The White Lotus Season 3: Samui, Phuket and Bangkok

The season opens at the story's White Lotus resort with gunshots, a meditation session cut short and a body floating in a lake, then rewinds a week to the guests arriving. Most of that resort is the Four Seasons: it supplied the villas, paths, swimming pool and every breakfast and lunch scene, including the pool where Saxon and Lochlan loiter in episode 1. Mike White first refused to scout Ko Samui, remembering it from The Amazing Race, yet bookings there have risen 65% since the premiere. The real resorts have no sandbar and no monkeys.

The Four Seasons had the view but not a lobby built for filming check-ins, so reception and spa scenes were shot at the Anantara Mai Khao Phuket instead. That covers the welcome in episode 1, when Sritala, Fabian and the health mentors greet the new guests, and the spa where Belinda and Pornchai swap their signature massages in episode 2. Belinda has come from the Maui resort on a three-month work exchange. The resort sits inside a nature preserve, so the birds and the monitor lizard that later startles Belinda were real.

Gaitok's job is the parking lot and the gate, and the driveway, security station and jewelry store were filmed at the Anantara Bophut on Ko Samui. In episode 2 Chelsea shops at the resort boutique with Chloe, using Greg's credit card. Valentin chats to Gaitok about an upcoming Muay Thai match, and a distracted Gaitok lets an SUV past the barrier. A masked man steals jewelry at gunpoint and strikes Gaitok on the head. Only in episode 7 does Gaitok recognize the robbers as Valentin's friends.

The Four Seasons restaurant was too dark at night to film dinners, so every evening dining scene was shot at a restaurant at the Rosewood Phuket. The cast and crew worked through the night and ended with a group breakfast. In episode 2 a band of resort employees plays while guests eat, and Sritala proves an excellent singer. Rick and Chelsea dine with Chloe and her boyfriend, whom she introduces as "Gary" and who claims to be retired. Belinda appears to recognize him, and in episode 3 she approaches him at dinner, asking after Tanya.

In episode 5 Rick travels to Bangkok to meet his friend Frank, played by Sam Rockwell, who discreetly hands him a gun. Over drinks Frank explains how legal troubles brought him to Thailand and how he is now exploring sobriety and Buddhism. His monologue was filmed at the Mandarin Oriental on the Chao Phraya River, the first hotel built in Thailand when it opened as The Oriental in 1876. Rockwell replaced Woody Harrelson, shot his scenes in one week and stayed unannounced until this episode aired. Walton Goggins said the speech was word for word what White wrote.

Visitor guidance: A working five-star hotel on the Chao Phraya River.

In episode 7 Laurie leaves a tense dinner with Jaclyn and Kate to watch Muay Thai with Valentin, Aleksei and Vlad, while Gaitok and Mook go on a date to the same fight. There Gaitok recognizes Aleksei and Vlad as the men who robbed the boutique. The scene was filmed at Bangla Boxing Stadium in Patong, called the most famous stadium in Phuket, which typically hosts fights three to four nights a week.

Location precision: The stadium has moved from its original site on Bangla Road to a larger venue behind Jungceylon; the sources do not say which hosted the shoot, so the pin marks the current stadium.

Visitor guidance: The stadium typically hosts fights 3 to 4 nights a week.