Phuket
Things to Do in Phuket
The island is bigger and older than the beach strip suggests. What is worth the taxi fare, what is worth a whole day, and what is worth skipping.
Phuket has a reputation as a beach with an airport attached, and for a lot of visitors that is exactly what it is and exactly what they wanted. The island underneath is older and more interesting than that: a tin-mining economy that brought Chinese and Portuguese money and left a town full of shophouses, a Muslim fishing culture on the east coast, and a position that makes it the gateway to the best landscape in southern Thailand.
If you only do four things
- Phang Nga bay by boat, for the limestone Phuket itself does not have.
- Phuket old town, late afternoon, for the shophouses and the food.
- The Big Buddha, early, for the view across the whole island.
- One beach that is not the one you are staying on.
On the water
Phang Nga bay
The reason this coast looks the way it does. Limestone karsts rising vertically out of shallow green water, sea caves you enter by canoe, and the stack that appeared in a Bond film and has been called James Bond Island ever since. A full day from Phuket, and worth it: the island’s own coastline has nothing like it.
The bay is busy. Tours that leave earliest see it emptiest, and the small-boat operators reach places the large ones cannot.
The Phi Phi islands
Two hours by ferry or one by speedboat from Rassada pier. Better beaches than Phuket has and considerably more people on them; Maya Bay reopened after its closure under strict limits on numbers and mooring, and closes for part of each year. A long day trip, or better as a stop on a longer route.
Coral, Racha and Coconut islands
The short hops, twenty to forty minutes from Chalong or Rassada. Coconut Island is the closest and the tamest; Racha Yai has the clearest water for snorkelling and is the one worth the extra distance.
The Similans
Thailand’s best diving, and not really a Phuket day trip: they are three hours north from Khao Lak and the season runs mid-October to mid-May, when the park is open. Serious divers base themselves at Khao Lak rather than Phuket for exactly this reason.
On the island
Phuket old town
The part most visitors never see. Thalang, Dibuk and Krabi roads are lined with Sino-Portuguese shophouses in ochre and pastel, built on tin money in the nineteenth century and restored rather than replaced. Some of the best eating on the island is here and it is not beach food: Hokkien noodles, dim sum, and coffee shops that have been open for generations.
Go in the late afternoon when the heat has dropped. The Sunday walking street closes Thalang road to traffic.
The Big Buddha
Forty-five metres of white marble on the ridge above Chalong, visible from most of the south of the island. The building of it is still unfinished and funded by donation. What makes it worth the drive is not the statue but the position: from the terrace you can see both coasts at once, which is the clearest possible explanation of the island’s geography.
Early morning, before the heat and the coaches. Shoulders and knees covered, as at any temple.
Wat Chalong
The island’s most important temple and a working one rather than a monument. Worth an hour, and it pairs naturally with the Big Buddha on the same trip.
Bangla Road
Patong’s nightlife in three hundred metres, closed to traffic in the evening and impossible to describe as anything other than itself. Loud, relentless and the reason a great many people come to Phuket. Worth walking once whatever you think of it, and easy to avoid entirely by staying anywhere else.
With children
Andamanda is the island’s large water park and the reliable answer to a wet afternoon or a child who has had enough sand. Beyond it, the shallow northern beaches, the aquarium at Panwa and a longtail out to a nearby island cover most of a week.
Which month to bring them, measured
The elephant question
Several venues on Phuket now describe themselves as sanctuaries, and some of them are. The words sanctuary, rescue and ethical are unregulated marketing terms in Thailand, and a venue offering rides can and does use all three.
Riding is not defensible, and neither, on the current consensus, is bathing: both require an animal trained to accept them, and the training is what the money buys. The four questions that separate a genuine operation from one that has changed its wording.
What to skip
Tiger attractions, where the animals are handled by visitors. Anything advertising an elephant ride. Shows involving performing animals of any kind. Phuket has enough that is genuinely good that none of these needs a defence.
How to fit it together
Phuket rewards two or three excursions across a week rather than a full itinerary. A boat day to Phang Nga, an afternoon in the old town, an early morning at the Big Buddha, and the rest of it on the sand is a complete Phuket trip and leaves you rested.
Getting between all of this is the practical catch: the island has no useful public transport between beach areas, taxi fares are high by Thai standards, and the app-based cars are cheaper than the tuk-tuks by a wide margin.
Frequently asked questions
What is Phuket best known for?+
Beaches and nightlife, which is fair but incomplete. The island also has a Sino-Portuguese old town, a working Chinese-Thai food culture, the Big Buddha on its central ridge, and a harbour that is the departure point for Phang Nga bay and the Phi Phi islands.
How many days do you need in Phuket?+
Five to seven for a beach holiday with two or three excursions in it. Three is enough if Phuket is one stop of a longer trip, and ten is comfortable only if you genuinely want to do very little, which is a respectable plan.
Is Phuket old town worth visiting?+
Yes, and it is the part of the island most visitors miss entirely. Sino-Portuguese shophouses along Thalang and Dibuk roads, some of the best food on the island, and a Sunday walking street. Half a day, best in the late afternoon when the heat drops.
What is the best day trip from Phuket?+
Phang Nga bay for the limestone, which is the landscape people come to this coast for and which Phuket itself does not have. Phi Phi if you want the beaches, though it is busier and further. Both leave from Rassada or Chalong pier.
Should I ride an elephant in Phuket?+
No. Riding is not defensible and the reason is the training that precedes it rather than the weight. Several venues on the island now describe themselves as sanctuaries; the words sanctuary and ethical are unregulated in Thailand, so they are worth checking rather than trusting.