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Phuket Thailand
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Phuket
(click map for larger version Click
Here for town maps)
The best beaches are along the western / Andaman Sea coast.
Bang Tao Bay (AKA Laguna
Beach)
Is an unashamed 5 star resort area with white sandy beach and man
made lakes that separate many resorts. There are some good, inexpensive
beach-front restaurants / shops. Although, unfortunately for guests, these
often block the view from the hotel grounds (The Sheraton Grande Laguna
& Laguna Beach Club "suffer" the most from these "shanty
shacks"). The lakes have their own man made beaches to make up for
this. But they are behind banks and so get very hot, as they are sheltered
from the sea breeze. The unlicensed and uninsured jet-ski operators also
make themselves a nuisance with guests trying to relax (by soliciting
them for business, ogling the western women, and by renting these craft
to people causing noise and significant accident risks).
Surin Beach
The northern end
is home to the exclusive Chedi and Amanpuri Resorts. Although the southern
end has much more inexpensive options, and is a favorite with locals for
beach visits and seafood stall vendors.
During the high season, when the sea is calm, there is some good snorkeling
to be had here.
Kamala Beach
Kamala is still relatively
unspoiled with extremely friendly locals (the main village area inland
is also the Muslim "capital" of Phuket). It is also one of the
very few places in Phuket where you can find 2 / 3 star hotels on the
beach, and inexpensive, genuine Thai food (The White Orchid is particularly
notable, plus there are some good Thai beach-front restaurants along the
southern headland on Paradise Cove). Kamala's beach stretches for 2km.
And apart from the central hotel section, is practically free of sun loungers.
There is still an active fishing village and good local market (Wednesdays
and Saturdays). Unfortunately perhaps, local restaurants are continuously
being bought out and "improved" by westerners, and the headland
developed with private villas.
Patong Beach
Home of the 3 star
package Phuket tourist, fake merchandise shops, girly (for "rent")
bars, seafood restaurants that quote by the 100gm (to make their expensive
food seem cheaper), US Navy visits and "lady boys" (drag queen
transvestites). A "great" place if you like haggling for fake
goods (You should pay only 120 baht for a music / software / DVD etc.
CD if you negotiate well), and watching / participating in bars with friendly
("Hello, what's your name, where do you come from, buy me one drink?")
girls while watching other girls with expressionless faces dance naked
on stage. Or if you like sun-bathing on beach loungers 3 or 4 deep (during
high season), being pestered every 1 minute by beach salesmen, and playing
"duck or die" with the reckless (and very nasty) jet-ski operators
while swimming.
Despite, their names, very few Patong hotels are on the beach and some are decidedly far from it. For food, the Baan Rim Na is on a northern headland with good views, good pianist and popular tourist influenced Thai food. Just off the main coastal (Thavee Wong) road, look for the car park actually on the beach or the sidewalk down to the beach next to the (expensive, fish by the 100gm) Sidewalk Cafe. And you will find 4 beach-front restaurants, which are by far the best value in Patong (the best one seems to be Kho Tuey).
Karon Beach
A huge, lovely beach.
One of the very best. Karon has a more up-market clientele than Patong,
just 5km away. It also has some well rated hotels, especially Karon Villa
/ Royal Wing. However, with the exception of Ruam Thep Inn and Karon Beach
Resort at the southern end (on a rocky headland), and "On The Beach"
(just to the north of center), none of the hotels are on the beach! They
are the other side of the main road that runs along the beach! What makes
this worse is the central and northern areas also have "backwater"
between the beach and the road. And this backwater is infested with mosquitos
(which means that "On The Beach Hotel" suffers probably the
most). Karon also has an increasing number of girl (for rent) bars.
Kata Beach
Kata actually has two beach areas; Kata Yai and Kata Noi. The larger Kata
Yai beach has the likes of Club Med, Kata Beach Resort and Boathouse (the
later 2 being on the beach, the boathouse has a superb restaurant), along
with some smaller boutique resorts and less expensive along the headlands
and away from the beach.
Kata Noi has a number
of beach-front hotels. The beaches here are excellent, and the town much
more laid back than Karon (and no few or no girl bars). This area, along
with Kamala probably represents the best 2 to 4 star opportunities for
beach hotels and rest / relaxation.
Nai Harn Beach
Le Royal Meridien
Phuket Yacht Club was the only hotel option on this beach, and sits at
the northern end amongst a string of souvenir etc. shops (some of which
are taken down during low season). "Was" because a new, very
cramped hotel is being built (finishes late 2001)
just back from the
beach area, near those same shops. Nai Harn is a favorite with the locals
during the weekends. It also has a number of high season lounger / food
& drink vendors during high season, but they are not aggressive and
there is always plenty of room. Making this an excellent day out for tourists
staying in other areas. A pair of sun loungers with sun shade will cost
100 baht for the day. A cold young coconut, 25 baht. A very cold beer,
70 baht. The beach is a superb white sand with plenty of shade back from
the beach from rows of casuarina trees.
Rawai Beach
This is a very narrow
beach with a road separating it and the main restaurants, accommodation
and shops. The beach is nowhere near as good as the beached that face
west / the Andaman Sea (those above). It does have seafood stall vendor
after seafood stall vendor though on the beach, and is very popular with
the locals. There is one upper market hotel, Phuket Island Resort, on
and around the headland. The dividing line between Rawai, and neighboring
Chalong Bay is not clear. And there are some nice little surprises along
the coast (especially "The Beach House" in the grounds of the
Atlas Resort) just off the main Rawai - Phuket Town road (just south of
the junction for Le Royal Merdien).
Chalong Bay
Chalong is a divers
port, but very little else. It has a pier from which the dinner cruise
boat operates, and a very fine beach-front restaurant in the form of Kaneang
2 (off the main Rawai - Phuket Town road, just look for the "Visa
Run 900 Baht" sign), which serves superb seafood at local prices.
Although it is best to make sure the Singapore based coastal cruise liners
are not in town, as then the place gets swamped with tour buses.
Phuket Town
Not so much for tourists to stay, but none the less an interesting
place to visit. And where you will find the ferry terminals for Krabi,
Phi Phi and other islands (although this means a longtail to the smaller
ones). It has a very good, large market brimming with fresh seafood, vegetables,
fruit and flowers (try the juice squeezed from bamboo). Around the market
are some inexpensively priced gold shops worth investigating (jewelry
is sold by weight at very low prices compared with the west). There are
also some excellent shops and galleries in town.
Outside Phuket.
Krabi / Ao Phra Nang Area
Krabi Town, despite uniformed popular belief, is not on the coast.
What is often called "Krabi Beach", is actually the village
of Ao Phra Nang, etc. Krabi itself is an interesting place, and where
the river estuary ferry port takes visitors to Koh Phi Phi. Some of the
restaurants along the harbor front, serve exceptional seafood, especially
huge Tiger Prawns. The hotels in town are a little worn, to say the least,
but the Thai Hotel does have a superb (and air conditioned) restaurant.
On the outskirts of town, the Krabi Royal gets many complaints, while
the Krabi Meritime opposite, is of the highest standards.
Of all the Krabi Village beaches, Ao Phra Nang (previously Ao Nang), is the most accessible with the greatest range of accommodations and restaurants. Be very wary of the write-ups given by a certain major guide book though, as it seems to get everything wrong except the best beach-front restaurant. Very few of the hotels are on the beach. One exception is the Krabi Resort is, despite what it appears, next to the beach-front restaurants in the center of the village. From Ao Phra Nang, you can take a longtail boat to the superb offshore islands. The best time to go is when you see the longtails actually on Ao Phra Nang beach as, otherwise, they take you to the nearby estuary harbor, which means the seas are choppy. The beach here is superb, the food wonderful, and this has to be one of the better bargains in the area. Try Your Krabi for hotels and tour arrangements, etc.
Koh Phi Phi
There are two islands; Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Ley. The former being
where the hotels are, the later being where the divers, snorkelers and
Viking Caves are. If we stick with the main island, there are 3 main areas;
Ton Sai Bay / Ao Lo Dalam, Hat Laem Tong, and "other"! Click
Here for our Phi Phi Map.
Ton Sai Bay
Is where most hotels are based, and where most ferries come. It has
a large backpacker following, although some hotels are of a pretty high
standard. The streets are pretty touristy though, and the water can get
dirty. Ao Lo Dalam is simply the other side of this short / narrow flat
link between the two hilly areas either side). 6pm is a good time to visit
the town as the restaurants all start plying their fish specials of the
day. But, unfortunately, some restaurants seem to have more flies buzzing
diners then they give rice grains on their plates! There are some nice
beach sections at the outer perimeters of this town.
Hat Laem Dong
Has a ferry "terminal" point for fast ferries from Phuket. It
also has about 5 hotels and a sea gypsy village. So it can get a bit noisy,
dirty and overcrowded. The Palm Beach has done an excellent job in convincing
travel guides and tour operators that it is the quality option on Phi
Phi. But it is quite cramped and right next to the gypsy village, which
is where the ferry also comes in. The beach is nice, but busy and often
suffers from litter. The area to the north of the beach is much better
(around Phi Phi Natural Resort Hotel).
Other Phi Phi Areas
Despite rhetoric about building restrictions. New, bungalow style, basic
accommodations are appearing on the smaller bays around the island (these
can only be reached by longtail boat). The only exception to these recent
additions is the superb Pee Pee Island Village, which is spacious and
occupies probably the nicest beach / bay on Phi Phi (Loh Ba Gao - aquamarine
waters and good year round snorkeling on account of being on the sheltered
leeward side of the island). As a captive audience, prices are high here
for seafood and drinks. But canny guests buy the cheaper menu items, eat
seafood at Ton Sai, and bring back cases of beer etc. for their in-room
refrigerators!
North Of Phuket
Just north of Phuket is Phang-Nga, with its evocative and beautiful
limestone outcrops, set within superb waters. This area is certainly worth
a day out by boat. But avoid the "James Bond Island" and "Stilted
Fishing Village" tours, as you will definitely be amongst the tourist
and hawker hoards! Click
Here for a dedicated Phang-Nga Marine Park site.
Within Phang-Nga province, there is also the wonderful coastal Khao Lak National Park. And a number of hotels have now set up around the park; the most notable being the superb Similana. From here, you can take a tour to the Surin Islands, renowned amongst snorkelers. Trips also go to the Similan Islands, one of the top 5 dive spots in the world. But this will require more than a day, which is why so many dive operations (most are based in Phuket) use liveaboards to get there. If you are going to dive however, it is advisable to use one that subscribes to the SSS decompression service, otherwise accidents might be expensive or dangerous.
Ranong to the north, is an area of considerable natural beauty. But most recognized for its day trip operations to Burma / Myanmar. Either just to go, for visa reasons, or to gamble at the Andaman Casino. Ranong Province has a lot of rain-forest by token of the fact it is the province with the highest rainfall in Thailand. Click Here for more information about this area.
South Of Krabi - Koh Lanta
Koh Lanta is another backpacker destination that is starting to "struggle"
to become a mainstream tourist area. The main tourist beaches of Hat Khlong
Dao and Hat Phra Ae are where you will find most accommodations. And most
are bungalow style (often tin huts, reminiscent of 1960's British holiday
camps), and many with aircon options. Again the tour books seem to have
got this place wrong too regarding which are the better hotels, so do
not go by them. Travel books also warn you that the road past Hat Phra
Ae gets worse, when it actually gets better. And takes you to the very
nice (poor beach though) and interesting area around Ban Ko Lanta (On
the road there, stop at the superb little restaurant on the hill going
down with sweeping views of the smaller islands). A fair site on Koh
Lanta can be found here.
Scuba Diving
Try 
Sunrise Divers in Phuket - One of the friendliest operations in Phuket,
or Dive
The World Thailand - With a superb range of courses, trips and even
liveaboards.
Scuba
Diving De is a superb site regarding Phuket, the Andaman Sea, and
the Similan Islands with both English and German pages.
One of
the most established dive operators in Phuket is Sea Bees of Kata, who
have both a Phuket
Scuba Diving site / operation, plus run Thailand
Diving Liveaboards.
Or maybe try one of the others, such as Scuba Cat.
But, maybe you wont want to go diving after reading Lars Bindholt's "Sharks of Thailand"!
Sailing
If you would like to get out on the ocean, try the appropriately named
Phuket Sailing
.Com for cruises around Cruises in Thailand, Myanmar & Malaysia.
Boating
Fancy a river boat cruise around / up some of Phang Nga's rivers,
estuaries, caves, islands and beaches? Then try
River Rovers!
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