trip taking in the island's established courses.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts in Phang Nga and Phuket.