Phuket is 543 square kilometres, and you feel that most in how your days work out. Thirty beaches line up along the west coast, there is an old trading town in the east, and boats leave the shore for a sea full of islands. In between sits a lot of driving time that looks much shorter on the map. You are not going to tick this island off, and you do not need to.
A few things really belong on your list: one day on the water, one evening at a night market, and the southern tip right as the sun goes down. Plenty of others turn up on every list, because Phuket has a lot going on. Pick a few, because half a day on a scooter often takes you past something that is just as good two beaches along.
So where do your Phuket days go, and what do you save for next time?
Want the practical side first, like how to get there, where to sleep and how many days to give it? That is all on our Phuket page.
Kayaking through Phang Nga Bay
For us this is the best thing you can do from Phuket, and it has nothing to do with the beach. Phang Nga Bay is full of limestone islands shooting straight up out of the water, with caves underneath that dry out at low tide. You paddle into one of those caves and come out between rock walls you would never guess were there from the outside.
The best known stop is James Bond Island, the rocky spike from the film, and it is also the busiest spot of the day. The rest of the trip is about the channels in between, where all you hear is your own paddle. Boats go from pretty much every hostel on the island, usually early in the morning.
Take the earliest departure your tour offers. The caves only open up at low tide, and the first boats get the channels to themselves.
Our verdict: absolutely, even if it is the only day trip you do
Phuket Old Town
Old Town is the proof that Phuket is more than a strip of beach. This is the island’s old trading town, with colourful Sino-Portuguese shopfronts, pastel shutters, street art on the side walls and cafés in buildings that were something completely different a hundred years ago. It has very little in common with the side of the island where you are probably sleeping.
Around Thalang Road the best plan is no plan: little shops, coffee places, small restaurants. The food is different from the coast too, because the Chinese influence runs deep. Hokkien noodles and dim sum are on the menu as often as a Thai curry.
If you are there on a Sunday, the Walking Street Market is worth building your day around. The whole street closes to traffic and fills up with stalls.
Our verdict: make time for it, even if you only have two days
The southern tip: Big Buddha and Promthep Cape
The south is the quietest side of Phuket, and it has the two places everyone ends up at sooner or later. The Big Buddha is 45 metres tall and looks out over the whole island from its hill, so in one glance you see everywhere you have been riding around for the past few days. Promthep Cape sits right on the tip, with the Andaman Sea on three sides.
Promthep Cape is the island’s sunset spot, and everyone knows it. Get there an hour early, find a spot along the edge and stay put. Both sit in the same corner, so you can do them in one afternoon, ideally with the quiet beaches at Rawai and Nai Harn in between.
At the Big Buddha the usual temple dress applies: shoulders and knees covered. That is not a suggestion, because this is a religious place for the people who live here.
Our verdict: the best afternoon on the island
The west coast beaches
There are thirty of them in a row and they are not all the same. Patong Beach is the best known and also the busiest, with jet skis, vendors and rows of sunbeds. Kata and Karon are a lot more relaxed, and Nai Harn in the south is the quietest of the ones that are still easy to reach.
The idea is not to work your way through all of them, but to pick one and let the day happen there. Got a scooter? Then the coast road south is the best ride on the island: stop where you like it and keep going where it is packed. Count on about €6 a day for the scooter.
And the most important bit: take the flags seriously. Between May and October there is an undertow along this coast that kills tourists every year, and there is no lifeguard on most beaches. Red means no swimming, even when other people are in the water.
Our verdict: part of Phuket, and one beach is exactly enough
Eating at a night market
Street food on Phuket is cheaper and better than whatever the beach restaurants put in front of you, and the difference is not small. At a night market you eat for a fraction of beach road prices: fresh fish off the charcoal grill, seafood that came in that morning, curries, pad thai and mango sticky rice for dessert.
The Sunday Walking Street in Old Town is the famous one, but the night market at Chillva is where you go during the week. A meal costs around €2 and a beer about €1.80, so you can hang around all evening without feeling it in your budget.
Do not order one big plate straight away. Get something small at four different stalls, and by the end of the night you have tasted far more than if you had sat down at the first one.
Our verdict: go, and go more than once
A boat trip to Phi Phi and Maya Bay
The islands off the coast are the reason so many travellers start or finish their trip here. The classic day trip covers Maya Bay, Phi Phi and Bamboo Island, with snorkelling stops along the way and a lunch buffet on board. The water is turquoise in exactly the way you were hoping it would be.
It is also the most booked tour on the island, and you notice that from the number of boats in Maya Bay around midday. Leave early, because the first boats are there while the rest of Patong is still at breakfast.
One important thing: if you are spending a few days on Koh Phi Phi itself later in your trip, save it for then. You see the same bays, but also in the quiet morning and evening, and that is exactly when Phi Phi looks its best.
Our verdict: the right day out if Phi Phi is not already on your route
One night on Bangla Road
Bangla Road in Patong is the best known nightlife strip in southern Thailand, and it is exactly what you expect: neon, noise, bars pushed out into the street and people trying to pull you inside. It is touristy and over the top, and that is the point. You do not go for authenticity.
As a night out it works fine. Walk the length of it, have a drink, take it all in and head home. What you do not do is follow someone into a “free” show, because a bill that is far too high always follows. Wear your bag in front here, since this is the one place on the island where pickpocketing is a real thing.
Do not ride a scooter home drunk. The traffic on Phuket is merciless, and this is the island where more tourists get hurt than anywhere else in Thailand.
Our verdict: one night is just right, then head back out into the rest of the island
Got time to spare on Phuket?
Water sports on the beach
Want to rent a jet ski? Film every side of it first and get it in writing who pays for what, because arguments about damage afterwards happen here a lot. Looking for something that gives you a whole day of fun? Spend that same money on a boat trip to Phang Nga Bay.
Beyond Patong
Patong is a strip of bars, massage places and beach clubs, and a night or two there is part of the deal. The island is much bigger than that, though: Old Town with its Sino-Portuguese shopfronts, the southern tip at Promthep Cape and Phang Nga Bay are all within half a day’s ride and show you a completely different Phuket.
Another boat trip
There are loads to choose from, so pick the one that fits your route: Phang Nga Bay if you are going on to Phi Phi later, the Phi Phi tour if you are not. Staying a week? A second trip out to the Similan Islands is a completely different day, with the clearest water in the Andaman Sea.
One part of the island a day
There are thirty beaches and the distances are bigger than you think. Pick one part of the island per day and stay there, so you spend your time swimming instead of riding. That way you see more of Phuket in three days than anyone trying to do the whole island in one loop.
Our top five in Phuket
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- Kayaking through Phang Nga Bay, with James Bond Island as the famous stop
- Phuket Old Town, ideally on a Sunday for the Walking Street
- The southern tip: the Big Buddha, then sunset at Promthep Cape
- A day on Kata, Karon or Nai Harn Beach, keeping an eye on the flags
- Eating at the Chillva night market or in Old Town
Still got time after that? Wat Chalong is the island’s best known temple and an easy stop on the way south. And if you want a taste of the nightlife, keep it to that one night on Bangla Road.
So what do you really have to do on Phuket?
Everything on this list is worth it, but Phuket is big, and the travellers who loved it most picked one area a day and stayed there. Use this list to choose, and to keep your days relaxed.
If we had to pick just one thing: get out on the water. Book that trip through Phang Nga Bay, leave early and paddle into a cave at low tide. That is the part of Phuket that looks nothing like the photos you know the island from, and it is the day you will still be talking about a year from now.
And keep one evening free for Old Town. Walk down Thalang Road after dark, eat your way along the stalls and finish with a drink in a café in a building a hundred years old. That is a better way to end Phuket than any beach.
