Phuket's best-known beach
About 2.8 km of sand.
Wolfgang Holzem — CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Arnaud-Victor Monteux — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Arnaud-Victor Monteux — CC BY-SA 4.0
Phuket's best-known and liveliest beach, a strip of sand some two thousand eight hundred metres long on the west coast facing the Andaman Sea. Since the late 1980s it has been the island's main resort and the centre of its hotels, restaurants and shopping. The beach has plenty of water sports, such as parasailing and jet skis, and behind it streets packed with hotels and malls, the best known being Jungceylon, and many restaurants, including Arab and halal ones well known to Gulf visitors. The water is calm and good for swimming in the dry season, but in the monsoon from about May to October the waves build and red flags go up. The beach is free and always open. A frank note for families: Bangla Road, parallel to the beach, becomes a zone of clubs and bars at night that does not suit families, so avoid it in the evening. Patong suits anyone who wants energy, services and shopping by the sea. For quiet with children, Kata and Karon beaches to the south are better, about a quarter of an hour away.
About 2.8 km of sand.
Arab restaurants Gulf visitors know.
Parasailing and jet skis.
West coast of Phuket, about 15 km from Phuket Town
The beach by day, the restaurants and the shopping are fine, but Bangla Road at night is not for families. For a quiet stay with children, Kata or Karon is better.