TOP 31 best attractions in Phuket

Phuket is a large island and south­ern province of the King­dom of Thai­land, famous for its pic­turesque hills, trop­i­cal forests, wide bays and lagoons.

Who and why should come to Phuket

Phuket, locat­ed on the coast of the Andaman Sea in the Indi­an Ocean, is a very pop­u­lar Thai resort. The main secret of its attrac­tive­ness is a wide coast­line cov­ered with white fine sand, a gen­tle and smooth entrance to the sea.

Well-main­tained and crowd­ed beach­es are locat­ed in the south­ern and west­ern parts of the island. In Patong, Nai Harn, Karon, Kali­ma, hotels, water attrac­tions, shops, restau­rants are wait­ing for guests.

Phuket offers active peo­ple kayak­ing in Phang Nga Bay, riv­er raft­ing, scu­ba div­ing, surf­ing, sport fish­ing. Extreme lovers go to the Adven­ture Park. There, among the tops of the trees, cables and sus­pen­sion bridges are stretched, along which you need to walk while main­tain­ing bal­ance. It is easy to get a dose of adren­a­line on kart­ing — the island has adult and chil­dren’s tracks that allow you to feel like a real rac­er.

The Thai resort is famous not only for enter­tain­ment and beau­ti­ful nature. Tourists come here to see lux­u­ri­ous tem­ples, Bud­dha stat­ues, the his­tor­i­cal cen­ter of Phuket. The Nation­al Muse­um and the Seashell Muse­um are very pop­u­lar.

The island pro­vides a var­ied cul­tur­al pro­gram for par­ents with chil­dren: swim­ming on the beach, rid­ing the rides in Fan­ta­sia Park, walk­ing in the botan­i­cal gar­den and the Siri­nat nature reserve.

On vaca­tion, you should try Thai nation­al cui­sine, which is dis­tin­guished by a com­bi­na­tion of spicy, sweet, sour and salty tastes. The hall­mark of the resort is fried rice, tom kha coke soup, papaya sal­ad, seafood skew­ers and trop­i­cal fruits.

Interesting places

Old Phuket Town

In the 19th cen­tu­ry, tin reserves were found in the depths of the island. The dis­cov­ery attract­ed investors and Chi­nese set­tlers, who built the city of Phuket around the deposit, the archi­tec­ture of which clear­ly shows Asian-Por­tuguese fea­tures.

On the cen­tral streets, low hous­es with columns and arch­es, dec­o­rat­ed with Chi­nese lanterns, gongs, and carved fig­ures of drag­ons, have been pre­served. In the Old Town there are cozy cafes, mas­sage par­lors, hotels, muse­ums, restau­rants, Bud­dhist tem­ples.

Bangla Road

Bangla Road runs along the chic Patong Beach. Here are places of enter­tain­ment that attract tourists from all over the island. A brisk trade con­tin­ues around the clock. Shops and street stalls are burst­ing with var­i­ous goods.

In the evening, car traf­fic stops, and until the morn­ing the street becomes a pedes­tri­an zone. Dancers, singers, cir­cus per­form­ers per­form on the pave­ment flood­ed with bright lights. On both sides of the road, sports bars, cabarets, dis­cos, and restau­rants lure guests.

Night Bazaar in Phuket Town

In the Old City near Rama IX Park, it is easy to find a large week­end mar­ket, oper­at­ing from sun­set until mid­night. Under the pic­turesque canopies are shops, stalls with goods. Here you can buy high-qual­i­ty fakes of brand­ed items, hand­made sou­venirs, live snakes, ham­sters, fruits, Thai del­i­ca­cies.

Buy­ers are wait­ing for mas­sage par­lors, restau­rants, hair­dressers. Peo­ple come here to find out local news, make new acquain­tances, buy things and prod­ucts at a bar­gain price.

Thai village

Pre­vi­ous­ly, on the site of an eth­nic vil­lage there was a real set­tle­ment with an orig­i­nal way of life. To attract for­eign­ers, it was turned into a col­or­ful attrac­tion that intro­duces the cus­toms and cul­ture of the Thais. Today the vil­lage is the enter­tain­ment cen­ter of the island, built up with tra­di­tion­al hous­es.

The liv­ing quar­ters con­tain house­hold items typ­i­cal of the 19th cen­tu­ry. In craft work­shops, they show how to weave bas­kets, make clay pots, and sew clothes. The cafe serves nation­al dish­es and orga­nizes cook­ing mas­ter class­es. Local train­ers tell how to hunt wild ani­mals and teach how to deal with ele­phants, hors­es, bulls.

architectural landmarks

Wat Chalong

In the south of the island is a large Bud­dhist tem­ple, Wat Cha­long. The sanc­tu­ary, found­ed at the begin­ning of the 19th cen­tu­ry, is under the patron­age of the roy­al fam­i­ly and is a cen­ter of pil­grim­age. The archi­tec­tur­al com­plex con­sists of the main tem­ple, a pavil­ion with stat­ues of the gods, the abbot’s cell, a farewell hall, and out­build­ings.

Big Buddha Statue

Between Kata Beach and Cha­long Bay there is a moun­tain, on top of which there is a stat­ue of the Big Bud­dha. The height of the white mar­ble sculp­ture is 45 meters, the weight is 135 tons. The deity sits in a lotus posi­tion, his head is crowned with a gold­en point­ed cap.

A huge stat­ue, turned to face the sun­rise, seems to be hov­er­ing over the island and looks calm and peace­ful. To see all the details well, it is bet­ter to exam­ine it from afar. There is a small muse­um next to the mon­u­ment. The exhi­bi­tion tells about Bud­dhism and the con­struc­tion of the facil­i­ty.

Wat Phra Nang

Phra Nang, erect­ed 500 years ago, is con­sid­ered the old­est in Phuket. The com­plex, sur­round­ed by a bright fence, includes a wide court­yard, the main tem­ple, and sev­er­al cer­e­mo­ni­al build­ings. The sanc­tu­ary was built under the influ­ence of Thai and Chi­nese mythol­o­gy.

The inte­ri­or is dom­i­nat­ed by gold jew­el­ry, red fab­rics, paint­ings describ­ing the life of the deity and his­tor­i­cal events. In the court­yard there is a gild­ed sculp­ture of Bud­dha in the lotus posi­tion, a small reclin­ing Bud­dha, stat­ues of lions, tigers, drag­ons.

Pud-Jor

Pud-Jor Tem­ple, ded­i­cat­ed to the Chi­nese god­dess of mer­cy Quan Yin, is revered by the locals. Peo­ple come here to ask for hap­pi­ness in fam­i­ly life, health and good luck. To achieve the favor of the god­dess, pil­grims leave gifts: can­dles, incense sticks, pearl neck­laces, lotus flow­ers, fruits or pies.

The tem­ple is fur­nished with sculp­tures of the god­dess, red Chi­nese lanterns. The walls are dec­o­rat­ed with gild­ed pat­terns, draw­ings and sculp­tures.

Surin Tower

The cen­ter of Phuket Town is dec­o­rat­ed with a three-tiered white tow­er, built in the neo­clas­si­cal style in 2003. The grace­ful build­ing has an arch and an open­work bal­cony.

At the top is a round clock. Around the build­ing are plant­ed flower beds, equipped with foun­tains and bench­es. Near­by there is a shop­ping cen­ter with shops, restau­rants, a mas­sage par­lor, a chil­dren’s play­ground.

Trinity Church

Phuket is the largest Ortho­dox church in Thai­land, ded­i­cat­ed to the Holy Trin­i­ty. The gold­en-domed church, lined with white mar­ble, was built in Tha­lang in 2011 with dona­tions from believ­ers.

The inte­ri­or walls were paint­ed by artist Roman Bychkov. Next to the church is the The­o­log­i­cal School. It includes a teach­ing church, a Sun­day school build­ing, and admin­is­tra­tive build­ings.

Monuments

Monument to the Heroes of Phuket

In Phuket Town, not far from the build­ing of the Nation­al Muse­um, there is a mon­u­ment to two brave women who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 1785 war with the Burmese. The sis­ters Chan and Muk took up arms, gath­ered a detach­ment and forced the ene­my to retreat from their home­town. In 1967, a bronze mon­u­ment was erect­ed to them.

The white pedestal with stat­ues reminds of the hero­ic past of the island. A wide mar­ble stair­case, dec­o­rat­ed with stone sculp­tures of ele­phants and flow­ers, leads to it.

Sea Horse

The famous land­mark of Phuket is the Sea­horse, which tow­ers over the square in the east­ern part of the Old Town.

A two-tiered foun­tain topped with a fig­ure of a horse is sur­round­ed by green lawns and neat­ly trimmed fruit trees. Smooth alleys are laid along the square, there are dec­o­ra­tive flower pots, bench­es for rest. In the evenings, the walk­ing area is illu­mi­nat­ed by bright lanterns.

Golden Dragon

In Phuket Town, near Chi­na­town, you can see a beau­ti­ful stone drag­on cov­ered in gold paint. It was installed with the mon­ey of local busi­ness­men in 2006.

The grand open­ing of the mon­u­ment was timed to coin­cide with the birth­day of the Thai Queen Sirik­it and held with great pomp. Tourists com­bine vis­it­ing the Gold­en Drag­on with a vis­it to the city park, plant­ed near­by.

Museums

National Museum

The largest muse­um on the island has opened its doors in Tha­lang, telling about the tur­bu­lent his­to­ry of Thai­land. Archae­o­log­i­cal finds, ancient stone stat­ues, medieval weapons, house­hold items, nation­al cos­tumes, jew­el­ry made of gold, pearls, sea shells, stat­ues of gods and things raised from sunken ships are exhib­it­ed in spa­cious halls. Sep­a­rate expo­si­tions tell about the hero­ism of the war­rior sis­ters and the tsuna­mi that hit Phuket in 2004.

Apichart Art Gallery

An art gallery has been opened in Patong, attract­ing con­nois­seurs of con­tem­po­rary art. The guests are pre­sent­ed with paint­ings in the style of mod­ernism, expres­sion­ism, avant-garde. Among the exhibits are engrav­ings, clay vas­es, mar­ble sculp­tures.

All works of art are for sale. The pur­chase is easy to check­out at a rea­son­able price. Local artists who work at the gallery paint por­traits and land­scapes to order.

3D museum

A fun pas­time for the whole fam­i­ly is pro­vid­ed by the 3D muse­um, equipped in Phuket in 2013. It allows you to become the hero of three-dimen­sion­al paint­ings on var­i­ous top­ics. Vis­i­tors have access to mas­ter­pieces of world art, sto­ries from car­toons, nat­ur­al land­scapes, archi­tec­ture of cities around the world. Dur­ing the tour, you can relax and take amaz­ing pho­tos.

Seashell Museum

In the Rawai area, not far from the beach, there is a Seashell Muse­um. The expo­si­tion occu­pies two tiers in a mul­ti-storey build­ing. On the ground floor there are shells found in dif­fer­ent parts of the globe. The col­lec­tion includes murex with spines, giant snails cov­ered with pat­terns, corals, cephalopods, pearls.

There is a gift shop on the ground floor. On sale are paint­ings of shells, pearl jew­el­ry, corals and shells found off the coast of Thai­land.

Chinpracha House

In Phuket, a Chi­nese-colo­nial archi­tec­tur­al com­plex has been pre­served, includ­ing a beau­ti­ful man­sion, a cozy court­yard, and out­build­ings. The inte­ri­or of the estate clear­ly demon­strates how the fam­i­ly of a wealthy planter of the last cen­tu­ry lived.

Part of the house has been con­vert­ed into a muse­um and is avail­able to tourists. Vis­i­tors are shown Ital­ian floor tiles, antique fur­ni­ture import­ed from Chi­na and Europe, a col­lec­tion of paint­ings, pot­tery, kerosene lamps.

Tai Hua Museum

There is a large colo­nial man­sion in the Old City — it used to be a school for Chi­nese set­tlers. Now it is a pub­lic build­ing, where a muse­um and tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions are open. On the tour, guests watch doc­u­men­taries about the his­to­ry of Phuket and learn about the role of the Chi­nese in the devel­op­ment of this province.

Among the exhibits of the muse­um are tools for tin min­ing, rare pho­tographs, doc­u­ments and things belong­ing to famous peo­ple of the city.

Natural attractions and parks

Botanical Garden

Sev­er­al hectares of land in the Muang area is occu­pied by a botan­i­cal gar­den. Trees and shrubs are plant­ed in tra­di­tion­al Thai style. The ter­ri­to­ry is dec­o­rat­ed with ponds, Chi­nese lanterns, bench­es, foun­tains. Along the paths are sculp­tures of ani­mals and deities. Gold­en carps live in the lakes.

The park area is divid­ed into zones. The largest are:

• trop­i­cal fruit gar­den,
• arti­fi­cial for­est with palm trees, ferns and lianas,
• eng­lish park,
• rose gar­den,
• pavil­ion with orchids, med­i­c­i­nal herbs and spices.

snake farm

Farm in Cha­long is an excit­ing attrac­tion that intro­duces king cobras and Thai python. Dur­ing the 45-minute show, the train­er makes the snakes do a vari­ety of tricks and amus­es the audi­ence.

After the per­for­mance, tourists take pic­tures with poi­so­nous cobras and go to a store sell­ing drugs from snake ven­om, Kore­an gin­seng, reishi mush­room. The local restau­rant serves cof­fee, buns and snake dish­es.

Cape Promthep

To admire the nat­ur­al land­scape, peo­ple go to Promthep Cape. The pic­turesque moun­tain in the south of the island is a nat­ur­al view­ing plat­form — from it you can see a gor­geous panora­ma of the sea and sandy beach­es.

On the hill ris­es a light­house erect­ed in hon­or of King Bhu­mipol the Great. Near­by are a ship­ping muse­um, a tem­ple of the god Brah­ma, cafes, and sou­venir shops. Around the hous­es are numer­ous paint­ed fig­urines of ele­phants made of stone and wood.

Sirinat

In the north­west­ern part of the island, the Siri­nat Nation­al Park is locat­ed, con­sist­ing of the purest white sand beach­es. From Novem­ber to Feb­ru­ary, giant tor­tois­es can be seen com­ing ashore to lay their eggs. The beach­es are lined with trop­i­cal forests, man­go and almond groves.

Mag­pies, nightin­gales, dron­gos, sea eagles, king­fish­ers and spot­ted pigeons nest in the trees. The ani­mal world is rep­re­sent­ed by snakes, lizards, mon­keys. At a dis­tance of 1000 m from the coast there are coral reefs. Shrimp, sea bass, rays and jel­ly­fish live in the water.

orchid garden

A pri­vate farm in Phuket, opened in 1973, spe­cial­izes in grow­ing orchids. Gar­den work­ers cross vari­eties and cre­ate new types of roy­al flow­ers. Numer­ous flower beds are plant­ed with orchids of var­i­ous shapes and sizes. Tourists can buy their favorite seedlings in the store.

bird park

The bird park in Phuket has become home to 1,000 birds from Asia, Africa, and South Amer­i­ca. The vast open-air area is sur­round­ed by a fine mesh. Inside, among the trees and shrubs, cock­a­toos, macaws, grays, love­birds, horn­bills and ostrich­es live.

All vis­i­tors are shown an inter­est­ing show with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of birds. For a small fee, adults and chil­dren can buy a piece of corn and feed the par­rots, which are not at all afraid of peo­ple.

Bang Pae Waterfall

The largest water­fall on the island is locat­ed in the vicin­i­ty of Phuket Town in the Khao Phra Theo Nation­al Park. This is a great place for a pic­nic and fam­i­ly vaca­tion. The trail to the water­fall pass­es through the jun­gle.

A gib­bon reha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­ter has been opened in the shade of trees. Huge mon­keys are kept in cages, and you can’t get close to them. A ten-meter steep water­fall flows along the rock and falls into a pic­turesque lake. On the shore of the reser­voir there are cafes and places for bar­be­cue.

tiger kingdom

The Roy­al Tiger House opened in Phuket in 2008. This is not an ordi­nary zoo, but a research cen­ter where the most com­fort­able con­di­tions for ani­mals are cre­at­ed. Big cats live in spa­cious enclo­sures, sur­round­ed by care.

The staff of the cen­ter offer tourists to watch an enter­tain­ing show, com­mu­ni­cate with ani­mals, and take vivid pho­tographs. Tiger King­dom has a restau­rant over­look­ing the park and a gift shop sell­ing soft toys, key chains, cal­en­dars, bags and clothes.

Karon beach

The wide coastal zone in the west of the island is cov­ered with fine white sand with a high con­tent of quartz. The south­ern part of the beach is sur­round­ed by a reef with branched corals of pur­ple, blue, green, yel­low. Sea sponges, crus­taceans and mol­luscs live in the water.

In the north side of Karon water attrac­tions, bars, cafes and restau­rants are con­cen­trat­ed. Hotels and hotel cot­tages rise along the beach, inter­spersed with car parks.

Entertainment

Aquarium

An ocea­nari­um has been opened in Phuket to get acquaint­ed with the marine fau­na. It con­tains large and small reser­voirs with water, in which hun­dreds of fish, mol­luscs, and algae live. The col­lec­tion includes sea­hors­es, clown­fish, elec­tric stingrays, perch­es.

The main high­light of the aquar­i­um is a tun­nel that sim­u­lates div­ing to the seabed. Pass­ing through it, tourists watch fish in their nat­ur­al habi­tat, admire corals and giant shells.

pearl farm

A large pearl farm is locat­ed on the small island of Coconut near Phuket. Any­one can order a vis­it to the enter­prise. Dur­ing the tour, guests are told how arti­fi­cial pearls are grown and show all the stages of work­ing on it.

The exhi­bi­tion hall con­tains large and small pearls, as well as jew­el­ry made by local jew­el­ers. All prod­ucts can be bought at the farm store. There are also gold and sil­ver bracelets, rings, ear­rings with pink, white or sil­ver pearls on sale.

Fantasy Park

Enter­tain­ment com­plex “Fan­ta­sy” on the coast of Kamala guar­an­tees a lot of pos­i­tive emo­tions. Play­grounds, mod­ern attrac­tions, bars, restau­rants with Thai del­i­ca­cies, themed clubs are con­cen­trat­ed here.

Rest­ing in the park, adults and chil­dren ride ele­phants, feed gold­en carps in the local pond, look into the vil­lage of crafts, learn how to per­form tricks, admire the pyrotech­nic show and dances.