Phuket is the largest island in Thailand.
At 540 km sq, it's about the same size as Singapore. It is 900 km south of the capitol Bangkok, connected with the main land through the Sarasin Bridge and located in the beautiful Andaman Sea. With daily connections to most major airports, Phuket is the ideally location for a relaxing vacation and the base for numerous diving safaris.

Patong Beach is the island's oldest and most developed tourist area, with a wide range of accommodation from simple guesthouses to luxury hotels.
The 3,000 meter crescent shaped beach provides lots of space for windsurfing, hobby cat sailing, jet-ski rides or swimming.
If you simply want to soak up the sun, the beach is a great place to watch the joggers, hawkers, walkers, shell collectors, and local people around sunset.
Nightlife in Patong is the most vibrant in Phuket. Pubs, go-go bars, discos, markets, and a few exotic sights, all within easy walking distance. On Soi Bangla you can see the extraordinary spectacle of a Thai boxing match and find pubs with excellent live music, bars with local entertainers and huge choice of very good restaurants from all over the world.

Kata & Karon Beach are located Only 10 minutes south of Patong Beach is the long stretch of unspoiled sand which forms Karon Beach. A good choice for accommodation, especially for families, Karon is fairly quiet and relaxed with some good local restaurants. Nightlife is limited to a few bars, but Patong is close if you want a night out. As development on Karon is fairly spread out, and because of the size the beach, it's rarely crowded. During May to October swimming can be dangerous here because of strong undertows, so do observe the warning flags.

Just 5 minutes south of Karon, you'll find Kata Beach - a wide curving bay with rocky headlands where local fishermen can still be seen casting their lines. Kata village, close to the beach retains a cozy atmosphere with clusters of restaurants, bars, and small resorts. Nightlife is low key compared to Patong, but there are some good music bars and local shopping.
Kata Beach has few resorts. Club Med which dominates the center, has effectively saved the beach from high rise development. There are also some good small guesthouses and boutique style hotels which provide gourmet food and some of the best wine cellars on the island. The south end of Kata is also a popular spot for Phuket's growing community of monsoon season surfers.

Phuket Town was founded a little over a century ago by Chinese and Malaysian merchants to service the nearby tin mines, and the harbor near Phuket was better suited to handle larger ships than the traditional capital city of Thalang. It spite of growing pains that come with being a boom town and a major fire that destroyed much of the city Phuket town grew and prospered to become the commercial, social, and political center of the island.

Today the main attractions are the old Sino-Portuguese buildings, the elaborate Chinese and Thai temples, and the local markets. Most of the buildings in Phuket’s city center were constructed nearly a hundred years ago, during the period of the first great tin boom. These building show mixed Chinese and western influences in their architecture called Sino-Portuguese. It is a style common to all coastal tin-mining settlements on the Malay Peninsula. The buildings are characteristically much longer than they are wide, and the entry ways have fancy latticework.

Many lovely examples can be found on Dibuk Road, if you take the town walk-a-about you will pass many of the more important of these buildings. Phuket’s Town Hall, Provincial Court, and Nakorn Luang Bank are also good examples of this style of architecture. Phuket’s Town’s oldest public structure, Government House, is a wonderful example of architecture from earlier this century. Moviegoers may recognize it as the ‘American Embassy’ in Phnom Phen in The Killing Fields.

Chalong Bay - This calm and serene bay offers shelter to a fleet of boats from sailing yachts to tour boats seeking shelter. It is also a famous take-off to well-known islands like Phi Phi, Coral Island, Racha Island. It bustles with activity from the crack of dawn till 9.00 am as the boats leave for their destination of the day and again from 4.30 to 5.30 PM as everybody returns.
Wat Chalong is Phuket’s most important Buddhist temple and is the biggest and most ornate of Phuket’s 29 Buddhist monasteries. The architecture is typical of wats found throughout Thailand.

Bangtao is a large open bay with one of Phuket's longest beaches. Located on the west-coast of Phuket approximately 20 km north of Patong Beach.It was once used for tin mining, but has since been developed into a beautiful luxury resort.

Most of Bangtao Beach is occupied by the Laguna Phuket complex, a massive five-hotel development hosting the Dusit Laguna, Sheraton Grand Laguna, Banjan Tree Phuket, Laguna Beach Resort & Allamanda Laguna. Dry season swimming is excellent, and at the bay's north end is a smaller bay, almost completely enclosed, at the mouth you can find some fine corals. Plenty of places to eat, tour companies, and other tourist facilities are available either at Laguna or in the nearby town of Chern Thale.