For many, the main incentive to spend a holiday in Phuket is the incredibly wide reach of activities the island has to offer. Not only that, but with an encyclopaedia-long list of hotels and accommodation as well as startling scenery and seascapes, Phuket is a dream destination.
The island’s west coast has long been the ‘tourism side’ of the island, but nowadays the east coast and even some inland districts have been developed with new resorts springing up all the time. In spite of this, Phuket never feels crowded because of its size and pockets of tranquillity can easily be found.
Phuket’s got it all and knows it. Why not take a sunset dinner cruise on a wooden Junk underneath a canopy of a million stars? You can in Phuket. You’d like to ride an ATV through a muddy field or go on a cultural tour?
Ladyboy Cabaret is popular and hilarious, and it’s equally as easy to see elephants on stage too. As for daytime activities, you can zoom over to Phi Phi on a speedboat, visit the world-famous caves or ‘hongs’ of Phang Nga Bay or ride an elephant through the jungle. It’s only a matter of arranging it in Phuket.
Phang Nga Bay Sea Canoe
One of the most popular day tours in the area, the Phang Nga Bay Sea Canoe tour involves an 08:30 pickup and a drive to the East Coast of Phuket where a ‘mother ship’ will take you up to the hongs, or caves of Phang Nga Bay. When tidal conditions are right a guide will paddle you to the centre of the hongs where a whole eco-system exists.
Monkeys and hornbills live inside, undisturbed by the outside world. The mother ship then takes you to another cave and after, a buffet lunch is served. In the afternoon you will explore another cave then be motored to a beach and back to port.
Phi Phi by Speedboat
Phi Phi is one of the world’s most beautiful islands, from Phuket you can visit for the day. The first stop off is at Monkey Bay for some terrific snorkeling (although some tours will go first to Maya Bay). The fabulous coral garden of Hin Klang is next, followed by a beach break at Bamboo Island.
By this time it’s lunchtime and a buffet on Phi Phi Don handles it well. After lunch, the boat heads to uninhabited Phi Phi Leh then to Maya Bay – famous as the location of ‘The Beach’ movie before speeding back to Phuket.
Phuket FantaSea
An multi-award-winning attraction park and cabaret show, FantaSea is built on 140 acres of land in Kamala and encompasses games, shopping handicrafts, a 4,000-seater buffet featuring Thai and international cuisine, cafés and extravaganzas.
The show itself almost defies description as it is a melange of Thai culture, fantasy, excellent choreography, pyrotechnics, performing animals, acrobatics, trapeze artistes, fight scenes and historical re-enactments. The audience sometimes gets lost in and a little bewildered by the eclectic plot but all agree that it’s a wonderful evening out.
James Bond Island & Hongs
This tour combines the wonderfully shaped limestone ‘karsts’ or caves of Phang Nga Bay with a trip to James Bond Island and lunch on board ship in the north of the bay. On the way back you will stop at Lawa Island in the south of the bay for an hour’s swimming.
Of course, the best part of the day is getting to explore the sea caves and witnessing the eco system inside the heart of the karsts. James Bond Island is so-named because it featured in 1974’s Bond movie ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’. Great sights, great food.
Other Tours
Phuket has several elephant camps along its west coast where you can trek on a jumbo through the ‘jungle’. There are also excellent tours to neighbouring Phang Nga Province that take in elephant trekking, white-water rafting and visiting a fishery as well as ATV tours both on and off Phuket.
The romantic sunset dinner cruise in Phang Nga Bay is a popular one aboard a genuine converted rice junk under a panoply of stars and John Gray’s Sea Kayaking Hong by Starlight is excellent and eco-friendly. Not strictly a tour but worth mentioning are Phuket’s six lush and verdant golf courses.
Information by http://www.gothailand.com