The Birth of CoconutRoads

Once you’ve had a taste of the open road, of driving without a fixed plan, stopping where you feel like it, waking up somewhere new simply because you chose to…it very quickly becomes more than a trip. It becomes a lifestyle. And one you want to return to, again and again.

RVing, vanlife, motorhome travel, campervan road trips… this isn’t about budget travel or sacrificing comfort. Quite the opposite. It’s a mindset. A conscious choice to explore without boundaries, without rigid schedules, without being funnelled into the same places at the same times as everyone else.

Here, luxury means freedom.
The freedom to set your own pace.
The luxury of waking up close to nature.
The joy of escaping the crowds mysteriously drawn to the same Instagram pins, all doing the same things, at the same time.

A few years ago, life threw me a curveball, one that reset everything overnight. Routines, habits, comforts, life as it was. Suddenly, my focus shifted away from what I had grown used to and toward something far more fundamental: clarity.

Very quickly, perspective sets in. Reflection takes over. You start asking yourself the big questions: What truly makes me happy? What really matters? And how do I want the next 15 or 20 years of my life to look?

At the same time, hospitality itself has been changing rapidly. Guest expectations evolve faster than ever, shaped by generational shifts, social trends, and a world that reinvents itself almost overnight.

My passion has always been hospitality. As a veteran luxury hotelier, my greatest joy was welcoming guests, looking after them, and creating stays that felt personal, thoughtful, and genuinely memorable. But over time, that part of the job has been slowly eroded crowded out by corporate and ownership requirements, endless reporting, and the constant pressure to justify why the unachievable wasn’t achieved… only to be asked to do it all again the following year.

So with a fresh start, I wanted to build something that combined what genuinely makes me happy:

Discovery travel by road, and hospitality rooted in real, human experiences.

Thailand’s motorhome rental sector is still largely untapped, and that presented a rare opportunity. CoconutRoads was born from the idea that travel here doesn’t have to follow the usual circuit. There are provinces rarely explored, roads less travelled, and encounters with people and places that simply don’t happen when you move from hotel lobby to hotel lobby and airport terminal to airport terminal.

Yes, it’s still early days for CoconutRoads. But when you look at the global love affair with Campervans and road trips and combine that with Thailand’s incredible diversity, it just feels right. This is an invitation to slow down, take detours, meet locals in their everyday environment, and rediscover the simple joy of the journey itself.

We’re just weeks away from going live, and the journey to get here has been nothing short of exciting. Building the company, aligning the timelines, mapping out every detail to reach launch day - it’s been incredibly rewarding.

And while at the end of the day it is “just a vehicle,” seeing the first motorhome come to life feels like watching a passion project breathe for the first time. Anyone who has ever created something of their own will understand that feeling.

From my first visit to the factory, to convincing partners and stakeholders that a “house on wheels” really does have a future here… from sketching the very first designs, guiding the creative direction, and finally seeing a CoconutRoads motorhome roll out in its colours, it’s been nothing but smiles. It feels happy. It feels warm. And it feels right.

I have no doubt that when our pink-&-white and mint-&-white motorhomes start cruising the roads of Southern Thailand, those smiles will be shared by passers-by, by fellow travellers, and most importantly by the people behind the wheel.

With just days to go before Motorhome #1, Taina, arrives at her base in Phuket, I wanted to share a glimpse into the journey so far. Much of what you see on the website today is still renderings and AI-generated imagery but the real thing is now very real indeed.

And I can’t wait to welcome you on the road.