Have you ever visited Phuket?

What are the main attractions in Phuket?

• I would be going to Phuket in two weeks time and I have a few questions for those who have already visited it. 1) What are the main attractions in Phuket 2)Which hotel did you stay? 3)How many days were you there? 3)What are the things we have to take precautions of of? 4) Overall is it a good place to visit?

• Answer:

  1) There are lots of water sports in Phuket. There's parasailing where they hook you to the back of a boat and a parachute attached to your back. There's the little boats that only have enough space for one person to ride that go shimmying everywhere. There's the beach where people spend their time relaxing and sunbathing. There's lots of snorkeling places as well as dive dens if you want to go into the water. You can take a introductory dive class for around $100 but you won't get a PADI license, that costs around 3X more. If you want to do snorkeling that is the cheapest and easiest way to enjoy the fish in the water. Lots of convenience stores in the area sell inexpensive snorkeling gear. I thought Karon beach had the best snorkeling, didn't see any fish on Kata although Kata I thought had the best street food and bakery. There's also a couple of temples you can visit. The Big Buddha is located in the southern part of town and I have seen it. It's an absolutely enormous image. The temple is situated really high on the top of the hill. It was worth the drive because the temp was cooler than ground level and I didn't want to leave and the view of the entire island was very beautiful. If you want to do more conventional things there's go-kart racing somewhere on the island. There's also a shooting range where you can test out different types of handguns and rifles. Of course there's massage places everywhere and pool halls if you shoot pool. And there's Muay Thai kickboxing to watch. If you think the shopping is the best aspect of Phuket then you obviously haven't seen Bangkok or Chiang Mai because the shopping pales in comparison (price wise, quality wise, and selection wise). Personally I wouldn't do any of my shopping in Phuket and I didn't. I did all my shopping in Chiang Mai where everything was about 50% cheaper and in Bangkok where it was about 20% cheaper (than Phuket). The food was decidedly a let down for me, I came to Thailand to enjoy Thai food but since you sound like a westerner or european, I'll assume you won't miss the Thai food too much. There's a reason why they say Phuket is the most un-Thai of all the places in Thailand. The island has a decidedly western feel to it, including the restaurants. You can rent a moped for 24 hours for 250 baht (about $7 US) like I did and drive around the island and do some exploring. That was fun for me because taxi's charge a lot. Don't give them your passport if you decide to rent a moped. I convinced him to take my drivers license. Some places will hold your passport and when you bring it back in they'll charge you for little dents here and there which were already there to begin with. 2) I stayed at Pineapple Phuket in Karon Beach and I didn't like the location or the manager and will be staying in a different place next year. It was 900 baht / nite but if I had just shown up at the door it would have only costed 800 baht because business is slow in Phuket and lots of places are offering discounts. Your cheapest bet is to simply show up on the day and book your stay. 3) I was there from Jan 6 thru Jan 9 last week. 4) I have a few precautions. I ate as much street food as I could and I loved it. Didn't hesitate to drink the water, never got sick. I would not eat the street food featuring meat on a stick (like chicken, beef, or pork) since they never cook it thoroughly. I would also take precautions to plan your drive back to the airport. I thought I would be able to easily flag down a taxi but I had a hard time finding one. The taxi's don't have a big sign that says "Taxi-Meter" like they do in Bangkok, in fact, I don't think they have much of a sign at all. I wound up booking my taxi through a travel service for 600 baht. By the time I got to the airport I missed my flight. If you book a hotel ask them to arrange airport pickup. The red tuk tuks or songthaews that you see everywhere will not take you to the airport. 5) Phuket is a good fun place to visit. Just about every tour service was advertising service to Phi Phi Island. I guess that's where all the real beach and water fun is. Like Bangkok, you will feel safe.