PHUKET · THAILAND
Sea caves, island days, old-town nights.
Phi Phi and Maya Bay by speedboat, the Phang Nga sea caves and James Bond Island, ethical elephant mornings, snorkel reefs and the painted Old Town. Every Andaman day trip, from one island base.
Beyond the beach
The Phuket past the sun loungers.
Anyone can find a beach and a cocktail. The sea caves of Phang Nga, the old tin-trade shophouses and a morning feeding rescued elephants are the days that make the trip Phuket.
Drowned karst
Phang Nga's sea caves
Phang Nga Bay is a maze of limestone towers rising straight out of jade-green water, and many of them are hollow. At the right tide a canoe slips through a low cave mouth into a hong, a hidden lagoon walled in by cliff and open only to the sky. James Bond Island, the leaning needle of rock from The Man with the Golden Gun, stands in the same bay.
- 1 Phang Nga Bay Sea Cave Canoeing & James Bond Island by Big Boat
- 2 From Phuket: Phang Nga Bay and Canoeing Tour by Big Boat
- 3 Phuket: James Bond Island Longtail Boat and Sea Canoe Tour
Baba heritage
The Old Town shophouses
Phuket grew rich on tin, and the Hokkien-Chinese merchants who ran the mines built a quarter of Sino-Portuguese shophouses: shuttered windows, arcaded walkways and facades painted butter-yellow, pink and powder blue. The Peranakan, or Baba, culture they left behind still runs through the food, the festivals and the streets.
- 1 Phuket: Full Day City Tour with Night Market
- 2 Phuket: Wat Chalong, Viewpoint, and Old Town Guided Tour
- 3 Phuket City Tour with Wat Chalong, Big Buddha & Famous Viewpoints
No riding
A morning with the elephants
Phuket has become the heart of Thailand's move to ethical elephant care. The old riding camps are gone; at the island's sanctuaries you feed, walk alongside and help bathe rescued animals that spend the rest of the day roaming the forest. For a lot of visitors it is the morning they end up remembering most.
- 1 Phuket: Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Ethical Feeding Experience
- 2 Phuket: Elephant Sanctuary Guided Tour with Hotel Transfers
- 3 A Morning with the Elephants at Phuket Elephant Sanctuary
Start with the standout
The single most popular day out in Phuket.
More visitors build a Phuket trip around this one than anything else on the island.
The classics
Phuket's Most Popular Tours
Phang Nga Bay, Phi Phi, the elephant sanctuaries and the Old Town. The days most people come to Phuket for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Phuket trip is built around.
Phi Phi and Phang Nga, the elephant sanctuaries, the boat trips, the Old Town and the Big Buddha. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big decision
Which island day?
Almost everyone takes at least one boat out of Phuket. The only real question is which way: the famous bays far across the strait, the sea caves of the calm bay to the north, or the clear water just offshore.
City of Gastronomy
Hokkien kitchens, night-market fire.
Phuket cooks like nowhere else in Thailand. The Hokkien-Chinese families who built the Old Town brought mee hokkien, dim sum and the loba street stalls, and in 2015 UNESCO named the island a Creative City of Gastronomy. Take a market-to-wok cooking class, or eat your way down the Sunday Walking Street.
See the best Phuket cooking classes and food tours →Mask and fins
Where the water turns glass-clear.
From November the Andaman flattens off and the visibility opens up. The reefs around Coral, Racha and the Similan chain run with parrotfish, clownfish and the occasional reef shark, and the close-in islands put you in the water within the hour.
See the best Phuket snorkeling trips →Golden hour
The whole island faces the sunset.
Phuket's beaches all look west into the Andaman, so the day ends the same way wherever you stand: the sky over the sea going copper, then pink. Watch it from a sunset cruise, from the headland at Promthep Cape, or with a drink at a beach club as the longtails come in.
Sunset cruises and boat trips →On the hill
A white Buddha over the whole island.
The Big Buddha sits on Nakkerd Hill at the island's centre, 45 metres of white Burmese marble you can pick out from half of Phuket. Below it, gold-spired Wat Chalong is the island's grandest temple, busy with incense and gold leaf. The guided tours pair both with the Karon and Windmill viewpoints over the south coast.
- 1 Phuket: Wat Chalong, Viewpoint, and Old Town Guided Tour
- 2 Phuket City Tour with Wat Chalong, Big Buddha & Famous Viewpoints
- 3 Phuket: Half-Day City Highlights and Viewpoints Group Tour
Find your pace
From a beach day to full throttle.
Phuket runs both ends of the dial. A slow day of beach clubs and sunset boats, the classic island and elephant runs in the middle, or a flat-out jungle-and-reef day with a Muay Thai night to finish.
Take it easy
Beach days and slow boats.Sunset cruises, beach-club afternoons and the half-day snorkel runs to the islands close to shore.
The classic day
Out to the islands.Phi Phi and Phang Nga by speedboat, a morning with the elephants, the Old Town and the night markets after dark.
Full throttle
Jungle, reef and ringside.ATV trails through the hills, ziplines over the canopy, scuba on the reef and a Muay Thai night in Patong.
Into the green
Throttle up into the jungle hills.
Inland Phuket is hills of rubber and pineapple, and the quad-bike tracks climb straight up through them to viewpoints over the coast. Most outfits bolt on a zipline circuit through the canopy, a waterfall stop and a look at the Big Buddha on the way back. It is the island's muddiest, most hands-on half-day.
See all 60 ATV and jungle tours →By place
Phuket and the islands offshore.
Phi Phi and Maya Bay for the famous bays. Phang Nga for the sea caves. Coral and Racha for the close clear water. Khai for a quick half-day. The Old Town for the streets, the Big Buddha for the view.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Snorkel if you want the reef. Canoe if you want the caves. ATV if you want the jungle. Or the elephants, the temples and the Old Town in between.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First trip to Phuket? Here is a three-day plan that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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