Where Was The White Lotus Season 3 Filmed? Every Major Location Explained

Within the first season of Mike White’s globe-trotting anthology sequence “The White Lotus,” actors like Connie Britton, Steve Zahn, Murray Bartlett, Jennifer Coolidge, and Natasha Rothwell introduced their characters to the stunningly lovely island of Maui in Hawai’i. Then, for the second go-around, White and his forged, including a returning Coolidge alongside Michael Imperioli, F. Murray Abraham, Aubrey Plaza, Meghann Fahy, and Theo James, headed to the city of Taormina in Sicily. Clearly, White — and HBO, the community behind “The White Lotus” — will spare no expense to shoot on location. So, the place was Season 3 shot?

Back when the Season 2 finale aired in December of 2022, White revealed that the third season would have a non secular bent in a featurette that ran on HBO and Max alongside the episode, saying, “The primary season sort of highlighted cash, after which the second season is intercourse. I feel the third season could be possibly a satirical and humorous have a look at loss of life and Japanese faith and spirituality. It feels prefer it might be a wealthy tapestry to do one other spherical at White Lotus” (by way of Variety). With that in thoughts, it is smart that White and his crew introduced the third season of “The White Lotus” to Thailand, a Southeast Asian paradise full of cityscapes, mountain vistas, beautiful seashores, and clear blue oceans. 

Questioning the place they particularly shot the third season of White’s Emmy-winning sequence (which brings Rothwell again into play and introduces a whole new cast of badly-behaved wealthy characters)? Listed below are among the main areas that White and HBO used for “The White Lotus” Season 3.

As a result of the primary two seasons of “The White Lotus” shot at 4 Seasons properties in Hawai’i and Sicily, respectively (a reality confirmed by Conde Nast Traveler‘s ongoing protection of the present’s capturing areas), it is not an enormous shock that Mike White and his crew picked a 3rd lodge within the world-famous chain for Season 3. Situated on Thailand’s second-largest island Koh Samui, HBO’s official press notes for “The White Lotus” verify that the 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui serves as the placement for a lot of the lodge’s pictures, together with the sprawling pool, frequent areas, the restaurant the place characters like buddies Kate (Leslie Bibb), Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan), and Laurie (Carrie Coon) eat lunch, and a number of other of the villas, together with these belonging to mismatched couple Chelsea and Rick (Aimee Lou Wooden and Walton Goggins) and the rich Ratliff household from North Carolina (together with Jason Isaacs’ Timothy, Parker Posey’s Victoria, Patrick Schwarzenegger’s Saxon, Sarah Catherine Hook’s Piper, and Sam Nivola’s Lochlan).

Once more, it is smart that White returned to a 4 Seasons property for the lion’s share of the areas in “The White Lotus” Season 3, most of which spotlight the hotel’s many amenities, together with the very actual spa (within the present, Rothwell’s character Belinda is there to coach with fellow spa workers). Apparently, the mere act of filming on the 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui mimicked the stress seen in “The White Lotus.” In a bit from The Guardian sharing behind-the-scenes secrets and techniques for Season 3, Isaacs mentioned the next about his time on the resort: 

“It is a sort of crucible, a five-star gilded cage. There is not any query that generally it’s completely fabulous, and generally it is ‘Lord of the Flies.'”

What is stunning in Season 3 of “The White Lotus” is that Mike White did not stick to simply 4 Seasons properties (although, it must be mentioned, this season is the primary of the three so far to shoot in a world not present process strict COVID protocols). A number of of the scenes set within the (clearly fictional) White Lotus lodge weren’t filmed on the 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui; moderately, they have been shot at varied properties beneath the Anantara umbrella.

Whereas Anantara has luxurious resort properties all around the world, solely a handful of those positioned in Thailand have been utilized in Season 3 of “The White Lotus.” The bar, which is featured within the first episode when a lonely Chelsea meets a brand new buddy named Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon), is definitely the Singing Hen Lounge at Anantara’s Lawana Koh Samui Resort. In the meantime, spots just like the lodge foyer, the safety room — the place we spend time with guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) — and the jewellery retailer that will get robbed with Chelsea current within the season’s second episode are all positioned at one other Anantara resort, Anantara Bophut, which can also be positioned in Koh Samui. Apparently, although, the spots the place Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda spends most of her scenes, which means the “wellness sanctuary and spa” and Belinda’s non-public room, have been filmed at Anantara Mai Khao Phuket. Phuket, because it have been, is an hour-long flight (or a six-hour drive) away from Koh Samui.

You may suppose, should you’re not paying shut consideration, that the restaurant on the 4 Seasons Resort Koh Samui — the place the characters on “The White Lotus” Season 3 take pleasure in relaxed lunches — could be the identical one they go to at dinner. However you’ll be mistaken there! The Rosewood Phuket is the actual capturing location for all the season’s tense dinner scenes, and based mostly on among the images on this explicit Rosewood’s web site, it looks as if it is the institution’s high-end Ta Khai eatery.

That is, once more, fairly attention-grabbing as a result of Phuket and Koh Samui aren’t anyplace close to one another. Nonetheless, Rosewood can also be a luxurious lodge chain with beautiful properties all around the globe, so it does make sense so as to add in another filming areas in Phuket if among the forged members have been gathered there anyway. Similar to it does on the sequence, the Ta Khai restaurant serves elevated Thai delicacies, lending an ideal setting to these awkward Ratliff household dinners or the seemingly limitless scenes the place Rick and Chelsea argue over their night meals.

When the Ratliff household will get to the White Lotus, we study that Piper, the center little one of the household, is there to check a Buddhist temple for her school thesis — and unsurprisingly, Mike White took full benefit of Thailand’s wealthy spiritual historical past and shot at actual sacred areas. In response to HBO’s press notes for the sequence and retailers like Conde Nast Traveler, the temple that Piper hopes to go to and research throughout her time in Thailand is Wat Phukhao Thong on the coast of Koh Samui.

All the outdoors decor — together with the massive Buddha — seen on “The White Lotus” are actual options of Wat Phukhao Thong, and it is a religious website that you would be able to go to if you end up in Thailand. Primarily based on White’s feedback about how essential faith is to this explicit season of “The White Lotus,” it appears protected to imagine that we’ll hold returning to this temple at any time when Piper does.

The “arrival” scene is, at this level, a staple of “The White Lotus.” As a result of Mike White properly splits the main focus of the present between the usually odious and terribly rich visitors and the workers who wait on them hand and foot, the season premiere sometimes focuses on the employees welcoming everybody to the in-universe resort. Plus, when you think about that it provides White an opportunity to neatly introduce every “group” in an apparent and simple method, it is a no-brainer.

The arrival scenes in Season 3 of “The White Lotus,” which sees the visitors arriving by boat — bringing to thoughts the truth that White famously appeared as a contestant on “Survivor” and then felt inspired to work on “The White Lotus” — have been break up between just a few areas. Mu Ko Ang Thong National Marine Park (in Koh Samui) is fairly doubtless the backdrop for that boat experience, the place Rick pisses off the Ratliffs by smoking a cigarette, whereas the seashore scenes have been apparently filmed at Ko Lawa Yai (a seashore close to Phang Nga Bay in Phuket) and Ya Nui Seaside. As with the earlier seasons of “The White Lotus,” these arrival scenes give us the primary glimpse of the beautiful backdrop for the season, and these real-life pure beauties look fairly unbelievable.

There are nonetheless a ton of areas we have not seen fairly but as “The White Lotus” continues airing its newest season, however based mostly on the final trailer that dropped on the finish of this previous January, we’ll get to discover extra of Thailand by these characters fairly quickly. Photographs of Kate, Jaclyn, and Laurie exploring a market have made the rounds on-line (and you’ll spot the scene within the trailer), and in keeping with the identical Conde Nast Traveler report, that is doubtless Fisherman’s Village in Koh Samui, which hosts an annual water-gun struggle to rejoice the Thai New 12 months. That article additionally specifies that the Haad Rin seashore on Koh Phangan, an island close to Koh Samui that all the time hosts the Full Moon Social gathering, is seen within the trailer, with just a few characters attending the festivities.

Audiences should wait and see which different actual Thai areas are featured on “The White Lotus” Season 3, however based mostly on what we have seen thus far (and the present’s earlier seasons), we’re in for a deal with. 

“The White Lotus” drops new episodes on Sunday nights at 9 P.M. on HBO and its streaming service Max.