Amazing Thailand is also Nature and award-winning Lodges

The Anurak Community Lodge was featured in eTurboNews in January 2020, right before COVID took over global travel and tourism, and closed tourism in Thailand.

The Anurak community lodge won the SKAL Asian Area environment award and the SKAL global sustainable award for rural accommodation in 2019

Anurak Community Lodge is located adjacent to southern Thailand’s Khao Sok national park.

The 19-unit nature retreat, which also won the PATA Grand Award for Sustainability in 2020 and is Travelife Gold certified, officially reopens on 1 August with room enhancements, a refreshed food, and beverage menu – including southern ‘jungle’ dinners – and new guest activities.

Activities include hiking the Anurak Trail, cycling, and guest participation in the ecolodge’s ‘Rainforest Rising’ reforestation project.

“Our new focus on reopening is to make Anurak Lodge a fully functioning basecamp for quality ecotourism experiences in the area,” says Christopher Cribbs, manager of the lodge, which offers memorable views of adjacent and mountainous Khao Sok National Park.

Guests can pay THB300 (US$8) to plant indigenous tree saplings as part of Anurak’s Rainforest Rising project, which was created by Chiang Mai University’s Forest Restoration and Research Unit.

Khao Sok National Park authorities support the project. The aim is to foster plantlife diversity to encourage pollination and feeding by insects, birds, and mammals such as civets and badgers.

For its reopening, Anurak has also signposted the Anurak Trail, a one-kilometer circular hike starting and finishing at the lodge. It takes around 45 minutes to complete and passes massive fig trees, bamboo, and vine groves. The path enters a small cave and finishes with a walk through coffee and rubber plantations.

“When it comes to food, many of our guests at Anurak are passionate about experimenting with local flavors,” says Cribbs. “It’s a big part of their southern Thailand destination experience.”

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