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Patong Bay is the busiest tourist beach on Phuket. It boasts hundreds of hotels, ranging from 5-star resorts to lowly budget guesthouses, a great variety of restaurants and a vibrant and surprising nightlife.
Supermarkets and fresh food markets sell provisions, though prices are naturally higher here in ‘tourist-land’ than in Phuket City. It is generally safe to leave dinghies unguarded near the police post in the centre of the beach.
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18 miles from Ao Chalong
The gradually sloping sandy bottom at Patong Beach permits anchorage in 5‑20 metres anywhere in this broad bay. To the south end of the bay is a fixed jetty and a floating jetty which is used during the high season as a transit point for the growing number of visiting superyachts and cruise ships.
This is the busiest bay on the west coast, particularly around Christmas, New Year and April’s Songkran water festival. It’s also the main high season anchorage for cruise ships, liveaboard dive boats and superyachts.
The city’s rapid development has seen a dazzling choice of restaurants spring up. Whatever you want, you’ll find it here. To help you choose, we recommend www.wheretoeat-phuket.com – Phuket’s only real guide to dining island-wide.
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17 miles from Ao Chalong
Anchor in 8-10 metres on a sandy bottom off one of the three South Point beaches. The larger one, Tri Trang Beach, has the prestigious Rosewood Resort ashore and there’s a road into Patong. This is a good night stop if a southwesterly swell is running early or late in the season.
The smaller beaches are also a favourite daytime excursion for longtails operating from the Patong Beach. Many divers and snorkellers come to enjoy the underwater sights within easy range of the beach facilities of Patong.
19 miles from Ao Chalong
In the north of Patong Bay, Thavorn Beach Village resort at Naka Lay Bay has a concrete jetty extending beyond the drying fringe coral. Many yachts shelter here late in the season when the westerly ground swell gets uncomfortable.
19 miles from Ao Chalong
Just inside the northernmost point, Laem Thai Pao has a steep coral shelf rising from a sandy bottom in about 12 metres. Lots of colourful corals and fish await the underwater explorer. Access to the beach, now overlooked by a villa development, is best at high water.
19 miles from Ao Chalong
This mere indentation in the headland at Waterfall Bay affords shelter for one or two boats. Anchor in about 15-20 metres on a sandy bottom with scattered coral in front of the residential villas. In the corner of the bay you’ll find a spring which is accessible by dinghy – bring your jerry cans. However, the spring often dries up by the end of the dry season, so don’t rely on it.
