Phuket is the workhorse of the Thai beach holiday, and pays the price for it in reputation. Thailand's largest island, and the only one with a bridge to the mainland and a major international airport, it has spent decades absorbing more visitors than anywhere else in the country, and the busiest parts, Patong above all, have the traffic, the neon and the hard edges to show for it. Arrive expecting the whole island to look like the brochures and you will be briefly disappointed.
Look past that, though, and Phuket is bigger, greener and better than its worst stretches suggest. The west coast is a run of fine beaches, some developed, some barely touched, backed by forested hills that the resorts climb for the views. The old town is a genuine surprise, a grid of Sino-Portuguese shophouses in sherbet colours. And because the island is so well served, it does luxury with an ease the smaller islands cannot, all-villa resorts, clifftop hotels, serious spas, without the boat transfers.
Our Phuket collection sticks to the good side, the quiet west-coast beaches and the headlands above them. Below, where they are, and when to come.
Explore 3 exceptional boutique hotels hand-picked in Phuket. Click a pin to discover each property.
Thailand, Phuket
The Pavilions
€107.60
Price for 1 night from
Thailand, Phuket
Aleenta Phuket - Phang Nga Resort & Spa
Thailand, Phuket
Paresa Resort
€317.40
Price for 1 night from
Phuket is large, and the difference between its beaches is the difference between a good holiday and a disappointing one. The west coast holds almost all the ones worth having; our collection stays firmly on it, north of the busy centre.
North of the airport, the island quietens and the beaches improve: Layan, Bang Tao and Nai Thon are broad, calm and backed by greenery rather than bars. This is where Phuket does understated luxury, and where two of our resorts sit. Above Layan Beach, The Pavilions is an adults-only, all-pool-villa resort set on a hillside, with a private infinity pool in every villa and a rooftop sunset bar, geared squarely to couples. A little further north again, and technically just over the water on the Phang Nga mainland, Aleenta occupies a quiet stretch of Natai Beach: an all-suite, all-pool beach resort with a medical-led wellness centre, plant-based dining and a strong environmental streak.
The middle of the west coast is Phuket at its most developed, Patong the loud heart of it, though its neighbours Kamala and Surin are calmer and smarter. The headlands between the beaches are where the island's most dramatic hotels perch. Paresa is one of them, a clifftop resort on the Kamala–Kalim headland known as Millionaire's Mile, where all forty-two suites and villas have their own ocean-facing infinity pool and the whole place is built into the rock above the Andaman, one of the island's great sunset addresses.
Away from the beaches, Phuket Town is the island's most underrated corner: a compact grid of restored Sino-Portuguese shophouses, now full of cafés, galleries and good local food, and a reminder of the tin-mining wealth that built the island long before tourism. The south holds the viewpoints, Promthep Cape for the classic sunset, and the busy beaches of Kata and Karon; the east coast, facing the mainland, is where the marinas and the boats to Phang Nga Bay are.
Phuket is the launch pad for the Andaman's greatest hits. Take a boat into Phang Nga Bay, the forest of limestone towers and sea caves just to the north-east, or out to the Similan Islands for the country's best diving, in season. Kayak the mangroves, spend a morning in the old town, and see the Big Buddha on its hill above Chalong. And time at least one evening for a west-coast beach at sunset, which is what the island does best.
Phuket runs on the Andaman calendar. The dry, calm season is around November to April, with clear skies, gentle seas and the best conditions for boats and beaches, and it is peak season for good reason. May to October is the south-west monsoon: wetter, with big swells that make some west-coast beaches unsafe for swimming, flagged with red flags that are worth heeding. Prices drop and the island greens up, but for the classic Phuket of calm, clear water, come in winter.
For Thai-island luxury without the friction: Thailand's biggest island has an international airport and a bridge to the mainland, so no boat transfers, plus a run of fine west-coast beaches, dramatic clifftop and all-villa resorts, a charming old town and easy access to the spectacular scenery of Phang Nga Bay and the Similan Islands. Skip the busy centre and it is superb.
