I spent a little more than a year living in Phuket and came to know the Phuket beaches well. Before I moved to Phuket I wasn't a big fan of beaches, but after seeing what the island had to offer, I eventually warmed to them.
For anyone visiting the island, the Phuket beaches are one of the primary draws. However, Phuket's most popular beaches are definitely the ones I would try and avoid. The beach that seems to attract more people every year no matter how much good advice is written about the place is Patong Beach.
It defies belief that people still flock to Patong Beach and continue to leave with the same complaints. The food is overpriced, there are too many people, the beach is dirty and so on. There's a reason why the people who live in Phuket only really venture to Patong Beach for the nightlife or else occasionally for shopping. It's a bit of a dive. There are much better Phuket beaches around the island.
My personal favorite Phuket beach will always be Mai Khao Beach. I first visited Mai Khao Beach about three years ago. It was the first time I had been in Phuket, but it didn't take long to decide which beaches to avoid.
Mai Khao Beach is an enormous stretch of untouched paradise. There are countless spots where there is nothing else except the sand, sea and you. If you want beautiful natural surroundings and the kind of beach you see in brochures, all you need to do is go to Mai Khao.
However, most tourists forsake Mai Khao, either because it's too far or too difficult to get to. Mai Khao Beach is located in the north of Phuket and can be reached a number of ways. The most obvious, if traveling from Phuket Town, is to take a songthaew as much of the way as possible and then hail motorcycle taxis. Otherwise you could rent your own motorbike for 200 baht or so and make the trip north.
The journey might take up to an hour from Phuket Town, but it's certainly worth the effort.
Another beach that receives little attention is Yanui Beach, a tiny little stretch of sand located just around the corner from Nai Harn Beach. As Phuket beaches go, Yanui is great during the high season when there are people keeping it clean. During low season it has a kind of romantic charm and is a great place to watch the sunset, but there's usually an accumulation of garbage along the beach.
There are heaps of other beaches dotted around the coast of Phuket. They all have something to offer. Patong Beach is definitely one to avoid, however.
After traveling to the majority of Thailand's beach destinations, I think that if you do Phuket right, you'll have a better time than at places such as Samui or Pha-ngan. Thailand has long been on the tourist trail and so no beach destination is perfect, but Phuket can get pretty close.
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