After 6 visits to Thailand’s most popular island destination, I’ve finally written down some of my favorite places to eat, stay, party and explore. Phuket is a huge island, so it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to travel between areas depending on the traffic. Because of this, I’m going to group this guide by area so it’s easier to plan based on where you’re staying, starting with my personal favorite area.
Where to Stay in Phuket – Bang Tao Beach
The Laguna area of Phuket near Bang Tao Beach has become my favorite thanks to its convenient location that’s a 30 minute ride from the airport and the plethora of cute restaurants and shopping around Boat Avenue.
During our most recent trip, we stayed at Tropical Castle at La Colline. This massive 18 bedroom villa is basically a private resort with two infinity pools and seemingly infinite common areas. There are staff on site who will cook delicious meals and clean your rooms daily. You can hire masseuses to get full body massages in the in-villa massage room, and they can provide fresh coconuts and fresh fruit juices and smoothies on demand as long as you pre-order all the ingredients. There’s also a clubhouse with a gym, so you could easily stay at the villa and have every need attended to.
If you have a smaller group and still want the villa life, check out Villa Borimas. This 4 bedroom villa overlooks Surin Beach, just below Bang Tao Beach, and has next level service since it was managed by Elite Havens. The staff cooked breakfast, an insanely good lunch spread and a seafood barbecue dinner in our villa so we didn’t have to leave for certain meals. There was also fresh cut fruit throughout the day and we got massages in the villa 💆🏼♀️
Where to Eat around Bang Tao Beach
The Boat Avenue and Porto de Phuket area is perfect for dining and shopping. You can find Michelin-recognized modern Thai at the swanky Suay Cherngatalay, traditional Thai food in a cute garden at Ta Wai or in a more refined setting at Tu Kab Khao, an excellent matcha oat milk latte at The Coffee Club, and poke and açaí bowls at Hosay Bowl. There’s also a massive supermarket for your grocery runs.
Bang Tao Beach itself has a long stretch of powdery white sand, with plenty of beach clubs to rent sun beds and enjoy world class food, as well as more quiet areas to enjoy some peace away from the crowds.
Catch Beach Club is one of my favorites on Bang Tao. I’ve visited this sprawling beach club 3 times:
- In 2019 when I hung out on a sun bed all day to kill time before a night time flight as pictured below
- In 2023 for their Friday night beach BBQ buffet with all you can eat grilled items, Thai curries, sushi, made-to-order Thai-inspired pastas & thin-crust pizzas, mango sticky rice, and more followed by an insane fire show
- Again in 2023 to party late night after a wedding since it turns into a full-on club with DJs and live sax players
Every time has been a blast and the food is consistently good, so this is definitely a great spot to visit any time of day though be prepared to pay close to international prices
Will continue to update this guide!
In the mean time, check out my travel guides in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Japan.
