PHUKET

.
last visited February 2014
Offshore islands from the roof pool of The Kantary Bay hotel, Cape Panwa, a quiet area in the south-east of Phuket.



Karon from the southern end. This is one loooooong beach - it took me 50 minutes to stroll from the far end. That was after walking Kata Yai in 20, the headland in another 10. Good thing there are a couple of neat beach restaurants/bars immediately behind camera for a revitalising cheap cold Chang - or three.


20 minutes on the return leg - still short of half way. Note the lifeguard flags - Karon has several sets along the beach as do most Phuket beaches in dry season. Not that the sea is dangerous then - only drunks and careless jet ski riders will get into trouble. Wet season is different - the sea is often dangerous. Fortunately the big 3 beaches and several  others have lifeguards then too, despite it being low season. Nevertheless too many people are still drowning at Phuket in low season - maybe you could read my SOME TIPS ON NOT DROWNING page for some strategies for if you get into trouble.


Karon from the north end. Probably least crowded section but still popular. Like the two Katas there is some okay snorkelling off the headland rocks for novices.

Like most Phuket beaches Karon has a vast array of accommodation from one star up. The web booking sites are good usually starting at 2 star - and for the cheapest rooms above shopfronts etc it is just a matter of arriving and checking the signs.
Jamie some time ago supplied news of new Karon budget accommodation in a good location: "The Pineapple Guesthouse in Karon will have a backpackers dorm ready within the next couple of weeks, 150 - 200 Baht/night."


SOUTH-CENTRAL WEST COAST BEACHES
.
Labels will be clearer of you click-expand. The main beach at Patong (between markers) is 2.8km long and is around 36km from the airport. Not too many people know of the beaches on the southern peninsula.

PATONG 
Patong gets bad press for walls of sun lounges, overcrowding, heaps of yobbos chasing Thai rent girs and higher prices for foood and booze than many other Phuket locations. But the shopping is good, there is a huge variety of accommodation from gorgeous resorts where you would never know you are at Phuket's most criticised beach, thru nice mid-rangers to thousands of comfortable budget rooms above businesses; people watching is good value and the beach itself has white sand, pretty nice water and plenty of space to put the sarong down if you don't want a sun lounge.
Plus if you check down page a little, there are some very nice less visited beaches a short distance along the southern headland.

Typical Patong scenes - shoulder season early Dec 2010. Note earlier comments about dangerous surf here in low season (May-midNov).

Whoa! I don't care what anyone says - the Russian invasion of Phuket sure has some pluses. 

LOW SEASON PARADISE NEAR PATONG
The south end of Patong beach is book-ended by a sizable headland. If you follow the continuation of Patong's beach road where it heads steeply up the hill once crossing the small bridge you will come to 3 nice beaches, 2 of which are nicely sheltered from the wet season westerlies when nearby Patong is blown out and nasty.

Tri Tra Beach is the first you come to - notice calm water whereas I'd just walked the length of Patong in background and it was blown-out - wet seaon June 2010. A couple of beach restaurant/bars here plus midrange Tri Trang Beach Resort (white building - click to expand shot - yep, that's what it's called despite overlooking Tri Tra). Water gets shallow at lowest tide.

Tri Trang Beach. This is little further along on the opposite side of the road - the Merlin Beach Resort with its own nice little beach. Nice sand but lots of rock in the water - I understand it isn't good for swimming at low tide. Because this faces west it was copping the blowy conditions which can develop in low season but would be a sweet spot on calmer wet season days and in dry season when the wind is from the opposite direction. I saw a big storm coming in off the sea and scuttled up to a neat headland restaurant (not part of the hotel) for this shot - drank cheap beer for 15 minutes while it poured - one of 2 similar wet periods that day.

Near the tip of the peninsula is another sheltered wet season beach, Paradise Beach. This small strip of sand has a similar stretch over a small headland behind camera. Access is thru private land and there is a 100b charge to go onto the beach itself which gets you a beach lounge and showers. I normally hate the idea of paying for a beach but having seen how crap Patong was that day, this place in comparison was indeed a sheltered paradise and well worth it. You can snorkel. There is an okay restaurant - prices are a bit more than budget to start with but threw me a bit when they added 10% govt tax, the only one of dozens to do this that trip. One caveat - the reef is very close to shore making swimming less easy at dead low tide.



NORTH-CENTRAL WEST COAST BEACHES
.
Kamala is 2km long and about 25km from the airport, Laem Sing(h) only 300m in length - maybe 22km and Surin 800m and 20km. The small beach immediately left (north) of Surin is Pansea - it can only be reached by boat because the two flash hotels there, the Chedi and Amanpuri block land access. Don't let them kid you the beach itself is private - there are no private beaches in Thailand. The beach partly seen higher at left of frame is Bang Tao, a long beach the central section of which is home to the mega Laguna complex of luxury hotels etc. - 

KAMALA
This is the next beach north of Patong, but it's a fair haul, not one you will want to walk. See my later comments about travelling BETWEEN the beaches.

Kamala is a very attractive beach. In high season it tends not to get overcrowded, but there are still enough restaurants and bars for people to enjoy themselves. Plenty of accommodation and this is the location of the famous Fantasea attraction.

In Jan 09Matt and Suzzie sent me this info on Phuket:
We're big fans of Kamala Beach and off-season (July/August) we like the peace there.
The beach isn't very well looked after at that time of year in parts, but the town has a nice laid-back vibe. Benjamin Resort on Moo 3 (Beach Road) near the school has some great rooms overlooking the bay (especially rooms C1 and C2, B1 and B2), and if you tell them yer planning to stay more than a couple of days you can get them down to 500baht, including breakfast. They're well maintained, airy, and the balconies are perfect fer watching the sunset over the ocean.
Go down to the beach at this time and all the locals are out paddling and playing footie. Kamala has plenty of options with restaurants and bars, and off season you can have the pick of the bunch. The tuk-tuk mafia are bastards though, and there's no cheap way of getting around other than the songthaeow that goes round the houses.

Kamala Beach - low season August 09. A nice section of sand, clean water, even a few surfable body-waves this time of year. This is shot just north of Benjamin Resort at the end of a handful of similar unpretentious accommodation places lining a short shopping street roughly parallel to the beach. There is a similar accommodation/restaurant street parallel to the beach up near those casuarinas in the middle of the beach. The popular midrange Kamala Beach Hotel and Resort is behind the palms just over the top of the umbrella on right. There are several other midrange and better resorts in the area, some back from the beach and others along the coast road just to the south where it winds up into higher country. Lots of condo development going on in this higher area too.This beach will never look built-out because a big Muslim cemetary takes up the northern section behind the trees.I got the impression that Kamala would be a quieter version of Kata in high season. Which would not be too bad at all. (I managed to check Kamala high season 2010 - yep, a quieter Kata).

UPDATE AUGUSTO9 - I decided to spend some time at Kamala and heeded Matt and Suzzie's advice about the Benjamin. This is the view directly west from one of the beachfront room's balcony - the view to the right is an elevated vegetation-filtered version of the previous shot. Note the rocks behind the lanterns in this pix - the sea is shallow this south end at lowest tide but fine and with no rocks in the middle and north ends.
Benjamin is a good value place. Not flash but big comfortable clean rooms with TV, frig - beachfront for 500 with brekka when we visited in low season. Note brekka is tea/coffee, toast and jam. Good little shopping street on the other side of the hotel with a fair selection of restaurants, clothing stores, a few bars and a 711. Even had a girly bar but low key. One of the girls, God bless here, rang her uncle to take Lady Tezza, me and 2 Yanks to the airport when arranged transport fell thru at the last minute (taxis are scarce in Kamala night-time low season). The area was quiet at night when I visited but I reckon would have enough going on in high season to keep all but hard-core partiers happy.

I called in at Kamala on a motorcycle tour of the beaches in early Dec 2010 which is shoulder season - a fair few more people than my August 09 stay.


Busier in this high season shot (Feb 2014) but considerably less crammed than Surin to the north. Figures - Kamala is about twice as long.


Couple of cool beach bars at the northern end of Kamala beach. My sort of places.


LAEM SINGH
If you walk 15 minutes along the coastal road over the headland north of Kamala you come to the main roadside carpark (20b for motorcycles) of compact Laem Singh Beach. A fairly steep set of stairs takes you down to what was once regarded by many as the most attractive beach on Phuket. Maybe its popularity and the invasion of sun-lounges has downgraded it a spot or two, but the lack of resorts and other development apart from a few beach restaurants still gives that "beach in the jungle" vibe. Well worth a visit.
I found out during my 2014 stay at Surin that there is another easier track down to  Laem Singh about 10 minutes walk south along the main coastal road from Surin beach. The beach was pretty busy, but not as much as Surin.


Midway between the 2 carparks is this roadside viewing cabana. Entry free in Feb 2014 but I bet some dude is charging 20 baht entry or parking next time I pass by and someone else has set up a food stall.

tezza freeloads on glamour shoot at Laem Singh. I was cool until cutey took top off - then began severe camera shake.


SURIN
Another 10 minutes walk north gets you to Surin. Everything I've written about Kamala goes for this place - maybe it is a little more developed and busy. Not unattractive in the least. I shot this pic in Dec 2010 - surprisingly for dry season there was a decent little surf running.

Cool bar on rocks, south end of Surin Beach. I'm a sucker for places like this - usually come back from a beach-checking mission blitzed. This is a 2010 shot - in 2014 there was a lot more sand here - the water did not get near, even at peak tide.


In Feb 2014 I wanted to stay at the closest west coast beach to my Phuket entry pier at Bang Rong ex Kos Yao Noi/Yai. Surin was it. I was surprised how crowded it was - Surin is very big with Russian tourists. This is the southern half but virtually all the beach was as packed except for maybe the northern 5%. I have more info and pix on the PHUKET TRIP REPORT page.



PANSEA
In Feb 2014 I decided to rock-hop around the headland at the north end of Surin beach to get you dudes a shot of this rather nice "private" beach.

Relatively uncrowded because of the restricted access thru the flash hotels behind the beach.


BANG TA0
This is a long beach a short distance north of Surin/Pansea. The area behind used to be Phuket's main tin mining area and is now dominated by very spacious high end resorts and golf courses in the Laguna complex. However there are some more affordable resorts at the southern end which has a touristy shopping/restaurant/bar street very much like that at the southern end of Kamala.

This shot from near the southern end shows about 90% of the beach. It is busiest at this end which is pretty narrow near high tide in the shot - gets progressively less busy moving away from camera - last half of the beach has little development, very few people. This is a nice shot to click-expand. More pix and info on the PHUKET TRIP REPORT page.

Because the beach widens and is less crowded away from the southern corner, it is the first of Phuket's west coast beaches moving north to have restaurant tables set up on the beach. Nice, particularly at night when the candles come out.

THE AIRPORT AREA BEACHES


Nai Thon is approx 1km long and less than 8km from the airport. Nai Yang 2.5km long and beach central is a bit under 3km from arrivals. The 1500m long section between markers I've labelled Airport Beach is probably technically the southern end of the very long Mai Khao beach. Note that if you are staying immediately left of the runway (there is at least one snazzy hotel there) you are probably as far by road from the terminal which is under the "Airport" marker as Nai Thon because you have to go around the far end of the long runway. Doesn't look it in this oblique shot.

NAI THON
It'a a fair distance further north from Surin to Nai Thon (a few low-key beaches between) which in fact is only about 5km from the airport. I already have details up-page at staying low season 09 at the very nice Naithonburi when it was rare for more than 3 people to be on the beach at any time. But this Dec 2010 shot shows a few more people - note sign of the times, Russian "SWIM BETWEEN THE FLAGS" (or similar message) notice against rescue board adjacent swim-flags opposite The Naithonburi. This place is much more low-key in tourist season than say Surin or Kamala - the main road along the beach has a distinct village feeling. Once again good surf for dry season - I had a nice little body-surf here.

Matt and Suzzie again:Nai Thon Beach further north is beautiful, and cos it requires a bit of effort to get to it's virtually empty off season. You can hire a lounger in the shade fer 20baht and one of the hotels has a guy that will come over and take an order fer drinks if you want them. Beware though, the sea is way too rough at this time and will eat you alive if you get out of yer depth.

AUG09 - Matt and Suzzie's description of Naithon sounded pretty good so I decided to spend a few nights there. This shot is in similar weather to theirs - one of those 15-20% of low season days where the wind gets up, making for pretty big and messy surf and not-so-nice beach conditions.
Hence even fewer people than normal low season. But a pretty nice beach. From what I've read (and later saw - see high season 2010 pic above this one), high season here is kinda nice - never too busy. 4 resorts across the road behind the casuarina trees, a number of restaurants. Some very high end joints on the higher section of coastline just to the south. A bit more than 10 minutes from the airport but no aircraft noise.

NAI YANG
In MARCH 08, Thorntree poster living stayed at Patong, was less than impressed and hired a car to check for nicer beaches. He/she was rather whelmed by Nai Yang:
"Naiyang Beach would be our choice for a place to holiday in Thailand if we were ever to come again. Big enough to have lots of local little restaurants and bars and longtails to take you snorkeling. A good swimming beach. Plenty of modest looking but comfy beach cabins. We had a great lunch on the beach there – some of the best Thai food of the trip and incredible coffee – which can be hard to come by here."
This is shot towards the south end of Nai Yang. The central section of the beach behind camera has a good mix of accommodation places from high-end to flashpacker, a useful small business stip along the beach road, plus a bunch of seaside restaurants and a few bars. North end (see below) is a reasonably long, curved, casuarina lined beach with a lot of undeveloped areas, fair enough because it is part of the national park. . Nai Yang is a favourite with beach going locals so there are some good food stands and small restaurants. The airport is only 5 minutes away. Image - Panoramio: Kristof Cornelis

I shot this in high season 2010 from a little further north than the above pix, looking the other way. The National Park section begins just past these people - the first part of the Park has some low impact beach restaurants you can see if you click the pic, and further north just casuarina trees backing the sand, which has some nice picnic areas popular with locals - a pretty attractive bit of beach. The end of the airport runway is not far past the end of those trees.
Don't be put off by the sun lounges in the foreground. They cover only about 300m of a reasonably long beach and aren't intrusively jam-packed row upon row like beaches further south - and are half the price.


The beach restaurants are less than 5 minutes walk from the sun lounge area. They are very popular with local Thais, meaning .......


...... lots of yummy inexpensive sea food and other Thai tucker.

This is the full length of Nai Yang looking south, shot from adjacent the far headland in the pic 3 above this. People looking for a stretch of undeveloped beach could do worse than the section close to camera. Many kms more starting around the headland behind camera. This is a nice shot to click-expand.

UPDATE - I stayed at Nai Yang in May 2012. A pretty good location being so close to the airport. Unfortunately the wet season had kicked in which stopped me doing my usual crawl around the greater area so I haven't enough info to do a TRIP REPORT for that section. Nevertheless between showers there was enough sun for some good beach time - and the westerlies made the kite surfers' day. Nice little shopping/restaurant area and a good range of accommodation from budget up. I stayed at the midrange Nai Yang Beach Resort which is just across the road from the beach and shops and offers some very good off-season deals on the mass booking sites.


FURTHER UPDATE - spent a further few days at Nai Yang prior to flying out in December 2012. Being high season, Nai Yang Beach Resort was a bit pricey so Lady Tezza and I stayed at the very good value Nai Yang Boutique Resort 4 minutes walk from the beach. Lady T has done a TRIP REPORT here.
The better weather saw all the business-strip restaurants putting chairs and tables on the sand - intense competition resulted in nice meals at very attractive budget prices.

AIRPORT BEACH
I think technically this may be the southern-most part of Mai Khao beach (see below) but I think it is distinctive enough to warrant its own section. The sand and water are pretty nice here. At background far-right you can see the headland at the south end of Nai Yang beach - it took me about 15 minutes to walk down here from the sun-lounge section of Nai Yang. Those trees at left of frame are all part of the National Park which begins in the southern quarter of Nai Yang. They hide a pretty big picnic area popular with locals - if you look carefully you can see the life-guard flag just past those people. A good service seeing most Thais can't swim, but the sea is benign all along here in high season.
This is a nice spot for plane-spotters to bring their family for some beach/water time while they ...


.... check out the airplane action.


When an earlier twin-engine Airbus opened its throttles for take-off it got a bit blustery here against the fence. So when this big baby was in position I hastily snapped the shot and took off for the lower beach near the water. Despite this a bit of sand was blown about - it may pay to park girlfriend/wife/kids 100m along the beach for their fun-time.


Looks like life-guarding at Phuket aint too taxing - well in high season at least. Phuket can get big dangerous seas in wet season during/after a big westerly monsoon blow. All those surf-inexperienced Russians must be a worry, not to mention drunk Aussies who think they know all about surf and don't realise how blitzed they are. Mind you, I don't think too many Russians and Aussies find this beach. Fortunately for them the popular southern beaches also feature Australian trained lifeguards these days. Doesn't stop heaps of people getting into trouble and too many of them drowning. Be careful - maybe read my DON'T DROWN page where I point out that getting dragged out to sea in a rip current aint the end of the world unless you can't tread water let alone swim: rips can even be useful if you are a keen surfer.


THE FAR NORTHERN WEST COAST BEACHES
.
I'm not too sure where the demarcation point between Mai Khao and Sai Khao is on this 10km+ strip of sand - I have an idea you need to be pretty far north.

MAI KHAO - SAI KHAO
11 km of unspoiled beach on Phuket? Yep, Mai Khao - Sai Khao/Sai Kaew at the northern end of the west coast can do this - as this high season shot shows. Actually the beach is a continuation of Nai Yang the other side of the airport, but even less developed. There are about 4 high-end resorts and 2 budget places along the full length and National Parks enforces a 30m set-back even for sunlounges so all you see looking up and down the beach (this is shot at about half-way) are the casuarina trees. Turtles are known to hatch along here because of its quietness.
Many of you people will have seen the beach from the bus at its northern end because the main road out of Phuket veers west and passes a row of budget seafood beach-side restaurants not far from the causeway to the mainland. Note I've seen this northern-most stretch of Mai Khao referred to as SAI KHAO or SAI KAEW.
I stayed in a budget place right of frame in the above shot - SEASIDE COTTAGES AND RESTAURANT - I did a trip report with more info and pix HERE.

Old style thatch bamboo bungalows on Phuket?? Yep, at SEASIDE COTTAGES. One at left 30m from the beach. They have flasher bungalows too.


THE SOUTHERN BEACHES


I hadn't visited this area since 1997 when I rode a bicycle down here from Kata (must have been keen - this area is seriously hilly) so in March 2013 I grabbed a moto and did a tour to get some pix and info for the page.

NUI BEACH
I didn't make it to Nui. The rough dirt road got progressively steeper. I gave up at a parking spot for bikes which was still high above the sea - the walk down and back looked like it would consume well over an hour and this is a pay beach - I didn't feel like paying for a 10 minute look and snap session. But apparently it is a lovely beach and the guys who run it do a good job of looking after it. There was a mobile number at the parking area offering motorcycle taxi rides in for a hefty price - the track looked a good test for a skilled off-road motorcyclists one-up - forget the passenger.
I pinched the pic from this excellent site.


The main road south of the Nui Beach turn-off has at least 3 elephant camps.

NAI HARN BEACH
This attractive 700m beach has only a few (high end) accommodation places - check for Phuket Yacht Club (no marina there) - so many of these people are day trippers. Popular with locals so lots of cheap food and drink vendors behind the sand. This beach is nicely sheltered in the dry season but can be exposed on those windier wet season days. 


Nai Harn Feb 2014 - crowded but plenty of space to lay a towel or sarong if you are  not big on beach lounges. Nice water - deep enough low tide for swimming not too far out. Cheap food stalls behind umbrellas along beach road - another shopping/restaurant/bar street heading inland close to left of camera.

AO SANE BEACH
This tiny beach is about 600m west of Nai Harn. It has a budget bungalow place (Ao Sane Bungalows and Restaurant tel: 076- 288 306/388 394 mob: 082 419 0300) with a restaurant/bar overlooking the beach. When I first went there last century it had a few backpackers hanging around only - but in March 2013/Feb 2014 it was quite busy with visiting day trippers. The restaurant in Feb 2014 had large beers for 80baht, the cheapest bungalow beer all trip (notice I include all the really important stuff). Bungalows available when I called by in Feb 2014 were backpacker standard at 500/600b depending on position. There were a few aircon jobs, all taken.


The sea in dry season is quite nice off Ao Sane - clear water, sandy bottom with quite a few big rocks. Some patchy coral a bit off the beach, okay but not great. Such conditions attract snorkellers. And fish. This bloke has done well.


Nairock on the left of Phuket Yacht Club - shot from the far end of Nai Harn beach.




BAN KRATING BEACH
I found out in Feb 2014 that if you take the short path between the bungalows at the far end of Ao Sane beach you come to what I call Ban Krating beach (although Ao Sane's southern bungalows back at least half the beach). The beach is nothing to get excited about but is certainly quiet, and nicer Ao Sane (2 minutes) and Nai Harn (20) are an easy stroll. There is an even smaller patch of sand which you can see past rocks in background.

YANUI BEACH
Whoa! This is a nice one - some say the best on the island. That's the main west coast road as it drops from Cape Promthep, Phuket's most southerly point.


There is no accommodation at Yanui - all these people are day trippers, many from the host of accommodation places in not too distant Rawai and Chalong. The usual beach restaurant is just out of frame left. A fair few snorkellers were checking the far bay on the other side of the sand spit (okay, cuspate foreland for all you pedants).


Cape Promthep was a wind-swept grassy headland with some wind turbines when I fist visited in 1997. My 2013 return saw this monument to a Thai prince who was a big deal in the Thai navy 100 years or so ago. Beneath is a small naval museum - nothing mind blowing but free admission and nice aircon.
Behind camera is some sort of monument to elephants. The wind turbines are still spinning, further behind camera.
btw the dopey trees you can see in shot block outlook towards Coral Island, Ko Racha, Ko Phi Phi etc from this high position.

RAWAI BEACH
Unlike the above beaches, 1600m long Rawai is on the eastern side of the peninsula. It aint much of a beach - patchy sand, gets the low tide blues, too much boat activity. Popular with Thais. Plenty of good value restaurants etc. Has a long pier for fishing. Note the web booking sites show quite a lot of accommodation at Rawai. I wouldn't stay for the beach, although Yanui, Nai Harn and Ao Sane are only a few km away.
BTW - Chalong beach to the north is much the same as Rawai, although I noticed one mid range hotel south of the pier had managed to make its beach area quite presentable.


CAPE PANWA - A QUIET SOUTH EAST BEACH AREA NICELY SHELTERED IN WET SEASON
This beach is quite a distance from Rawai - that's the cape far background-right in the shot above this. The very similar (but far longer) to Rawai CHALONG is in between. Cape Panwa Hotel's beach is only 250m across and is about 50km from the airport. The beach across the road from Kantary Bay Hotel is very thin and tidal. 

Nice beach at Cape Panwa Hotel. This faces Phi Phi/Yao Yai and is very sheltered on those 15 to 25% of wet season days when the wind gets blustery on the west coast beaches. Access either by longtail or thru the Cape Panwa Hotel grounds - no problems for outsiders - walk in off the street, turn right, catch furnicular railway type thing down the steep hillside, turn left to beach a short distance.

An area which caught my eye for my August 2007 Andaman trip was hilly CAPE PANWA in the south-east of the island, and so on a second Phuket visit that August, I went and stayed a few days at The Bay Hotel (UPDATE - now called KANTARY BAY HOTEL) there. Hey, nice midrange place only 200 m from the Phuket Aquarium, in the $us35 range low season inc breakfast, fabulous rooftop pool with million dollar views of the offshore islands and the south end of Phuket (see picture top of this page), a good street-front budget restaurant, not bad shopping, a small minimart, regular 30 minute songthaews into Phuket town. And best of all, free access to most facilities and a free shuttle bus across to the nearby higher grade Cape Panwa Hotel which has a lovely beach on its own little bay as the photo above shows.
The beach at The Kantari Bay is pretty ordinary and faces west towards southern Phuket and the offshore islands including Coral Island and Ko Racha - see shot at the top of the page.

A second ground level pool at The Kantary Bay Hotel, Cape Panwa - see opening shot for the roof level pool.


THIS GREAT SITE has photos, location and short descriptions of every beach on Phuket (and there are A LOT of beaches).


GETTING BETWEEN THE BEACHES.
It’s kinda crazy, but songthaews don’t really connect the popular west coast beaches. That’s not quite correct, because those starting at the waiting point at the south end of Kata Yai actually run across to central Karon before returning to Kata on the inner loop road some distance from the beach and then heading off to Phuket town.
But there are no songthaews between Kata Noi and Yai - no worries, you can walk across the headland in less than 10 minutes.
It takes not too much longer to walk over the headland between Kata Yai and Karon (but a hell of a lot longer to walk the beach - it is one loooong beach).

However the gap between Karon and Patong is a biggy - it takes about 10 minutes to drive this. Now there are tuk tuks which will happily provide this service, but the rates are a complete rip-off: 200+ in 2007 (one positive - they are clearly sign-posted at the tuk-tuk waiting stations) and in previous years I found it cheaper to bargain-down a car from one of those car transport guys who hang around outside hotels to do this journey. btw there is a lot of bad blood between these car guys and the tuk tuk/taxi mafia - the latter often administer beatings etc. In earlly 2013 the Phuket govt ordered all car transport guys to get a taxi licence or suffer the consequences. At the same time the taxi mafia issued a new list of outrageous prices - well over twice per km of say Bangkok. Note too the taxis work on a "village" monopoly system - a taxi originating in say Kata will not pick you up in Patong after it has brought another fare there. All of this of course helps keep prices up. On my past 2 trips (2013 and 2014) I found even the resorts' transfer vehicles were licensed "taxis" - I also found NO-ONE prepared to undercut the official taxi prices stuck up all over the place. People think all those flash pool condos at Surin Heights belong to Bangkok big-movers. Wrong - this is where the Phuket taxi mafia live.

Alternatively, to get between the beaches you could catch a songthaew into Phuket town and then out to the next beach - only about 40baht each trip - but Karon-Phuket town is about 50 minutes and Phuket town-Patong the best part of 40.

The gaps between the west coast beaches north of Patong up to Nai  Yang are mostly equally non walkable except for Kamala-Laem Singh-Surin-Bang Tao. I also noticed a Phuket Town-Surin-Kamala songthaew so you don't need to walk or motorcycle between those two beaches.

The tuk-tuk mafia seem to have transport at and between the beaches tied up. You see few meter taxis at the beaches - the ones I've noticed I've assumed have brought passengers from the airport or town. However in April 2012 I heard a Patong local telling a traveller that you can usually find taxis parked near the police box on the main beach road at Patong opposite the very busy Soi Bangla girlie/bar lane. Maybe they need the cops for protection from the tuk tuk guys.

Heaps of motorcycles are for hire cheaply, but make sure you have an international licence and are given a helmet - this is one place where the cops seem keen on checking these out. UPDATE MARCH 2013 - I rode a moto all around the south of the island out of Kata Yai - no licence checks.
Motorcycle scams are not unknown - the hire business points out a small scratch etc when you return the bike (often pre-existing when you hired it: check the bike for damage, point out and photograph any existing damage) and charges you a ridiculous price for repairs otherwise you don't get your passport back. Best bet is to hire from your hotel which is far less likely to pull this scam. Many hotels don't hire bikes - if you deal with an outside company DON'T HAND OVER YOUR PASSPORT. Give them a photocopy. If they don't go for it, hire from someone else - competition is fierce and there are dozens of legit companies for each dodgy one.

Note complaints of similar JET SKI scams are common from Phuket. I don't bother hiring them - the fact that there are fewer hire outfits compared to bikes weakens the customers' position.

On a Phuket visit last century I hired a bicycle - outside the beach towns and Phuket town the roads have a good run-off lane and are pretty safe - but the trips over the headlands between beaches and across to the other side of the island have major hills, the kind that keep on keeping-on just when you think you are at the summit - I ride daily in a very hilly town and still found Phuket a real good challenge.

On that bicycle-propelled trip I checked most of the west coast beaches They were real laid back north of Patong, but the ones fairly close (KAMALA etc) were fairly well developed whereas the ones closer to the airport (NAI THON, NAI YANG etc) were still very relaxed and a real contrast to the beaches south.
UPDATE Dec 2010 - I used a bicycle this trip too - this time to ride the back roads behind Mai Khao Beach north of the airport. Pretty quiet and flat in this area, and also when I cycled about 5 km each way along the busy main highway to visit Phuket Marine National Park's mangrove board-walk near the causway to the mainland - big run-off lane makes cycling this road pretty safe.
I also hired a motorcycle from my bungalow joint - the host said his guests had not been hassled about licences as long as they had the (supplied) helmet. I rode as far south as Kamala without problems. I'm not sure what the situation is now like around the big 3 beaches regarding licence checks.


SOME GENERAL INFORMATION ON PHUKET.
Phuket gets lots of bad press on travellers‘ sites, which it doesn’t deserve.
Sure, Patong is like Miami Beach or Surfers Paradise with an extra helping of sleaze, but Phuket is a big island with a wide range of beaches from party to laid back, has some great scenery and a big variety of other attractions. It is surrounded by a range of other attractive areas and so is one of the better islands as a base for daytrips.
Another plus is that Phuket is bursting with midrange and upper hotels meaning that competition in low season (April/May to early November) forces prices down to 30% of their high season levels - $us30 can buy a great midrange room with huge buffet breakfast. $us80 can get you the Ritz. And even super busy, sleazy in places Patong has some very nice properties with huge pools, acres of groomed grounds etc, where you would never believe crowded streets are a short distance away.

One other thing - the big 3 beaches of Patong, Karon and Kata may be commercialised with their western hotels, beach chairs and umbrellas, but they sure are pretty beaches. Makes the dump which is Pattaya beach in the eastern Gulf look just that. And they still have their element of Thai character - there is a bunch of beachfront restaurants and a little bar at the southern headland of Kata Yai which has food and booze at similar prices to a lot of their counterparts on less commercial islands. And they sure are nice places to sit and watch the passing parade, not to mention the waves and surfers in low season when a bit of swell actually appears, not too common in Thailand.
Which reminds me, Phuket gets a fair few tourist drownings low season, so take care, swim in areas designated by the safe swimming flags. And perhaps read my Some Tips on Not Drowning page.
Don’t worry high season - the sea at all the western beaches tends to be flat as a board 99% of the time and never gets dangerous.

To its credit, Phuket has lifeguard towers on its more popular beaches. This one at Kamala is unmanned in this low season shot - the lifeguard had actually gone for a paddle on his rescue board to get a few waves. Just as easy to keep an eye on the 2 or 3 swimmers from in the water.


SNORKELLING AT PHUKET
Phuket is not known as a top snorkelling location like say the Similans, Surins, Ko Tao, Phi Phi or Kradan. However some okay snorkelling can be found.

The popular beaches are long and sandy - if you snorkel off the beach you may see a few fish but coral will be scarce. However all beaches have headlands (exception Mai Khao) and I've found there are always some fringing coral on the rocks and a greater concentration of fish to make snorkelling in such areas entertaining for non hard-core fins and flipper fiends. Low season visitors be careful - the west coast headlands can get big waves and strong rip currents in this period. When low season throws up these conditions I'd be snorkelling off Cape Panwa Resort's beach - it aint great here but conditions are sheltered May to November.

The best snorkelling at the big 3 beaches can be found at Kata.
The rocks at the southern end of Kata Noi's beach attract quite a crowd in high season.
Snorkellers off the south headland of Kata Yai - only 30m from the beach.

The headland at the north end of Kata Yai is pretty good - you can continue all the way out to the small island which has an okay reef on the beach side.

The Tri Tra/Tri Trang/Paradise Beach headland at the south end of Patong also has some okay snorkelling. Check my pic up-page of the bay off Merlin Resort on Tri Trang - lotsa rocks and patches of coral which makes snorkelling away from lowest tide okay.
Ditto the reef just off the sand at Paradise Beach. Tri Tra and Paradise tend to be sheltered in low season so a good spot for you east coast stayers to get your underwater kicks.

I've heard the south end of Freedom Beach (aka Relax Beach/Karon Noi) which is south of the Tra/Trang/Paradise peninsula and can only be accessed by boat (the track in is thru private land) is pretty good. If you can afford to stay at the hotel there, Le Meridien from memory, you don't have to longtail to the beach.

Heading north along the west coast, the rocks at the south end of Leam Singh just north of Kamala are okay. 


The nearby south end of Surin had a bunch of snorkellers when I stayed there in 2014. I had a look, nothing fantastic but enough fish and good rock areas to keep non-fanatics interested.

Just short of the airport, north Nai Yang beach has a reef which is supposed to be okay.

Way down the south end of the island Ao Sane's beach has lots of rocks etc which attract the fish and coral. I saw a fair few snorkellers in the water off Yanui beach. Nui beach to the north is said to be okay.


PHUKET TOWN.
A lot of people fly or bus into Phuket and then leave next day for Phi Phi, Lanta etc. Phuket town is the obvious overnighter - it is closer to the airport than the popular beaches, real close to the busiest ferry piers and the bus station and has a good range of accommodation of all standards.
It also has good shopping and eats for people intending to stay longer - quite a few travellers make Phuket town their base and go out to the beaches or to other island attractions each day. However it is quieter in the night-life/entertainment stakes for non-locals not in the know. Quieter but still has some okay places.

Actually, if I was on a flight which gave me part of an afternoon at the beaches on arrival, I would pick the beaches instead of Phuket town. Have a swim, a beer/meal in a beachfront bar, walk the sand, grab some entertainment. The inclusive shuttle buses to the pier take an extra 15-20 minutes next morning, but what the hell.

Having said that, I have used Phuket Backpackers' on Thanon Ranong in town central almost next to the food markets, as an overnight base many times. This place is spotless, quiet, has cheap dorms, free internet and movies on the big screen. There are more expensive singles and doubles in a garden section out the back. They have a good travel desk, songthaews to the beaches leave from outside the markets, there is a neighbouring 7/11 and a whole bunch of cheap Muslim vegetarian restaurants just to the left. The markets are a blow-out and there is quite good general shopping in Ranong Road and a small street running perpendicular opposite the markets.
In recent years they have added a pub area fronting the road. Also there are now aircon rooms in a separate building a few doors down the street. I stayed in them with Lady Tezza in November 2012 and they were pretty good value.

Phuket fresh food market is about 40m east of Phuket Backpackers'. No shortage of fruit etc and there is quite a big cooked food section. This new building was finished at least 4 years before it began operating in 2012. An interim market area across the road continues to operate for low rent stall-holders.

UPDATE - In March 2013 I decided to try one of the double fan rooms at Phuket Backpackers'. This is the user-report I wrote for the booking site:


Town-center is quite compact. 10-15 minutes walk will get you to the Ocean Department Store. There are heaps of tuk tuks, taxis and touts who want to show you the best places.
See travelfish.org for a good selection of other Phuket town accommodation.

EARLIER UPDATE April 2012 I felt like a change and so got me a single room at D's Guesthouse on Thalang Road which is only 10 minutes walk from the old bus station where the Airport Bus arrives. At 300 and 350 baht the fan rooms with bathroom were considerably cheaper than similar rooms at Phuket Backpackers' which is another 10 minutes walk south. D's is run by a nice lady and her daughter and the rooms are spacious and clean. This is a very quiet area. One disadvantage is that there is no travel desk so if you are heading for the islands you will pay more at the pier unless you have picked up a cheaper ticket at the airport (debatible), bus station or around town beforehand. An advantage useful to single women arrriving late is that D's will pick up at the airport at a price competitive with the taxi service.

As I said Thalang Road is a very quiet area. But it also has about the best examples of Chinese shop-house architecture in Thailand and each year there is a Thalang Road Festival to celebrate this. I found this pic while browsing Jamies Phuket Blog - a link to Jamie is in the link list top right of this page.
btw Thalang road has several okay places to eat and if you head 400m west and turn left at the first traffic lights you can find more plus one spot that was doing cool live music when I passed by.


DAYTRIPS
Phuket probably has a better selection of daytrips than any other Thai island. The big two are:

Phang Nga Bay - for the best seascape/landscape in Thailand, this is a must-not-miss. Quite a lot are advertised as James Bond Island Trips, and you do spend time on this tourist trap, but the pressure of longtails means about 15 minutes max which gives you heaps of time to cruise the hundreds of other great karst stack islands, the spectacular mangroves and have lunch on Ko Panyi, the sea-gypsy island which has a great buffet in its stilt restaurant area. For extra you can arrange to stay overninght on the island (see link below on Ko Panyi for details of my stay in 2010). Most trips involve a coach to Phang Na town and then a big longtail, but speedboat and kayaking tours are also available.

It doesn't get much more spectacular than Phang Nga Bay (image PHUKETPERFECTPROPERTIES)

Phi Phi Island - a free shuttle picks you up from your accommodation and takes you to the pier. The ferry trips tend to take in Maya Bay of The Beach fame, the birds' nest caves, often beach and snorkelling time on Bamboo island, luncheon at one of the restaurants or resorts on Phi Phi Don and some town/shopping time.
You can also do these trips by speedboat which give more time on the island.

Phi Phi Ley's Viking Cave. Those are day trip speedboats, mainly from Phuket (although Krabi and a few Lanta boats come across too). I took this shot from the regular 0930 Phuket-Phi Phi ferry which doubles as a day trip ferry (more than half the passengers on this December 2012 voyage had day trip badges on) - in the past this has dropped other passengers off at the Phi Phi Don pier before leaving for Phi Phi Ley and other day trip locations. But this time it did a circumnavigation of Ley first - stopping someway offshore at Maya Bay (there were so many boats it couldn't get much closer and the beachcrowd looked like Bondi or Cococabana on a fine day) and then slowly cruising past these other Ley attractions. Personally, if I signed up for a day trip I would want to spend time on The Beach at Maya and maybe do some snorkelling at Ley (although there are plenty of other good spots off Phi Phi Don for this) - it may pay to check the details of any Phi Phi day trip you are contemplating. Probably this combined passenger-day trip run I was on would be one of the cheaper day trips - more money may get you on The Beach.

Other daytrips include:
- the popular Coral Island just off the south-east coast of Phi Phi (nice beach, fairly good snorkelling, gets crowded but there is a pristine uncrowded beach a few minutes by track from the main one).
- a similar but longer distance one to Ko Racha/Raya about 25km further to the south.
- golfing, national park at Khao Lak
- national park at Khao Sok (this is getting to be a bit of a stretch distance wise - I reckon from the beaches you may be looking at 3 hours each way by coach).
- snorkelling and beach time at the marine national park at the Similan Islands (this is also a fair stretch time wise, although I was surprised at the large number of people coming up from Phuket when I stayed on the Similans in May 2012).

Russian daytrippers do the big glamour shoot on Main Beach, Similans Island #4. 80% of daytrippers seemed to be Russian in April 2012 and all the girls must have modeled for Russian Playboy at one time (judging by their raunch poses).

Note I now have pages on both Raya Island and Coral Island plus the Similans and Khao Sok. Check the links towards the end of this page.

daytrips continued
- lots of fishing and diving boat trips.
- cultural and nature attractions on the island and nearby mainland.

One off the radar daytrip is to jump on a songthaew outside the day market for Ban Rong, get the ferry across to attractive Ko Yao Noi, hire a motorcycle or tuk-tuk off one of the guys at the pier and do a tour of the island. Perfect if you want to see a rural, unspoiled Thai island. A Malaysian guy and his wife were doing this when I went across to stay on the island in March. See my Yao Noi page for more details.

Phuket Island Hopper - http://www.phuket-islandhopper.com/ does a daytrip that takes in a beach fringed small coral cay called Bamboo Island and then time on Ko Yao Yai.

Phuket has dozens if not hundreds of day-trip providers. I'm not too sure about this one: the name looks a bit dodgy.

DIVING
Phuket is one of the 3 big dive locations in Thailand. There are over a hundred dive shops - crikey! Local dive sites include reefs, wrecks and walls at Racha Yai, Racha Noi, the King Cruiser Wreck, Anemone Reef and Shark Point. There are plenty of more distant daytrips to places like Phi Phi and the Similans, plus overnighters and liveaboards to the same areas, the Surins and even into Burma. One well regarded outfit that does most of these locations is Sunrise Divers - http://www.sunrise-divers.com/



ARRIVING AT THE AIRPORT
Phuket airport is towards the northern (mainland) end of the island, some 32 km from Phuket town and 40+ from the big 3 beach areas of Patong, Karon and Kata.
There are a number of ways to get to your destination.

The Airport Bus - a 3/4 size coach, runs between 0630 and 2000, every 75 to 90 minutes for 95 baht down to Phuket town bus station (the old bus station right in town, not the new on the outskirts), taking an hour+ or -. A timetable, latest prices and interim stops can be seen here http://www.airportbusphuket.com/.
Ferry time-table
Bus time-table

Busy scene at Phuket's Rassada pier, embarkation point for most Phi Phi, Lanta and Krabi ferries. Rassada is only about 3km from Phuket town central but a good 35km from the airport.


WHEN TO GO
The most obvious time is dry season which normally is mid-late November thru to sometime in mid-April to ealry March (although some Phuket locals say the true wet season does not kick in until August-September). But the fact is, Phuket is an all year resort these days with hardly any accommodation or attractions shutting down - although prices for good rooms can get really low and attractive.
How bad is wet season? I've visited several times - got the usual: lots of sunshine between one or a few showers/storms/cloudy periods. Some days cloudy but no rain - can sunburn like toast on such days - clouds only stop a limited amount of UV. Some days no cloud at all. Prolonged rainfall very rare (I've never lost a full day to rain but it can happen).

August at Kata - not too much cloud in this shot. The opening pix top of this page was also shot in August.

 Something I've experienced several times - on about 20% of days the wet season westerlies can kick in with gusto and frequently will blow for several days. Even when not raining it can be pretty exposed on the west-facing beaches (most of Phuket's beaches face west) with blustery unpleasant conditions and often big dangerous surf with lotsa rips.

I pinched this off Jamie's Phuket weather blog - this was shot during an unusually prolonged windy/rainy spell in June 2012 - didn't keep these Karon visitors off the beach.

Another Jamie shot of Karon - only 3 days later. Plenty of blue sky. Although that surf is pretty big - surf often lasts several days after a big blow.
------------------------------------------------

Hey, that is about my knowledge of Phuket. Once again, you can't beat Jamie's Phuket Blogfor detail from a local expert.
And this site will allow you to find a heap of businesses around Phuket - hire cars, accommodation, shopping, daytrips, real estate and a lot more.
-------------------------------------------------
If you are visiting Phuket perhaps you will be interested in nearby:

KO RAYA/RACHA

CORAL ISLAND

KO YAO NOI

KO YAO YAI

PHANG NGA BAY

KO PANYI

KRABI-RAILAY-TON SAI-AO NANG

KHAO LAK

SIMILAN ISLANDS

KO LANTA

----------------------------------------------
If you see mistakes or have extra info, please post it below. If you have questions, please post them in THE FORUM, accessed via the INDEX page. I don't get to check individual island pages all that often.


I like to close a page with a sunset shot - no shortage at Phuket where most beaches face west.