Andaman beaches, Old Town shophouses, zero trains
Destinations › Asia › Phuket
Phuket is Thailand's largest island and it is genuinely big — the airport sits about 32 km north of Phuket Town in the Mai Khao subdistrict of Thalang district, and Rawai is at the far southern tip, with no train, metro or tram connecting any of it. Most of what people picture as "Phuket" is a string of west-coast beaches (Patong, Karon, Kata) plus a Sino-Portuguese old town in Phuket Town that is nowhere near the sand and is worth a day on its own.
There is no nonstop from Toronto. Pearson has no Bangkok and no Singapore service at all — in fact no nonstop to anywhere in Southeast Asia — so every routing connects at least once. The two cleanest are single-airline, two-flight options: Cathay Pacific YYZ–Hong Kong then Hong Kong–Phuket, and Korean Air YYZ–Seoul Incheon then Incheon–Phuket. EVA Air's YYZ–Taipei Taoyuan nonstop looks like an obvious play, but the only carrier flying Taipei–Phuket is Tigerair Taiwan, so in practice you route Taipei–Bangkok–Phuket and add a third flight. Anything that funnels you through Bangkok is a three-flight day. You land at Phuket International Airport (HKT), operated by Airports of Thailand; international flights use Terminal 2 and domestic flights use Terminal 3, so a Bangkok connection drops you at a different terminal than a direct international arrival. The named public bus link from the airport is the Phuket Smart Bus, route R1, running Airport–Cherng Talay–Surin–Kamala–Patong–Karon–Kata–Rawai. Metered taxis, public passenger vans and car rental desks are also available at the airport.
There is no rail of any kind on Phuket — the long-discussed light rail was announced by the MRTA but has never been built, and your Bangkok Rabbit card (BTS) or MRT card is useless here. The Phuket Smart Bus (route R1) runs the west-coast spine from the airport down through Cherng Talay, Surin, Kamala, Patong, Karon and Kata to Rawai; it sells a Day Pass for unlimited rides and takes contactless Visa, Mastercard and JCB tapped on board, plus Thai QR/PromptPay and cash. Songthaews (converted pickup trucks with bench seats) are colour-coded: blue ones connect Phuket Old Town with the beach resorts around the island, and pink ones circulate around the Old Town itself. The blue ones radiate out from Phuket Town to individual beaches and back — they do not run beach-to-beach, so getting from Patong to Kata by songthaew means going in and out via town. Grab works island-wide for app-based cars. Phuket's tuk-tuks are not Bangkok's three-wheelers but small vans, predominantly red with some yellow or green, and they have no meters — agree the fare before you get in. The Government of Canada warns that unlicensed vehicles bearing black-and-white licence plates are not correctly insured to carry passengers and may not use meters.
Thalang Road and Soi Romanee sit inside a heritage quarter of mustard-and-pastel Sino-Portuguese shophouses left over from the tin-mining boom, now coffee shops, tailors and small museums. Thalang Road hosts the Sunday Walking Street market. This is the half of Phuket that has nothing to do with resorts.
Phra Phutta Ming Mongkol Eknakakiri, on Nakkerd Hill above Ao Chalong, is concrete clad in Burmese white marble, visible from much of the island and funded by donations rather than ticket sales. Dress modestly — shoulders and knees covered, as at any working Thai temple. Pair it with Wat Chalong at the bottom of the hill, the island's best-known and busiest temple.
Limestone karsts rising straight out of the water, sea caves, and Ko Panyi, a fishing village in Phang Nga Province built on stilts by Bugis fishermen. Boats leave from Ao Po Grand Marina and Bang Rong Pier on the sheltered northeast coast, which is why this trip often still runs on days when west-coast sea conditions have cancelled everything else.
Ferries and speedboats to the Phi Phi Islands leave from Rassada Pier, just outside Phuket Town. Maya Bay, in Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, reopened in early 2022 after nearly four years closed, under hard rules that surprise people: no swimming in the bay, no boats anchoring inside it (you dock outside and walk in from the back side), a one-hour visit, and a daily visitor cap. It also shuts for part of the year, so confirm the dates before you pay for a tour.
The two long west-coast bays just south of Patong, and the default answer for most families. Proper beaches, enough restaurants and shops to not feel stranded, and considerably calmer than Patong without being dead. Kata Noi, the small cove at the southern end, is the quietest of the three. You're still on the Andaman side, so the monsoon-season surf warnings apply here as much as anywhere.
Inland in Phuket City, and the part of the island with an actual identity - a compact grid of Sino-Portuguese shophouses along heritage streets including Thalang, Dibuk, Krabi, Phang Nga, Rassada and Yaowarat, built on tin-mining money and painted in colours that photograph absurdly well. Best food on the island, real markets, a Sunday walking street. No beach at all: you'll be taking a songthaew or a Grab to swim. Worth two nights even if you stay on the coast for the rest.
The engine room - Bangla Road, the big hotels, the tailors, the jet skis, the noise. It has the widest range of places to eat and the easiest transport connections, and it is genuinely fun for a night. It's also relentless, and the strip immediately behind the beach is aimed squarely at stag parties. Plenty of people base here and are happy; plenty of people with kids or parents in tow wish they hadn't.
The northwest, closest to the airport and the most resort-shaped part of the island. Laguna is a linked complex of hotels around a lagoon system with shuttle buses between them; Bang Tao beach is long and flat; Kamala is smaller and more low-key. Level ground, predictable, family-oriented, and short airport transfers - which after a twenty-hour trip from Toronto counts for a lot. Far south at Rawai and Nai Harn you get the opposite: local-feeling, calm bays, a working seafood market, and very little to do at night.
Phuket's food is Hokkien Chinese crossed with southern Thai and it doesn't taste like Bangkok. Moo hong is the local signature - pork belly braised slowly in soy, garlic and black pepper until it collapses. Alongside it, gaeng som, a fierce sour orange fish curry that is much hotter than the tourist-menu version, and massaman, which came up through the Muslim south. Look for it in Old Town shophouses and market food courts rather than beachfront restaurants.
Thick yellow wheat noodles in a dark gravy with pork, seafood and egg, brought here by Chinese tin miners and now a Phuket institution. It's a morning and lunch dish - the good places sell out and shut. Old Town and the fresh markets are where to look. Ask for it as 'mee hokkien' and expect it to arrive with a plate of chillies in vinegar to sort out yourself.
Phuket has both a large Thai-Muslim community and a large Chinese one, and both eat breakfast out. Roti stalls griddle flatbread to order, folded around egg or banana and drizzled with condensed milk. Dim sum here is a morning thing sold by the steamer basket in busy no-frills halls, not a weekend brunch. Between them they make hotel breakfast buffets look very poor value.
Four worth knowing. Naka Weekend Market south of Old Town is the big sprawling one, Saturday and Sunday evenings. The Sunday Walking Street closes Thalang Road to traffic for food and craft stalls. Banzaan Fresh Market sits directly behind Patong beach and is where the restaurants shop. And Rawai in the far south is a seafood market where you buy fish off the ice by weight and carry it to one of the kitchens alongside to cook - the best meal on the island for the least ceremony.
Land at HKT, which is up in the island's northwest corner at Mai Khao in Thalang district - 32 km north of Phuket City, and reckon on the better part of an hour to the west-coast beaches. Do nothing else. Get to the beach, learn the flag system before anyone swims, and let the flight wear off. Toronto to Phuket is two stops and the better part of a day.
Head down to the southern tip for sunset. Promthep Cape has a paved viewing terrace looking out over the Andaman with a lighthouse and shrine behind it; go via Nai Harn's bay if you want a last swim in calmer water. Then Rawai seafood market for dinner - pick your fish, hand it to a kitchen, eat it a short while later.
The Big Buddha on Nakkerd Hill, a 45-metre figure of concrete clad in white Burmese marble that's visible from half the island, up a long winding road, facing out over Chalong Bay. There are stairs at the top. Come back down to Wat Chalong, the island's principal Buddhist temple, in Chalong at the foot of the hill road. Shoulders and knees covered at both.
Phuket Old Town. Walk Thalang Road, duck into Soi Romanee, work along Dibuk and Krabi. The Thai Hua Museum, in a former Chinese school, is the best half hour you'll spend on understanding why this island looks the way it does. Stay for dinner - and if it's a Sunday, the walking street takes over the road.
The boat day, and make it Phang Nga Bay from Ao Po or Bang Rong on the east coast. Limestone karsts standing straight out of flat green water, sea caves you paddle into by canoe, and Koh Panyee (Ko Panyi), a Muslim fishing village built on stilts over the water by Bugis fishermen, complete with the famous floating football pitch the village children built. The east coast is sheltered, so this is a far gentler crossing than anything heading out into the open Andaman.
Beach, and a Thai massage, which is the correct way to end this trip. If you want one last view, Karon Viewpoint on the coast road looks down over the three bays of Kata Noi, Kata and Karon in a row - it's a roadside pull-in, no walking required, and it's the photo everyone comes home with.
Ferry or speedboat from Rassada Pier in Phuket City, roughly two hours by ferry and much less by speedboat. Towering limestone cliffs, Pileh Lagoon, Monkey Beach, and Maya Bay - which reopened in 2022 after a long closure but now runs on capped visitor numbers with a timed visit, no swimming in the bay, and boats kept out of the bay itself and brought in to a floating pier on the far side. Treat the rules as a moving target: access there has been changed repeatedly since reopening, including seasonal restrictions, so check the current position before you book a day around it. It is spectacular and it is extremely busy, and the crossing can be rough between May and October.
North on the mainland. The Similans lie about 70 km off the coast of Phang Nga province, reached from Tab Lamu Pier just south of Khao Lak, and they hold the best snorkelling and diving in this part of Thailand by a distance. The critical thing: the national park is closed every year for the rainy season, from 16 May to 15 October. It's a long day out of Phuket - an early start and a fair drive before you even board.
A quiet Muslim fishing island sitting in the middle of Phang Nga Bay, ferry from Bang Rong pier on Phuket's east coast. Rubber plantations, rice fields, water buffalo, a handful of small resorts and essentially no nightlife, with the karst scenery of the bay all around it. It is the direct antidote to Patong and it's the day trip people are most surprised by.
Phuket is one of the more manageable tropical destinations to bring parents to, provided you understand two things: there is no rail or metro of any kind, and the sea is not always safe. On transport, the island runs on songthaews - pink ones circulating around Phuket Town, blue ones connecting the town out to the beach resorts. They're cheap and they're an experience, but they are open-sided trucks with a high step up and a bench along each side, which is awkward-to-impossible for anyone with a bad hip or knee. There is also the Phuket Smart Bus along the west coast and a scheduled bus between the airport and town, though routing and frequency are worth re-checking before you rely on either. With elderly parents, the honest answer is Grab, metered taxis or a hotel car, and just paying for it. The airport is 32 km north of Phuket City, at Mai Khao in Thalang district, so build in the better part of an hour of transfer at each end. The water is the thing people underestimate. The whole west coast - Patong, Karon, Kata, Kamala, Bang Tao - faces the open Andaman and develops serious rip currents during the southwest monsoon, roughly May to October. The Government of Canada names Phuket specifically for strong riptides and notes deaths from drowning. Red flags on the beach are not advisory and are not about the weather being a bit grey. People drown here every year, often strong swimmers, often after ignoring a flag. If you're travelling with children or with anyone who isn't a confident swimmer, either come in the dry season from November to April, or plan around the calmer southern and eastern bays and the hotel pool. There are also jellyfish at some beaches at some times of year - ask locally rather than guessing. On terrain: at beach level Phuket is flat and easy, and the resorts - particularly around Laguna, Bang Tao and Karon - are built with lifts, ramps and level ground in a way that generally works for wheelchairs, though it is worth confirming with the specific hotel rather than assuming. The temples don't. The Big Buddha and Wat Chalong both involve stairs, and the Big Buddha sits at the top of a long climbing road. Phuket Old Town is flat, but the covered five-foot walkways in front of the shophouses are narrow, uneven, and interrupted by a step up or down at every building line, so a wheelchair often ends up in the road. Promthep Cape has a paved terrace, which is fine, but the headland path beyond it is rough. Boat days deserve a specific warning. A speedboat island-hopper means climbing in and out of a bouncing boat from a beach, several hours of hard slamming across swell, sun with no shade and no toilet. It's tiring for a fit adult and genuinely rough on an older parent or a small child. If you want a boat day with mixed ages, take a large ferry or a big-boat Phang Nga Bay trip on the sheltered east side rather than a speedboat to Phi Phi. It is hot and humid year-round with no cool season - plan outdoor things for early morning and late afternoon and write off the middle of the day. Rabies is present in Thailand and dogs roam beaches and temple grounds, so keep children from approaching them. Do not rent a motorbike: the Government of Canada advises avoiding driving or riding motorcycles in Thailand at all, even for experienced motorcyclists, and notes that motorcycle accidents cause most road deaths there and that many rental bikes are poorly maintained. The one genuine reassurance is medical - Phuket City has several private hospitals used to treating foreign patients, which is more than most island destinations can say.
Thai baht. Cards are widely accepted in hotels, malls, chains and larger restaurants. Markets, songthaews, longtail boats, massage shops and street food are cash. ATMs are everywhere but nearly all of them charge a fixed foreign-card withdrawal fee on top of whatever your Canadian bank adds, so take out a larger amount less often rather than topping up in small hits. Keep a mix of notes - stalls often can't break a big one.
Not obligatory and not expected in local eateries or from songthaew drivers. Leaving the coins, rounding up, or a small note for a masseuse, hotel porter or a driver who's waited around is normal and well received. Hotels and higher-end restaurants often add a service charge and VAT to the bill, so look at the total before you add anything - you're not expected to tip on top of a service charge.
230 volts, 50 hertz. Thailand's sockets are unusually accommodating: types A, B, C and O are all in use, and most sockets you meet are hybrids that will take a flat two-pin (type A), a round two-pin (type C) and Thailand's own three-pin type O. That matters more than usual for Canadians, because your flat two-pin plug will physically fit but the mains is roughly double Canada's voltage. Only plug in dual-voltage equipment. A 120-volt-only hair dryer, curling iron or travel kettle will destroy itself, and possibly the socket. Grounded three-pin Canadian plugs need an adapter.
Not for drinking. Bottled or filtered water only - it's sold on every corner and most hotels provide it. Ice is the question everyone asks: in restaurants, bars and established street stalls it's commercially produced from treated water and is generally fine, and you'll notice it's uniform cylinders with a hole through the middle. Be more cautious with drinks from informal vendors, and with anything raw that's been rinsed.
Thai, in its own script, which you will not be able to read. In Phuket's tourist areas that barely matters - hotels, restaurants, Grab drivers and tour operators all work in English and you'll get by without effort. It thins out quickly in the markets, in Old Town's older shophouses and anywhere off the beach circuit, so have a translation app with Thai downloaded for offline use. 'Sawatdee' and 'khop khun' are worth the thirty seconds it takes to learn them.
Two rental traps to know about. The jet-ski scam is a Phuket classic: you bring the machine back, the operator points at pre-existing damage and demands compensation, sometimes with menace - film the ski from every angle before you get on, or just don't rent one, and note that the Government of Canada separately warns that water-sports operators here may not meet international safety standards. The advisory is explicit about the motorbike version: rental companies falsely claim you damaged the bike and hold your passport, and you must never use your Canadian passport as collateral for a rental - leave a photocopy or a cash deposit instead. Beyond that, the same advisory warns about drugged food and drinks used for assault and robbery, so don't leave a drink unattended or accept one from a new acquaintance; bar bill disputes can turn nasty; and treat the beach flags as the last word on swimming.
Phuket is on the Andaman (west) coast and lives by the southwest monsoon. The Government of Canada puts Thailand's rainy season at June to November; on Phuket's west coast the wet stretch effectively opens around May and September–October are the heaviest, typically as concentrated afternoon and evening downpours rather than all-day grey. Dry season is November to April — November and April are the value sweet spots, December to February is peak season (best weather, biggest crowds, highest room rates), and March–April is properly hot. Monsoon has two consequences that matter more than the rain itself. First, Mu Ko Similan National Park closes every year from 16 May to 15 October, so the Similans — which depart from Tab Lamu Port just south of Khao Lak in Phang Nga Province, not from Phuket — are simply unavailable in wet season. Second, red flags go up on Patong, Karon and Kata: the Government of Canada flags both riptides and poisonous jellyfish off Phuket, and drownings happen here during the monsoon months. A red flag means stay out, regardless of how flat the water looks from your towel.
Compare the ways to get there, then build a day-by-day plan.
There is no nonstop from Toronto. Pearson has no Bangkok and no Singapore service at all — in fact no nonstop to anywhere in Southeast Asia — so every routing connects at least once. The two cleanest are single-airline, two-flight options: Cathay Pacific YYZ–Hong Kong then Hong Kong–Phuket, and Korean Air YYZ–Seoul Incheon then Incheon–Phuket. EVA Air's YYZ–Taipei Taoyuan nonstop looks like an obvious play, but the only carrier flying Taipei–Phuket is Tigerair Taiwan, so in practice you route Taipei–Bangkok–Phuket and add a third flight. Anything that funnels you through Bangkok is a three-flight day. You land at Phuket International Airport (HKT), operated by Airports of Thailand; international flights use Terminal 2 and domestic flights use Terminal 3, so a Bangkok connection drops you at a different terminal than a direct international arrival. The named public bus link from the airport is the Phuket Smart Bus, route R1, running Airport–Cherng Talay–Surin–Kamala–Patong–Karon–Kata–Rawai. Metered taxis, public passenger vans and car rental desks are also available at the airport.
There is no rail of any kind on Phuket — the long-discussed light rail was announced by the MRTA but has never been built, and your Bangkok Rabbit card (BTS) or MRT card is useless here. The Phuket Smart Bus (route R1) runs the west-coast spine from the airport down through Cherng Talay, Surin, Kamala, Patong, Karon and Kata to Rawai; it sells a Day Pass for unlimited rides and takes contactless Visa, Mastercard and JCB tapped on board, plus Thai QR/PromptPay and cash. Songthaews (converted pickup trucks with bench seats) are colour-coded: blue ones connect Phuket Old Town with the beach resorts around the island, and pink ones circulate around the Old Town itself. The blue ones radiate out from Phuket Town to individual beaches and back — they do not run beach-to-beach, so getting from Patong to Kata by songthaew means going in and out via town. Grab works island-wide for app-based cars. Phuket's tuk-tuks are not Bangkok's three-wheelers but small vans, predominantly red with some yellow or green, and they have no meters — agree the fare before you get in. The Government of Canada warns that unlicensed vehicles bearing black-and-white licence plates are not correctly insured to carry passengers and may not use meters.
Phuket is on the Andaman (west) coast and lives by the southwest monsoon. The Government of Canada puts Thailand's rainy season at June to November; on Phuket's west coast the wet stretch effectively opens around May and September–October are the heaviest, typically as concentrated afternoon and evening downpours rather than all-day grey. Dry season is November to April — November and April are the value sweet spots, December to February is peak season (best weather, biggest crowds, highest room rates), and March–April is properly hot. Monsoon has two consequences that matter more than the rain itself. First, Mu Ko Similan National Park closes every year from 16 May to 15 October, so the Similans — which depart from Tab Lamu Port just south of Khao Lak in Phang Nga Province, not from Phuket — are simply unavailable in wet season. Second, red flags go up on Patong, Karon and Kata: the Government of Canada flags both riptides and poisonous jellyfish off Phuket, and drownings happen here during the monsoon months. A red flag means stay out, regardless of how flat the water looks from your towel.