Phuket

An island the size of Singapore with a bridge to the mainland, an international airport, and forty kilometres of coast that has almost nothing in common with itself.

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Phuket

One island, several different holidays

Phuket is the size of Singapore and joined to the mainland by a bridge, which is the first thing to understand about it. This is not somewhere you take a boat to and it does not behave like an island. It has a working town, traffic jams, hospitals and an international airport with direct flights from Europe, and about forty kilometres of west-facing coast cut into bays that have very little in common with one another.

The consequence is that Phuket attracts a wider range of opinion than anywhere else in this region, and nearly all of it is really a description of one bay. Patong is a dense resort strip with a nightlife industry attached to it. Kata and Karon are ordinary family beaches. Bang Tao and Mai Khao in the north are long, quiet and lined with large hotels. Phuket Town, inland on the east side, is a nineteenth-century tin-mining town of Sino-Portuguese shophouses that most visitors never see and that is the most interesting part of the island.

A quiet sandy beach in Phuket with turquoise water and a distant boat under a bright blue sky.

Colorful Sino-Portuguese shophouses line a street with a goldsmith shop sign in Phuket Town.

The west coast · Phuket Town

Choosing a coast

Where to be, and what to leave alone

Choosing the bay is the whole decision here, and almost every disappointed review is somebody who chose the wrong one.

Bang Tao, Nai Thon and Mai Khao in the north, for quiet sand and a transfer of twenty minutes from the airport.
Kata and Kata Noi, for a beach you can walk the length of with somewhere to eat at either end.
Phuket Town for a morning of shophouses and a good market — and the only coffee on the island worth crossing the map for.
Patong if the nightlife is the point, and a long way from it if it is not, because it does not stop at midnight.
The tiger and elephant attractions along the main road are exactly what they look like. We do not use them and we would ask you not to either.

Longtail boats moored along the sandy shore of Rawai Beach in Phuket with hills in the distance. — Long-tails

On the water

The water is better than the island

The best of Phuket is what surrounds it. Phang Nga Bay, an hour north by road and then by boat, is a drowned karst landscape of limestone towers standing in shallow green water, and leaving early — before the day fleet reaches it from the main piers around eleven — changes the experience completely. The Phi Phi islands are ninety minutes southeast by ferry and are both beautiful and very heavily visited; Maya Bay now runs under visitor limits with no overnight anchoring. The Similan islands, three hours out, hold the clearest water in Thailand and close entirely from mid-May to mid-October each year.

Phang Nga Bay

Seasons

The Andaman calendar

November to AprilThe season: flat sea, clear water, and boat days that run as booked. January to March is the most reliable stretch of all.

May to OctoberThe southwest monsoon. Swell on the west-facing beaches, red flags on some of them, and boat trips cancelled at short notice. The island is green, cheap and half empty.

SeptemberThe wettest month on this coast, and the one we would never build a beach finish around.

Three or four nightsTwo boat days and two that are not. Phuket rewards fewer excursions than most people book.

Onward

How the island connects

Phuket is the second busiest airport in Thailand and it does more than carry sun-seekers in and out, which is why an Andaman leg is easier to attach to a longer route than it first looks.

Onward leg	How long	What to know
Bangkok	1 hour 20 by air	Dozens of flights a day into both Bangkok airports.
Krabi	3 hours by road, or about 2 hours by ferry to Ao Nang in season	The road goes round the head of Phang Nga Bay.
Koh Samui	1 hour by air	Worth knowing that the two coasts run on opposite seasons, which is sometimes the reason to move.
Kuala Lumpur or Singapore	1 hour 30 to 2 hours by air	Phuket is a useful exit point for a route continuing to Indonesia.

Entry

Arriving on the new exemption

Phuket is the second busiest entry point in the country and the rules here are the national ones, two of which changed recently enough that older advice is still circulating.

Checked 20 September 2026

Since 15 September 2026 the Thai visa exemption is 30 days rather than 60, for sixty countries and territories including the UK, EU, US, Canada, Australia and Japan, and it covers tourism only. The Thailand Digital Arrival Card is compulsory, free, and filed within three days of arrival. Visa on arrival now applies to three nationalities only; everyone else is either exempt or uses the e-visa. We do not publish visa fees: the current figure is on the official portal, and your coordinator confirms it before you travel.

Put the beach at the right end.

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Tell us your dates

We will tell you which coast is dry in your month, and how many boat days are worth booking.

Plan My Trip

Common questions

Questions travellers ask most

Which part of Phuket should I stay in?

The north — Bang Tao, Nai Thon, Mai Khao — for quiet and a short airport transfer. Kata for a walkable beach with places to eat. Patong only if the nightlife is what you came for.

Is Phi Phi worth a day?

On a private boat leaving early, yes. On a scheduled day trip arriving at eleven with everything else, it is a long ride to share a small bay. Phang Nga Bay before nine in the morning is the better use of the same day.

Phuket or Krabi?

Phuket for the airport, the choice of places to stay and an easy transfer. Krabi for the scenery and for quieter sand. Many routes use Phuket for the flights and spend the nights at Krabi, which is three hours away by road.

Journey ideas