Best for
Beaches, big resorts, and an old town worth a day
Nightly range
฿1,530–฿27,500 a night
When to go
November to April is the dry season on the Andaman coast and the busiest time. May to October brings the southwest monsoon, with more rain and rougher seas on the west-coast beaches.
Phuket is Thailand’s largest island, on the Andaman Sea, and it is several destinations in one.
The west coast is a chain of beaches: Bang Tao and the Laguna complex in the north, then Kamala, Patong, Karon and Kata, with Rawai and Nai Harn at the southern tip. Phuket Town, with its old quarter, sits on the east side, away from the beaches.
Distances matter more than the map suggests. Our Bang Tao picks are roughly 10 to 14km from the airport; our Rawai and Nai Harn picks are more than 33km from it, both in straight lines. Pick the area first, then the hotel.
Where to stay
in Phuket.
Pick the area first and the hotel second. On a trip this size the half hour between one beach and the next shapes the holiday more than the room does.
Ordered by the mean guest score of the listings in each area, the same basis as the hotels below.
Thalang Road, Phuket Old Town. Photo by Christophe95, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to stayPhuket TownThe island's main town and its old quarter, with the highest average scores of our Phuket areas and no beach.Explore Phuket Town
Kata Beach. Photo by ADwarf, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to stayKata & KaronTwo neighbouring beaches south of Patong, from the most expensive property on the site to a three-star at under a tenth of the price.Explore Kata & Karon
Patong Beach. Photo by jbremer57, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to stayPatongThe beach town at the centre of Phuket's west coast, where our picks score best on the island for location.Explore Patong
Nai Harn Beach. Photo by ADwarf, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to stayRawai & Nai HarnPhuket's southern tip, where location scores vary more than anywhere else we cover on the island.Explore Rawai & Nai Harn
Kamala Beach. Photo by Tuderna, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to stayKamalaThe bay north of Patong, where a two-star outscores both of our five-stars.Explore Kamala
The shore at Choeng Thale, Bang Tao. Photo by Максим Улитин (Maksim Ulitin), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons3 places to stayBang TaoThe long beach north of Kamala and home of the Laguna resort complex, with the lowest average scores of our Phuket areas.Explore Bang TaoTop rated in Phuket.
boutique / Phuket Town
Arco Phuket Town
Researched Pick฿6,998
a night
boutique / Kata & Karon
Sawasdee Village
Researched Pick฿7,493
a night
luxury / Patong
Eden Resort & Villas
Researched Pick฿9,583
a night
boutique / Phuket Town
Xinlor House
Researched Pick฿3,092
a night
budget / Kamala
Naka Resort
Researched Pick฿1,563
a night
luxury / Kata & Karon
The Shore at Katathani
Researched Pick฿27,500
a night
Ordered on guest evidence alone: mean score across every booking platform we checked, then review depth. Having stayed somewhere does not push it up the list.
Things to do.
Tours carry each operator's own score, never averaged with the others running the same trip. Places you simply visit carry no score, and say so.
— 01wildlifeA Phuket elephant sanctuary
— 02waterA Phi Phi islands day trip
— 03waterPhang Nga Bay and James Bond Island
— 04waterThe Similan Islands
— 05nightlifeSimon Cabaret
— 06nightlifeBangla Road
— 07viewpointKaron Viewpoint
— 08culturePhuket Old Town
— 09viewpointPromthep Cape
— 10cultureThe Big Buddha
— 11cultureWat Chalong
Drag to explore — 11 checked in Phuket
Two badges.
No grey area.
Every one of the 29 Phuket listings carries one of these. We never blur the line between somewhere we went and somewhere we checked.
How we research →We went. The listing names who stayed, when, and for how many nights. If we haven't been, it doesn't get this badge.
1
in Phuket
Not been yet. Confirmed on more than one platform, with its real guest score and review count recorded from each. Each one prints its working.
28
in Phuket
Get the good stuff first.
New listings, price movements worth knowing about, and the occasional note on somewhere that stopped clearing our bar. No list exists yet, so this button does nothing on purpose.