Patong Beach

Patong Beach is the most developed beach and the most crowded beach in Phuket.

Patong Beach is certainly not the best beach in Phuket; however, it is by far the most developed beach and the most crowded beach in Phuket. At Phuket Beach you will find plenty of offers; you can rent mattresses and parasols, get refreshments, get a massage at the beach, ride a banana boat, rent a jet-ski (don't do it!), and you can get a great view from above parasailing.

After the coup in 2014, the junta and the governor of Phuket forbade sun loungers at the beaches. Instead, you can rent mattresses and parasols. As you can see in the photo below, the difference is not that big.

To emulate the elevated sun loungers, some of the renters have built sand piles to elevate the mattresses. This way, you can easily enjoy the view of the mattresses and parasols in front of you. Note: The sun loungers are now allowed back on the beach; although, limited to 10 percent of the area.

Behind the northern part of the beach, you will find Loma Park; the park is a favourite picnic spot for the locals (and this writer). The park has a small stage-like protuberance at one end of the park, used at celebrations, like at the king's birthday. Festivities in Patong often involve parades through the city ending at Loma Park.

At the far northern part of Patong Beach, north of Loma Park, you will find big rocks on the beach. Here you will also find fewer tourists and no forest of parasols. Guests from all over the city feed the southern part of Patong Beach, while most of the guests in this part of the beach come from the hotels behind the beach: The Charm Resort Phuket, Phuket Graceland Resort & Spa and Patong Paragon Resort & Spa.

Patong Beach is about 2 kilometres (1.25 miles) long; behind the beach, you will find Beach Road. From Loma Park and down south, you will find many restaurants; and especially in the southern end, you will find many different shops with clothing, beach equipment and other offers for tourist. You can even get a foot cleansing by small, ferocious fish.

Approximately, at the middle of Patong Beach, Bangla Road is situated. In the daytime, Bangla Road is an ordinary, quiet road; however, at 18 o'clock (6 PM) the road is closed for vehicles; and the quietness is replaced by loud music and bright neon lights.

Patong is the most popular tourist resort in Phuket, not least because of the nightlife at Bangla Road. The city, therefore, offers many expensive as well as many cheap hotels, although the expensive hotels in Patong are far from as corrosive on the wallet as the expensive hotels further north at Surin Beach and the Laguna area.

You can find a list of hotels in Patong at Agoda. Be sure to check the map showing the location of the hotel before you book a room. That way you know which part of the beach the hotel is situated and how far you need to walk to get to the sand.

Beaches in Phuket

Read more about the beaches in the main article Beaches in Phuket.

I have not yet written about all of the beaches; thus, there are a few inactive links on the list. Please be patient, I will get to them. The list is in geographical order, starting at the north side of Phuket, then down the west side and finally up the east side.