> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://easythailandvisa.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Phuket: Old Town or the Patong Side? - URL: https://easythailandvisa.com/phuket-old-town-or-patong/ - Published: 2026-09-17T00:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T07:27:27.000Z - Description: These are two different holidays in a 45-minute drive. One is a Sino-Portuguese town with good food and no beach. The other is a beach with 47 bars. - Author: Somchai Jaidee - Tags: Islands & Beaches Phuket is a province, not a destination, and the single most consequential booking decision most people make here is which of several very different parts of the island they stay in. The two everyone knows about are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Last verified 20 September 2026. ## Patong, honestly A long, dense, loud beach with a hotel strip, a beach road of bars and restaurants, a walking street, a lot of package tourists, and a genuinely good time if that is the trip you want. **The beach is wide and the water is warm and the sunset is decent. The crowd is enormous and the beach itself is not clean in the way a less developed beach would be.** There is a [jet ski](https://easythailandvisa.com/jet-ski-and-beach-club-scams-in-thailand/) and parasailing operation along the strip that operates aggressively. **The walking street is enormous and dated.** It runs for a couple of kilometres and is one of the largest package-tourism streets in Asia. If you have been to a similar street in another country, you have seen this. It is loud, aggressively staffed, and full of people photographing the signs. **But the food in Patong is excellent and cheap and the bars are good and the whole thing is a working, functioning** [**nightlife**](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-nightlife-beginners-guide/) **district rather than a set.** People have a great time in Patong. It is a legitimate choice. It is just not a quiet one and it is not a Thai one. **Price: mid-range. Patong is more expensive than anywhere else on the island apart from the very top end.** A mid-range hotel on the beach road is a real premium for what you get. ## Phuket Old Town A genuinely different place. A former Sino-Portuguese trading town with shophouses from the 1900s in pastel ochre, white and blue, Chinese shrines, Portuguese-influenced buildings, a walking street of cafés, galleries and independent shops, and a Monday night street market that is one of the best things on the island. **There is no beach in Old Town and there is no nightlife in the Patong sense.** What there is, is architecture, food, and calm. **The food is the best argument for it.** The Peranakan Chinese-Thai cooking, the shophouse restaurants, the coffee, the western-Thai crossover food that came out of this town: it is a genuinely distinctive food town and it is cheap. **The buildings are the best argument for it.** The Sino-Portuguese shophouses are beautiful, well preserved, and increasingly threatened by development. This is a place that is pleasant to walk around in. **Price: noticeably cheaper than Patong for the same standard of room.** A beautiful shophouse guesthouse is 800 to 2,000 baht a night. A boutique hotel in a restored building is 2,500 to 5,000\. It is the best value accommodation on the island by a distance. ## The five other areas, briefly **Kata and Karon.** South of Patong, a step quieter and a step cheaper, with a family atmosphere. Karon in particular has a long beach and a genuine lack of pretense. Most people who want "Patong but calmer" end up here and are pleased. **Bang Tao / Laguna.** The upmarket end. A long, beautiful, quiet beach, the best hotels on the island, and a [golf](https://easythailandvisa.com/golf-in-thailand-green-fees-and-courses/)\-course-resort feel. Expensive, and very good if that is what you want. North of Patong. **Rawai.** The best-value southern beach, locals' beach, a working fishing village attached to it, a long shallow bay, and almost no nightlife. This is where you go if you want to swim. **Surin and Kamala.** Kamala is a small bay with a proper village above it and a big development, and it is a solid mid-range choice. Surin is steeper, smaller, and quieter still. **Promthep Cape and the west coast.** The best sunsets, the most dramatic headland views, and a scattering of good beaches between them, with a fair way to be everywhere at once. ## How to actually choose **You want a beach holiday, you are going out at night, and you do not care about quiet: Patong.** Do not feel superior about it. It is a good time. **You want to feel like you are in Thailand: Old Town.** Pair it with two or three nights somewhere on the coast. This is the best version of a Phuket trip for most people and it is the one that gets written about least. **You want swimming and a quiet beach: Rawai or Karon.** Neither has a big nightlife scene and neither is trying to have one. **You want the good hotels: Bang Tao.** And you want to spend money on them, which is a legitimate way to spend a holiday. ## The two things to be careful about **The monsoon.** Phuket's west coast is completely different in season from the Andaman [islands](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-islands-nobody-is-talking-about/) to the north. From roughly May to October the west coast has heavy rain, rough water, and many boats do not run. The east coast, which is where most of the actual islands are, is in its dry season then. If your trip is in that window, Phuket town is fine and the beaches are not. **Driving.** Phuket is one of the few places in Thailand where a scooter rental is a genuinely bad idea, because the roads are fast, the traffic is heavy, and the geography confuses people who cannot read Thai signage. Rent a car with a driver, or use the transfer service your hotel recommends, and accept that you are paying for it. **More on this** - [Koh Yao Noi: No Cars, 400 Baht From Phuket, and the Ferry](https://easythailandvisa.com/koh-yao-noi-phang-nga-honestly/) - [Krabi Is Not a Beach Town and That Is the Whole Point](https://easythailandvisa.com/krabi-province-guide-andaman-coast/) - [The East Coast Has a Moon Rabbit and Almost No Tourists](https://easythailandvisa.com/chanthaburi-and-trat-the-east-coast-day-trip/)