Hotels

The hotels and resorts below are divided by beach area to simplify your choices on the island. Phuket is thick with development, so the list below is but a small selection, according to each beach. Nowadays, hotels do not always publish rack rates -- instead the rates are governed by occupancy. In Phuket, the high-season peaks from December 15 to January 15 when rates are at their most expensive. If the rate here is marked "from," it means no rack rate is available, and the price has been based on Internet rates. In low-season, rates can drop 30% to 50%.

Nai Harn Beach

Far to the south, Nai Harn Beach is a good escape, with a range of accommodations on offer. Adjacent beaches on the eastern side of the island, Rawai and Chalong, are also home to a few good, high-end resorts: Evason Phuket Resort and Spa (100 Vised Rd.; tel. 07638-1010; fax 07638-1018; www.sixsenses.com) is a luxury, family-friendly enclave and popular day-spa destination; and Mangosteen (99/4 Moo 7, Soi Mangosteen; tel. 07628-9399; fax 07628-9389; www.mangosteen-phuket.com) is a newer high-end choice. Both have rooms starting at around 6,000B (US$171/£92).

From Chalong Bay, there's a hulking daily ferry service to the idyllic islet of Koh Racha (aka Koh Raya), a delightful island getaway with a perfect white sand beach. It's hugely popular with day-trippers in the dry season. Sybarites in search of seclusion can also splash out at their own pool villa at The Racha, (tel. 07635-5455; fax 07635-5637; www.theracha.com), a magnificent contemporary-styled luxury hotel that cascades down the hill to the cerulean sea. (The hotel offers speedboat transfers to its guests, subject to the weather.) You'll need deep pockets for their premium Lighthouse suite, which costs 65,000B (US$1,857/£977), but if you're fast, you can get superior villa rates online for 8,500B (US$243/£128).

Moderate -- Just up the coast road from Le Meridien are quaint seaside, forest bungalows at Baan Krating Jungle Beach Resort (11/3 Viset Rd.; tel./fax 07638-1108; www.baankrating.com/phuket). There are few services to speak of, but it is a good getaway. Rooms start at 3,990B (US$114/£61).

Inexpensive -- Orchid Garden Guest House (49/9 Soi Ruam Nana Chat, Rawai tel. 07638-8191) is a lush oasis of poolside garden bungalows just 2km/1 mile from Nai Harn Beach. Good value basic accommodations start at 500B (US$14/£7.35).

Kata Beach

One of Phuket's best tourist beaches, Kata is a wide strip of soft sand and rolling surf. Rent an umbrella, get a massage, or grab a kayak or surfboard and hit the waves (there's good surf May-Oct). Unfortunately, the best beachfront real estate is taken up by the sprawling Phuket Club Mediterranée (tel. 07633-0455), an all-inclusive, club-style resort (www.clubmed.com), but the beach is open to all. After dark, Kata comes alive in the bars and music cafés along the beach roads.

Karon Beach

Karon Beach is a popular, long, stretch of beach lined with upper and midrange hotels and resorts. You'll find heaps of tailors, gift shops, bars, small restaurants and cafes, Internet service, local markets, and mini-marts on the north end of the beach.

Patong

Once the popular haunt of the U.S. Navy's 9th Fleet, Patong built its nightlife on cheap sex and even cheaper beer. Today, it's Phuket's main tourist center, with plenty of cheap shopping, dining, clubbing -- and prostitution. The main strip can be unpleasant for those not used to catcalling touts who incessantly hassle passers-by, accompanied by the constant beeping of tuk-tuks attempting to take tourists for a ride (quite literally). Though one of the hardest hit of Phuket's towns in the 2004 tsunami, the damage here was fairly limited (in international media reports, Patong was often confused with Khao Lak -- 3 hours drive farther north -- which was almost completely wiped out). With a few exceptions, mid- and high-range hotels on this busy strip were up and running soon after the tsunami and prices are still rocketing. The town did lose some of its nicest budget options (such as Duangjit Villas and Seagull Guest House), however.

These days, sprawling Patong is a heap of what appears to be hastily built -- or where the tsunami hit, hastily re-built -- three-story concrete bunkers. Though some new landscaping has greatly improved a few parts of town -- especially along the beach -- once you move into the backstreets, many are disappointed to find a tawdry mess of touts and tatty beer halls, interspersed with the odd smart resort or posh diner. It's not all bad: Patong has heaps of great eateries and some good accommodations options. With the opening of the swish new JungCeylon shopping mall and the glamorous five-star Millennium Resort next door, there's a feeling that Patong is attempting to move away from its sad and sordid past. Hopefully the arrival of more upscale bars and restaurants will speed up this process.

Inexpensive -- Andatel Patong (41/9 Rat-U-Thit 200 Pee Rd.; tel. 07629-0480) is one good central option with rooms around 1,000B to 3,000B (US$28-US$86/£15-£46), but better budget accommodations are found along Kata and Karon beaches in the southern end of the island.

In Patong, the best budget hotels and cheaper bungalows used to be situated just off the beach near Thaweewong Road, before they were wiped out in the tsunami in 2004. What's left are generally run-down places catering to cheap Chinese or Russian tour groups, or those patrons who frequent the hostess bars. Your best bet is to walk to the end of the busy main Thaweewong Road (toward the Amari) and hunt around the quieter end of the beach, where many of the smaller tsunami-hit hotels are still re-building. Alas, the prices of places like the 1980s Absolute Sea Pearl Beach Resort (tel. 07634-1910; www.seapearl-beach.com) are now midrange -- affordable in off-season, but hardly budget-oriented year round.

Surin Beach

Also known as Pansea Beach, this area has coconut plantations, steep slopes leading down to the beach, and small, private coves dominated by some of the most exclusive hotels on the island.

Bang Thao (The Laguna Resort Complex)

Twenty minutes south of the airport and just as far north of Patong Beach on the western shore of Phuket, this isolated area is Phuket's high-end, "integrated resort" of five properties that share the island's most top-rated facilities. Among them you'll find world-class health spas, countless restaurants, and the island's best golf course. The grounds are impressively landscaped, and the hotel properties are scattered among the winding lagoons, all navigable by boat. The best thing about staying here is that you can dine at any of the fine hotel restaurants, connecting by boat or free shuttle, and be charged on one simple bill at whatever resort you choose. The three below are the best, but also consider the original Laguna Beach Resort (tel. 07632-4352; www.lagunabeach-resort.com), with a similar high standard of rooms and services (popular with groups). In the high season, expect standard double rooms (with two breakfasts) to cost 13,770B (US$393/£207); for the lowest category of suite (with breakfast) you'll pay 32,290B (US$923/£460).

Nai Yang Beach & Nai Thon

Nai Yang National Park is a long stretch of shoreline peeking out from underneath a dense forest of palms, casuarinas trees, and various shrubs. There are 115 species of birds and a coral reef offshore. It's good for leaving the crowds behind, but be warned that it is isolated and, short of Indigo Pearl Resort (formerly Pearl Village) and a few bungalow resorts nearby, the park offers little in the way of luxury.

Nai Yang is known for its annual release of hatchling sea turtles into the Andaman Sea. Mature sea turtles weigh from 100 to 1,500 pounds and swim the waters around Phuket, and though the law is supposed to protect them from fishermen and poachers, who collect their eggs from beaches, their numbers are dwindling. If not for the efforts of international volunteer groups such as Naucrates (www.naucrates.org) who have spent years working out of a small conservation center at Koh Phra Thong near Kuraburi, these creatures would probably be extinct in this region. Annual releases take place on April 13, during the Songkran holiday. You'll have to pay 400B (US$11/£6.15) to enter the park, and there is a small information kiosk and restaurant at the park headquarters. Tent accommodations are available for 600B (US$17/£9.25) and sleep up to five guests. For more information, contact Sirinath Park Campground, 89/1 Moo 1, Talang, Phuket 83110 (tel. 07632-8226; www.dnp.go.th/parkreserve).

Nai Thon is just south of Nai Yang (closer to Laguna) and is home to one deluxe resort: Trisara.

Mai Khao Beach & The Far North of Phuket

Mai Khao is a wide sweep of beach on the northeastern shore close to the airport. It is Phuket's longest beach and is the site where sea turtles lay their eggs during December and January. The eggs are coveted by Thai and Chinese people, who eat them for the supposed life-sustaining power, but large-scale efforts are underway to assist these glorious animals and protect their potential hatchlings.

Phuket Town

Most just pass through the island's commercial hub, but Old Phuket culture abounds in the many Sino-Portuguese homes and unusual architecture. It's well worth a look, especially if Phuket Island is your only destination.