Thailand · Phuket Province
Where to Stay in Phuket, Phuket Province
Phuket is a city on an island of southern Thailand in the Andaman Sea, an old tin port of Sino-Portuguese streets that anchors the country's greatest beach resort.
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Where to stay in Phuket
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Where you stay in Phuket turns on the old town or the beaches. The streets of the old town keep the shophouses, the markets, and the museums within a walk, and staying in town suits anyone here for the heritage. The old lanes fill with cafés.
Lanterns hang over the streets. Out on the west coast, the island gives way to the beach resorts, the sandy bays, and the warm Andaman Sea. A room by the sea trades the town for the palm beaches, the blue water, and the boats to the islands.
The coast runs down the shore. Stay in town for the heritage, or by the sea for the beaches. The old tin town looks out on the Andaman.
About Phuket
Phuket is the island town of the Andaman coast.
What is Phuket known for?
On a great island off the southern coast of Thailand, it grew rich on tin and trade, and it keeps the Sino-Portuguese shophouses of its old town, the Peranakan culture of its Chinese merchants, the long beaches of the island's west coast, and the great seated Buddha on the hills above. The warm sea laps the sand. Green hills rise behind the town.
What are the main landmarks in Phuket?
The old town is the pride of Phuket. The streets of Sino-Portuguese shophouses, painted and shuttered in the old Baba style, make the emblem of the town, downtown. A great Buddha sits on the hill.
The white seated Buddha looks down from Nakkerd above the island, while the west-coast beaches, the Baba mansions, and the Andaman islands mark the country around Phuket.
What is the history of Phuket?
Phuket grew rich on tin. For centuries the island lay on the sea road between India and China, and its earth was full of tin. Chinese miners flocked to the island.
In the eighteen-hundreds Chinese came in their thousands to dig the tin, and they built the shophouses and mansions of the old town and made their fortunes. The Chinese left their mark. Its Baba people, the island's Peranakan, blended Chinese and Malay ways in their food, dress, and feasts, above all the wild Vegetarian Festival of piercing and fire.
The beaches drew a new wealth. When the tin ran low, the island turned to the sea, and travelers came for the long west-coast beaches and the warm Andaman, so Phuket grew into the great beach resort of Thailand, keeping its old town, its culture, and its coast. The old shophouses still line the streets.
Phuket keeps its island town on the Andaman Sea.
Where is Phuket?
Phuket lies off the southern coast of Thailand, on the largest island of the country in the Andaman Sea. The town sits on the east side of a green hilly island, ringed by forested hills and tin-red earth, with the long beaches on the west coast facing the open sea and the mainland close across the strait to the east. The sea runs warm and clear.
Forest cloaks the island hills.
What is the climate of Phuket?
Phuket's weather is tropical and humid, with real heat behind it. Warm weather holds all year on the coast, with a long monsoon of heavy rain from spring to autumn and drier sunny months in the winter. Monsoon rains drench the coast.
Winter brings the clear days.
How do you get to Phuket?
Phuket lies off the south coast of Thailand, joined to the mainland by a bridge. Flights land from Bangkok and beyond, and the highway crosses the bridge from the mainland. Boats sail to the islands.
Bangkok lies far to the north.
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Updated August 2026