Phuket Old Town
Phuket Old Town is the old Chinese merchant quarter of Phuket City: about a square kilometre of two-storey shophouses built on tin money between the 1890s and the 1930s. It is 35 minutes from Patong, and it is where the island keeps its museums, its shrines and its Sunday night market. You can walk it end to end in fifteen minutes.
The short version
- Getting there
- About 35 minutes by car from Patong. Park free at the Thai Hua Museum.
- How long
- Half a day at the very least. A week if you like sitting in coffee shops.
- What it costs
- Nothing to walk around. ฿200 for the Thai Hua Museum, which is the one to pay for.
- When to come
- Sunday, and stay for the evening. Thalang Road shuts to traffic at 16:00.
- When not to
- Monday. Kopitiam is closed, Go Benz never opens, and you walk past a lot of shutters.
If you only do five things
In the order we would do them, on a Tuesday, starting early because the light is better and the streets are empty.
Thalang Road, before nine
The main heritage strip, and the only hour it belongs to the people who live on it. Come back at eleven and you are sharing it with everyone who read the same list you did.
Free. Shops open from about 10:00
The Thai Hua Museum
A 1934 Chinese school on Krabi Road, and the reason the rest of the town makes sense. Photographing the inside costs another ฿200, so decide at the desk rather than halfway round.
฿200 adult, ฿120 child · 09:00–17:00 daily · last entry 15:30
Lunch at Kopitiam by Wilai
Thalang Road, number 18, and one of the genuine old Phuket kitchens rather than a place that opened last year to serve walking tours. It shuts both weekend days, which catches people out.
฿200–400 · Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 · closed Sunday and Monday
Dinner at Amritsr, on Soi Romanee
The busiest restaurant in Old Town is Punjabi, which catches people out. It is on Soi Romanee, a minute off Thalang Road, and it serves until midnight.
4.8 from 8,212 reviews · 09:00–00:00 daily
An hour at Sansabai, on Thalang Road
Number 21, and the most reviewed business in the district of any kind. Almost nobody in Old Town publishes massage prices, so agree yours before you lie down.
4.9 from 9,104 reviews · 10:00–22:30 daily
Five streets, and what is on them
Old Town is small enough that you navigate by street name rather than by map. These are the five you will actually use.
Thalang Road
The spine. Kopitiam at 18, Sansabai at 21, and on Sunday evenings the whole street closes and the night market takes it.
Soi Romanee
133 metres between Thalang and Dibuk, and the one street here everybody photographs. Dou Brew is at number 15 and opens at 08:00, which is earlier than most of the town manages.
Krabi Road
The museum street. Thai Hua at 28, Chinpracha House at 98, and Campus Coffee at 6 if you need something before the first one opens.
Dibuk Road
Where people eat when they are not eating on Thalang. Raya at 48/1 for old Phuket cooking, Sea Massage at 11 for afterwards.
Phang Nga Road
Tu Kab Khao at number 8 is one of the busiest kitchens in town, and it shuts at 21:00. GRAPH at 121 does the coffee and closes at 17:30.
A day here
Start at the Thai Hua Museum at 10:00 and give it an hour. Walk Thalang Road, turn up Soi Romanee, and be sitting down for lunch by midday.
Afternoons are for Chinpracha House, which is the family mansion Thai Hua is not, and then whichever shrine you can still face walking to. Do it Tuesday to Saturday: Go Benz Rice Porridge and Kopitiam are both shut on Mondays.
Where to go next
- See
Two museums worth the ticket, and the streets that are free.
- Eat
Where to eat under ฿200, and the ten places everyone else is at.
- Coffee
Good, and almost none of it open when you want it.
- Massage
Forty-odd shops in a square kilometre, and almost none of them publish a price.
- Shrines
Working temples, not attractions. Three of them are double-listed on Google.
- Markets
Sunday evening on Thalang Road, and the morning market nobody sends you to.
Before you come
Is Phuket Old Town worth visiting?
Yes, and for longer than the half day most itineraries give it. It is a working town with museums, shrines, a food scene and a Sunday night market, not a preserved site you walk through once. If you came to Phuket for the sea and you have one afternoon left, stay on the beach.
What is Phuket Old Town famous for?
Two-storey shophouses built on tin-mining money between the 1890s and the 1930s, along Thalang, Dibuk, Krabi and Phang Nga roads. Also the Vegetarian Festival in the autumn, which centres on the shrines here.
How long should I spend in Phuket Old Town?
Half a day is the minimum: the streets, one museum and lunch. Come on a Sunday and stay for the evening, when Thalang Road closes to traffic at 16:00. If you like sitting in coffee shops and working through a food scene, the place absorbs a week without much effort.
How do I get to Phuket Old Town from Patong?
About 35 minutes by car over the hill. The free car park at the Thai Hua Museum is the easiest place to leave one, and it saves you the worst part of an Old Town morning.
Which month should I not visit Phuket?
September. It averages 361 mm of rain against 24 mm in February. Old Town handles rain better than the beaches do, because the museums are indoors and the five-foot ways are covered, but the walking is miserable.
Who is behind this
This site covers one square kilometre and nothing else, which is why we can keep the opening hours right when the big guides cannot.
We ring places ourselves to check a price or an opening time, and we date it when we do. Where we have not checked something, we leave it out rather than guess.