Best Areas to Stay in Phuket for Beaches Nightlife and Local Culture

Phuket, it’s the biggest island in the whole of Thailand. And this presents first-time visitors with a problem. Where the hell should you stay on the island? In this travel guide, I’ll show you the top five places to stay in Phuket, as well as the more popular places that you should actually avoid. In the video, expect to find out the best area for first-timers, the best areas for nightlife, for street food, for culture, and deserted beaches.

Before You Choose Where to Stay in Phuket

Before we get started, there’s a few things to know about the island of Phuket that might affect where you want to stay. Phuket can be whatever you want it to be.

Because it’s the biggest island in Thailand, it’s also the most diverse in areas to stay. Now, sometimes Phuket gets criticized for being overcrowded or too touristy, and this might be true. However, this is concentrated on the southwestern part of the island. So, if you’re looking for something less touristy or less explored, there are other parts of the island you can stay on, too.

So, it’s important that you choose wisely where you want to stay to get the most out of your experience for what you want. It’s also, in my opinion, worth exploring different parts of the island.

I’m in a lot of Thailand Facebook groups, so I’m constantly seeing poorly put-together itineraries.

For example, where you might spend two days in Phuket before two days in Krabi, and then a whole way across the country to Koh Samui for another two days. You can see a lot more with a lot less travel time by spending a few days in Kata Beach, for example, and then moving across the island to Cape Panwa. Each of these locations will have a completely different vibe and atmosphere, meaning you’ll spend more time actually enjoying your trip rather than spending time on buses, planes, and trains.

The Tourist Beaches in Phuket I Do Not Recommend

Now, let’s start by talking about the more touristy areas that most people are referring to when they talk about Phuket. These beaches include Kamala, Karon, Patong, Kata, and Kata Noi. I’m going to talk about Kata and Patong in a bit more detail in a second, but I want to give you a rundown of some of these other beaches, even though I don’t quite recommend them.

Let’s start with Kamala Beach. Kamala Beach is one of the smaller beaches on the island, and this is the area for luxury resorts. If something you value is having a really high-class luxury resort, this might be the place for you. My problem with the area, though, is there’s not much more to it than that. Once you step away from the beach, there’s not a lot going on in terms of nightlife or street food, and the beach itself is not that impressive. The sand wasn’t particularly nice when I visited there. On top of that, they know it’s for luxury resorts, so prices tend to go up near here, even if you’re just buying a drink or getting a food, it’s generally more expensive.

Now to Karon, which is one of the longer beaches on the island, and I think it kind of suffers because of this. Because it’s one of the longer beaches, it doesn’t really know what it is, and it’s the area on the island that has the least distinct atmosphere. It’s never as nice as Kata Beach, nor as wild as Patong. A lot of the bars and restaurants are spread out, and there’s not that much to do over on Karon Beach. I’ve stayed here before and visited quite a few times, and I’ve always found it a little bit boring. So, I also don’t recommend Karon.

Finally, Kata Noi. Similar to Kamala Beach, this also has a lot of high-end luxury resorts. However, it’s a little bit quieter and a little bit nicer. I don’t think it’s particularly interesting area to stay. However, if you’re looking to stay somewhere near Kata Beach, but with a bit of a quieter atmosphere, this might be the place for you if you’ve got the money for it.

Kata Beach Is Best for Most First-Time Visitors

Kata Beach is, in my opinion, the best place to stay for most first-time visitors to the island. It’s definitely in the touristy part of the island, but much less crowded than Patong, which I’ll get to in a minute. But that’s okay, that also comes with a lot of advantages. It’s got some really good hotels, and there’s lots and lots of things to do on this beach. The beach itself is really stunning. There’s also a good mix of cheap and delicious Thai food and more upscale international restaurants, too. One of my favorite bars in the whole country is Ska Bar, which is situated towards the southern end of the beach. This is probably one of the best places in the whole island to sit and watch the sun go down. All the beaches in the touristy part of town are southern facing, meaning you get some amazing sunsets like this right here.

In terms of things to do, I would say Kata Beach is one of the best places to enjoy water sports. There’s a surf school here, and they’re really good for beginners. They’ll really teach you how to do it. And the beach actually does get quite wavy at some points of the year. It’s also got some good snorkeling, and you can do some parasailing or paragliding here, too. This is the only beach on the island from where you can hike up to the Big Buddha. If you don’t know, the Big Buddha is one of the biggest landmarks on the island, and from Kata Beach, you can hike up through the jungle to it.

Kata Beach is the area where I usually stay on the island. Although, when I go back now, I do try and branch out and explore other parts of the island.

Patong Beach Is Phuket’s Nonstop Nightlife Hub

The other area in the touristy part of town that I do want to mention is Patong. And this might be the most controversial in terms of best places to stay. This is definitely the most popular place to stay.

And that brings a lot of advantages and disadvantages with it. If you’re looking for a quiet relaxing beach, this is not it. But it is the area with the most to do nearby. It’s easy to rent jet skis or banana boats from here as well as paraglide and parasailing. Although it’s one of the busier beaches, there are some secluded hidden beaches nearby which you can explore by scooter, like Paradise Beach or Freedom Beach. And basically anything that you want to do, you can do here on Patong Beach, like go-karting or shooting ranges or anything else that you can think of, it’s probably right here.

Now, this is one of the most notorious areas in the whole country for nightlife. Someone explained to me recently that Koh Phi Phi or Koh Phangan are where the young tourists go and behave badly, and Patong Beach is where middle-aged people go to behave badly, and I probably agree with that.

This is maybe the seedier part of town, with the go-go bars, ping-pong shows, and strip clubs. And this is where people go to get up. It’s pretty much one of the most mental places you can visit, and it’s mental all night, every night. Personally, I wouldn’t stay here again.

Phuket Old Town Is Best for Food and Culture

I think there are a lot better places to stay on on the island. However, I couldn’t do a list of the best places to stay in Phuket without mentioning the most notorious beach on the island. And now for something completely different, Phuket Old Town. Old Town is probably the area with the best street food on the whole island. On top of that, it’s probably the best place to experience the island’s history and culture, as well as some of the better markets on the island.

However, there’s one major disadvantage, there’s no beach. If you’ve come to Phuket, you probably want to spend at least some time on the beach, but it is worth it to spend a night or two here.

Phuket has the most Michelin star street food stands and restaurants in the whole of southern Thailand. Most of them are based here in the Old Town. There’s a highly recommended breakfast place that serves curries and roti’s in the morning. This opens really early at about 6:00 and closes around 11:00 a.m. So, to get some of these street food stands, you’ve got to get here early. So, it’s better to actually stay in the area.

On top of that, there’s a lot of cafes to explore. In particular, I’ve noticed a lot of dessert places around town. So, there’s places specializing in making chocolate or ice cream.

This is one of the more beautiful areas of the island to explore and it’s definitely got the most distinct feel to it. This is because of its history. It was first discovered by the Portuguese. So, it’s got this kind mix of European and Asian architecture known as Sino-Portuguese and you can still see it here in the town today with the colorful houses that line the streets. There’s also a number of different temples in the area. Some of them are Chinese style temples, some of them are more traditional Buddhist style temples. So, this is probably the best area to experience Thai culture as well. Personally, I think there’s nowhere quite like this anywhere else in the whole of Thailand. So, it’s definitely worth checking out the old town while you’re here.

Cape Panwa Is Best for Secluded Beaches

Cape Panwa is probably the least explored area of the island. This is the area I’d recommend if you want to go for secluded beaches. So, I actually got married over this part of the island and we chose it because it would have a much quieter atmosphere than everywhere else.

But, we chose this area so there wouldn’t be a lot of people walking around interrupting our wedding and that was the case.

It’s still a really beautiful area with stunning backdrops of the island. If you’re looking for a quieter experience, this might be for you. There’s definitely less in terms of nightlife. However, there are still quite a lot of beach bars or restaurants where you can sit, relax, and watch the sun go down.

Rawai Is the Best Place to Feel Like a Local

Rawai is the area to stay if you want to feel like a local. It’s considered the expat part of town. So, a lot of people that actually living on the island live here.

So, this means there’s less big hotels, but a few more guest houses. There is a beach here which is quite nice. However, it’s not west facing meaning you won’t get to experience some of the beautiful sunsets that the island’s known for.

There’s less songthaews over here, so it’s best if you can rent a car or a scooter when staying here. It’s a very good place to explore the rest of the island from. You have the best of both worlds in that you’re near the touristy parts of Kata and Patong if you want to go experience the nightlife there, but also in between here and Cape Panwa. So, you’re basically in the middle of the less touristy and most touristy places.

Bang Tao Beach Is a Quieter Base Near the Airport

Finally, two a beach I actually haven’t stayed on, but have visited a few times and absolutely loved is Bang Tao Beach. Bang Tao Beach is a really nice, beautiful stretch of the island.

It’s for people looking for somewhere a little bit quieter than Kata or Patong, but a little more busy than Cape Panwa. Again, this is an area that doesn’t have a loads going on in terms of nightlife, but does have some really nice beach bars.

Phuket has done quite well to keep a lot of bars and restaurants off the beach, but I found on Bang Tao Beach there’s quite a few places to sit and have a beer.

It’s also a great area to stay if you want to try Muay Thai. One of the best Muay Thai gyms in the whole of Thailand is Bang Tao Beach and that’s right here. So, this would be the best area to train Muay Thai in the morning, then relax on the beach in the evening after.

It also has the added advantage of being a bit closer to the airport. So, if you’re only in town for a few days, this might be the perfect spot for you.