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Patong Beach
(15 km from town) |
| Phuket's most developed beach offers numerous leisure, sporting, shopping and recreational options along its 3-km long cresent bay. |
| Windsurfing, snorkelling, sailing, swimming and sunbathing number among the many popular daytime activities. |
| Patong is equally well known for its vibrant nightlife, among which seafood restaurants feature prominently. |
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| Karon Beach (20 & 17 km from town) |
| The second largest of Phuket's tourist beaches. Large resort complexes line the road behind of the shoreline, but the long, broad beach itself has no development. The sand is very white, and squeaks audibly when walked upon. The southern point has a fine coral reef stretching toward Kata and Bu Island. |
| Restaurants, bars, tour companies and other non-hotel businesses are at the north end, near the traffic circle, and at the south end, on the little road connecting the back road with the beach road. The narrow road between Kata and Karon has a number of small businesses as well as the Dino Park Mini Golf facillity. Karon is the most up-scale of Phuket's beaches. There is a regular daytime bus service to and from Phuket Town. |
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Kata Beach
(20 & 17 km from town) |
| Beautiful Kata is a scenic gem, its clear water flanked by hills, and picturesque Bu island sits offshore. |
Kata retains a village feel at its northern and southern ends and is perhaps more family-oriented, its beach more peaceful than Patong.
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Kata Noi Beach
(20 & 17 km from town) |
South of Kata is Kata Noi, a smaller beach with only a few hotels and little other development. The beach is superb. Many fish inhabit the rocks and corals along the beachless shoreline stretching south.
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| How to get there: Take the narrow beach road up over the hill from kata. |
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Naiharn Beach
(18 km from town) |
| South of Kata Noi and north of Promthep Cape, Naiharn is not Phuket's longest beach, but it borders the most gorgeous lagoon on the island. The middle of the beach is dominated by the Samnak Song Nai Han monastery, which has obstructed excessive development and is the reason that the beach is generally less crowded than other spots on the southern part of the island. |
| A wide variety of water sports can be enjoyed, but swimmers should be alert for the red flag which warns of dangerous currents during the monsoon season from May to October. One can walk to nearby Promthep Cape to observe sunsets, which are often fiery and spectacular. |
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| Kamala Beach |
| The beach is a favoured spot for witnessing sunsets. The northern end of Kamala Beach is suitable for swimming. |
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Singh Beach
(About 1 km from Surin Beach) |
| The name means Lion's Point. The beach is in a small, curving bay with rocky headlands at the foot of forest-fringed cliffs and is among Phuket's most beautiful spots. |
Look for signs indicating the path down to the beach. |
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| Kalim Beach |
Just north of Patong Bay, starting from about the Novotel Resort Hotel Patong to Thavorn Bay Resort, this area consists of rocky but quiet beaches, and an interesting road leading up into hills with high viewpoints and a few good quality restaurants perched on the edge and top.
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| Some housing compounds are now being built on the hillsides and the whole area is steadily moving upmarket. |
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| Karon Noi Beach |
| A 4 km long straight beach with fewer visitors than its big sister, Karon. Nightlife is pretty much confined to dining and a few beer bars. |
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Chalong Bay
(11 km from town) |
| This beach has several restaurants selling some of Phuket's best seafood. |
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Panwa Beach
(10 km from town) |
The southernmost tip of this cape is home to a Marine Biological Research Centre and Phuket's Aquarium where visitors may inspect several hundred exotic, grotesque, and flamboyantly colourful marine species found in the teeming waters of Phuket and elsewhere.
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Surin Beach
(24 km from town) |
| Evergreen trees line this small, curving bay, beneath the foothills north of Kamala. Surin is home to Phuket's first golf course, a nine-hole course laid out more than sixty years ago during the reign of King Rama VII. It is now largely in disuse except as a park. |
| The steep incline of the beach, turbulent water, and big waves make Surin a dangerous place to swim. |
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Pansea Beach
(24 km from town) |
Pansea is a mouth-wateringly scenic enclave dominated by two deluxe resorts: Amanpuri and the Chedi. Film stars or VIPs like to stay there, as they can get away from the crowds. There are just a few restaurants and shops nearby.
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| Bangtao Beach |
| Bangtao is a large open bay with one of Phuket's longest beaches. It was once used for tin mining, but has since been developed into a luxury resort. Most of it is occupied by the Laguna complex, a massive five-hotel development with golf course. There are, however, accommodations available outside Laguna at the bay's south end. |
| Dry season swimming is excellent, and at the bay's north end is a smaller bay, almost completely enclosed, at the mouth of which is some fine coral. Plenty of places to eat, tour companies, and other tourist facilities are available either at Laguna or in the nearby town of Choeng Thale. |
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| Nai Ton Beach |
| This quiet bay nestled at the foot of high hills has a fine strip of sand. There is some accommodation but virtually no other business. |
| How to get there: Located between Bang Thao Bay and Nai Yang Beach, Nai Ton Beach can be reachd by taking Thepkrasatri Road. Turn at the first traffic light north of Thalang Town to Nai Yang Road. Look for signs indicating the turn-off to Nai Ton. |
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Nai Yang Beach
(30 km from town) |
| This is where the National Park office is located. The beach itself is on a long curving bay lined with evergreens that provide shade to picnickers. The large coral reef is home to many different species of fish, and Nai Yang is well known as a site where sea turtles come to lay their eggs during the period from November to February; the population of these has however, dropped off greatly. First class accommodations are available and small food vendors cater to the many day trippers. |
| How to get there: Take the Nai Yang road, and look for signs indicating the park entrance. |
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Rawai Beach
(17 km from town) |
| The palm-fringed beach is best known for 'sea gypsies,' a formerly nomadic fishing minority believed to be of Melanesian descent. |
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| Mittrapap Beach |
| Just south of Chalong, , there are several low-key and peaceful bungalows but the beach is muddy at low tide, when you can almost walk halfway to Koh Lone. |
Friendship Beach Resort, on Mittrapap is the usual meeting point for Americans on the island, and holds regular Sunday jam sessions for any rockers, jazzers or bluesmen who happen to be passing. |
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| Laem Ka Beach |
| Just south of the Phuket Island Resort hotel, and north of Rawai is a small rocky bay, popular with Thais at the weekend. |
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Maikhao Beach
(40 km from town) |
| Many kilometers of deserted beach characterize Mai Khao where there is little tourist business. The water is fine for swimming during the dry season; the rainy season brings big waves and strong currents that are dangerous. |
| This lonely beach is another area where sea turtles come to lay eggs. It is also home to what the Thais call a sea cicada, which is a form of marine life. |
| How to get there: Go to the northern tip of Phuket; the beach lies along the road's length. |
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| Promthep Cape |
| Promthep Cape is a headland forming the extreme south end of Phuket. "Prom" is Thai for the Hindu term, "Brahma," signifying purity, and "Thep" means 'God.' |
Local villagers used to refer to the cape as "Leam Jao", or the God's Cape, and it was an easily recognisable landmark for the early seafarers traveling up the Malay Peninsula from the sub-continent. |
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| Ya Nui Beach |
| Tucked between Promthep Cape and Rawai, Ya Nui Beach is small but perfectly formed. Steep headlands at either end hem in this slice of sand which is visited by gentle waves from December to March. However, the onset of the monsoon season brings with it crashing surf and swimming during these months is not advised. A few small, inexpensive bungalow operations have esteblished themselves in the wooded area to the rear of the beach. |
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| Ao Sein |
| Often overlooked due to its proximity to Naiharn, and because the connecting road runs through and under the Meridien Phuket Yacht Club, Ao Sein has a wan air of long lost glamour to it. Those who visited the island two decades ago recall that it was once one of the most popular and populace of the island's southern beaches, and the bungalow operations still in situ attest to its headier days. Today, a treacherous road - suitable only for experienced motorbike riders and four-wheel drive trucks - runs down to the small beach of sand and boulders and its cheif appeal is the epic view it offers of Naiharn and Promthep Cape |
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| Nui Beach |
| Possibly the most difficult beach to visit on Phuket, Nui lies between the Kata Viewpoint and Naiharn. A new, wide, dirt road has recently been cut through the forested hillside to replace the winding track down to the beach, however this is just as steep and difficult to traverse and should only be attempted by four-wheel drive trucks and moto-cross bikes. The company which built the road and operates the only restaurant on the beach charges a small fee for its facilities and does not allow visitors to bring their own food and drink onto the sand. |
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