Phuket, oh, Phuket. The sun, sand, sea, AND nightlife entices tourists from all walks of life to visit this amazing island. Read on for the ultimate 7 days itinerary to Phuket!

DAY 1 (SUNDAY) – PATONG, PHUKET TOWN, NAKA MARKET

Land in Phuket International Airport and you are on your way to the ultimate beach getaway! After getting your passports stamped, you will be greeted with many telco shops that provide tourist SIM cards with 4G and some even with a little bit of money to call! (For those who need the SIM) Go to any shop (prices are generally the same since it is very competitive there) and get the SIM card that suits your needs the best.

Honestly I don’t have any preference, but the main point is DATA, since data trumps all.

To get to Patong, you can choose to take a private taxi or the airport minibus which will drop you directly at your hotel. Just take note that you have to wait for the minibus to be filled before they are willing to drive off! But it’s the cheapest option if you are a solo traveller or just with another friend.

General Pricing structure:

180 baht/person to Patong (~5.45 USD) for a SHARED minibus

800 baht/car to Patong (~24.20 USD) for a private hire

950 baht/GRAB (~28.74 USD) to Patong

*The ride can be windy and bumpy so if you get motion sickness easily, I suggest these few ways to counter it!

2 hours later, you will arrive at the island’s party beach — Patong beach. Drop your luggages at your hotel and get ready to explore Patong! Patong is generally walkable everywhere, so if you are fit and able, we highly suggest you to walk in Patong and avoid the exorbitant taxi/tuk tuk fees.

Where we stayed: Noveau Guesthouse

But wait. You are there on a weekend. Get into a taxi/tuk tuk and head on over to Phuket Town for Phuket’s very own weekend market — Naka market. If you think you are too early, you can also drop by some of the popular cafes in Phuket Town! We highly suggest The Tent; it is a cosy cafe with little makeshift tents where you can sit inside to enjoy your food!

Albeit small, Naka market has a wide variety of food and shopping, catering to both shopaholics and food junkies.

After a few rounds at the night market, make your way back to Patong either by taxi or Grab, and you can either call it a night or head down to the clubbing district for part 2 of the night. 

We highly recommend Hollywood Phuket or Illuzion Discotheque — Hollywood Phuket is a small club that plays mostly English pop songs, so you don’t have to worry not being familiar with the songs; Illuzion Discotheque plays EDM and it is a bigger club compared to Hollywood Phuket. There are definitely more clubs for you to try, but we found these 2 clubs to be our favourite.

DAY 2 (MONDAY) – PATONG BEACH

Take a moment to sleep in and relax on your beach getaway. Who says you need to wake up early at the beach? Although Phuket is not famous for their Thai food (it can be overly pricey and catered to tourist taste buds), there are still top restaurants that you can find in Phuket. We recommend heading to No. 6 Restaurant for your Thai brunch, as it can get crowded during lunch time. No. 6 Restaurant is strategically located along the main road so you don’t have to worry losing your way.

After you’ve satisfied your tummies, head on to the beach (if you don’t mind the afternoon sun) or you can hide from the sun in Jungceylon Shopping Centre. You definitely won’t be able to miss this mall as it stands out from the rest of the buildings. There are many international food chains and shops located inside the mall, but if you are looking for cheap thai clothing, then this is not the place to be. There is also Big C (supermarket) located inside the mall, so you can stock up snacks for the beach and even to bring it home!

Patong’s beach is known to be CRAZY touristy with many sellers touting and trying to sell you activities, food, drinks, and even aloe vera to calm your burnt skin. Patong’s beach is not the cleanest out of all of Thailand beaches, but the vibe at the beach is to die for! Just be sure to take care of your belongings 🙂 There are water sports such as parasailling and banana boat, but do take note to haggle as the prices they quote are usually jacked up for tourists.

For dinner, you can choose to explore Patong at night to find a hidden food street like the ones we found along Hatpatong Road (not sure if it’s still there but you can try to find it if you want to).

Looking for massage places too? Puluang 1 Thai Massage situated near Noveau Guesthouse has great massages! We went there nearly everyday for a massage after a long day 🙂

Night activities: Thai maggi supper or clubbing 😉

 

DAY 3 (TUESDAY) – PATONG BEACH / ANOTHER BEACH

Another late start to the day will leave you feeling refreshed and energized. For another brunch idea, we recommend Naughty Nuri’s. Although it’s an Indonesian restaurant, it has a lunch discount of 50% for most items on the menu, and the portions are huge– definitely able to keep you full for the rest of the day.

You can go back to Patong beach, or consider going on to nearby beaches such as Freedom beach and Paradise beach. Illuzion (yes, the club) manages Paradise beach and it would take at least an hour to walk there. Although they do provide free shuttles from the club itself, do note that it comes once every 30min and even though you are sitting at the steps of the club, the shuttle might even miss you and you have to wait for another 30min (that’s what happened to us 😡 we didn’t even get to go in the end) Tuk tuks will charge you for 400 baht which is honestly in my opinion, not worth the money. But if you want to try, go ahead! 🙂 Be warned.

Dinner: OTOP Patong

It’s a local market near Hard Rock, and it has amazing food there, I kid you not. Not sure if there are still stalls there as our intentions at the start was to go for food at Hard Rock Cafe, but found this mini gem tucked away on the south side of the town 🙂 There are also many bars inside, so if there isn’t anything open, you can still head to the bars! We ate along the street and had amazing and cheap grilled saba fish for 100baht. That’s something a restaurant might sell for 300baht!

Night Activities: as aforementioned, massage, supper, sleep, or club 😉

 

DAY 4 (WEDNESDAY) – PHI PHI ISLAND TOUR

This is a must do! Phi Phi Islands are very popular among tourists for its white beaches and pristine waters. You can sign up for a tour in Patong (haggle haggle haggle), or you can even try Klook! But for us, Klook was more expensive than booking at one of the ‘tourists’ information booths along Patong street. The tour bus will pick you up and drop you directly at your hotel, so it is super convenient!

There are many tour packages for you to choose from, so just choose the places that you are interested in 🙂 generally, the tours also rent you snorkelling equipment for free, but for hygiene purposes, we decided to bring our own. 🙂

Dinner: night market/restaurant

Night Activities: as aforementioned, massage, supper, sleep, or club 😉

 

DAY 5 (THURSDAY) – PATONG/KATA

It’s time to say goodbye to Patong and head on to Kata. The beach and nightlife must have left you either crazy tired or crazy energized. Nevertheless, you can grab a bite at Sandwich Shoppe Cafe and Bar, which serves really good breakfast/brunch. Not a Thai tradition, but hey, Phuket has became too touristy anyway.

Transport options are the usual: either a taxi or grab. Both of them are generally the same price, but Grab might be a little more convenient as the location of your next hotel will be conveyed much more easily to the driver than a non English speaking driver. It’s around a 15-30min car ride to Kata, and one place you can consider staying is Kata Palace Phuket. Honestly, there are better accommodations out there but we were on a tight budget so this hotel sufficed. It looks a little run down, both the interior and the exterior, but it’s relatively value for money! The hotel is located very close to Kata beach, so you don’t have to walk too far.

We suggest heading down to relax on the beach with the remaining daylight you have. It’s a nice, quiet beach with less tourists and touters. The Thai touters here sell less aggressively than those on Patong beach! Since we were there in early May, there were wave breaks big enough to learn body boarding, but not big enough to learn surfing. If you want to surf, do go from June-August where the waves will be stronger.

Dinner: Tom Yum Koong 2

Never did we expect, that our hotel restaurant serves such amazing Thai food. We saw reviews online, and decided to try it for ourselves, and oh boy, we were not disappointed. Definitely try their green curry and you can find our review here!

 

There is literally nothing to do at night in Kata except to go stargazing (which might be abit dangerous), get a massage, or go to the few bars that are open: Wavehouse and some down the road. If not, head back for an early night for water activities the next day.

 

Suggested massage parlours: Phuket massage @ Phu massage or Darin massage. Both massage parlours have amazing masseuse!

 

DAY 6 (FRIDAY) – KATA BEACH

Wake up to a fresh new day and go for breakfast (or brunch) 🙂 There are not many cafes in Kata, but you should definitely try out Coffee House Cafe. Brunch options are available and they have relatively good coffee!

Head down to Kata beach again and you can rent a sunbed for half the price of the one in Patong for a full day. Definitely worth it. There are also people renting surf boards, body boards, and stand up paddle boards (SUP) so do try them if you are interested!

We did SUP (never did it before, since SUP in Singapore costs $50/h. How ridiculous is that!) for 300baht/h (~$12/h) and although it is fun, we did get quite bored after a while. We also rented the bodyboard for a whole day around 350 baht/person (~$14) after haggling! Always be nice to the owners and they will be more than willing to rent you at a cheaper rate 🙂

A hot day at the beach leaves you hungry and wanting an ice cold treat. Near Kata local bus terminal is a 7-11, with one of the BEST banana pancakes ever, we kid you not. We tried these in Bangkok before and nothing beats the crispiness and freshness of the banana pancakes this cart has to offer. The most popular flavour is nutella banana, but the cinnamon sugar one and egg and cheese ones are amazing too. It’s similar to roti prata in Singapore, but a whole lot crispier and fresher. On the left of the cart would be a fruits stall where you can get your daily dose of vitamins, and further on, there is an ice cream roll cart. Another hidden gem, (we tried the Bangkok ones but it was terrible there) this stall makes amazing ice cream rolls, that is sufficiently creamier like a homemade gelato. Flavours we definitely recommend are the oreo and brownie ones, since they mash these toppings up and mix them into your ice cream roll. Not to mention, they are VERY generous with their serving! Read our full review here. 

Dinner: choose a restaurant of your choice, or have banana pancakes

 

We could live with banana pancakes anyday. Restaurants are NOT budget friendly.

 

DAY 7 (SATURDAY) – KATA

 

 

It’s your last day in Kata, so for breakfast, eat whatever you want to eat for the last time. If you want to try something new, we suggest an acai bowl by Nana bowl. However, as it does not have it’s own shop in Kata, you have to head over to Sugar Ohana Poshtel (yes, a hotel) that is licensed to sell Nana bowls. There are a few flavours to choose from and the cold acai bowls would definitely cool you down!

Before you leave Kata for your flight, head down to the road along Surf House Phuket where there is a mini weekend market. Stalls are lined up along the walkway and although most of it are shipped over from Bangkok, they are specially curated and are usually worth buying. If you have time and are still hungry, there are food stalls along the street for your last Thai meal, or you could go to Coco Palm Bar and Restaurant located near the beach to have your meal while overlooking the beach….

Take a taxi/Grab to the airport before your flight and remember to add in 1h15min to get to the airport, as the ride there would be REALLY LONG!

 

Remember to buy some souvenirs back! 🙂

 

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