Shrines and temples in Phuket Old Town
The shrines are what the district is famous for and the least documented thing in it. Most publish no opening hours, most have barely been reviewed at all, and Google lists more of them than exist.
That is not a complaint about the shrines. They are working places of worship that never asked to be indexed, and the quiet ones are quiet because nobody goes.
The four with real visitor numbers
- Wat Mongkolnimit Phra Aram Luang (Wat Klang)4.6 from 1,025 reviews
The Buddhist temple, and the busiest place of worship in the district by a distance. Opens at 05:00 every day, which makes it the one thing in Old Town reliably open before the coffee shops.
Mon 05:00–19:00 · Tue 05:00–19:00 · Wed 05:00–19:00 · Thu 05:00–19:00 · Fri 05:00–19:00 · Sat 05:00–19:00 · Sun 05:00–22:45 · 296 m from Thalang Road
- San Chao Jui Tui4.8 from 712 reviews
The best known of the Chinese shrines and the centre of the Vegetarian Festival. Far enough out to be in ordinary Phuket Town rather than the heritage streets, and nobody publishes reliable hours for it: Google has none, and the domain it lists as the shrine’s own website redirects to a hotel’s marketing page.
Hours not published · 889 m from Thalang Road
- San Chao Saengtham4.3 from 269 reviews
On Phang Nga Road, and one of only two shrines here publishing both a telephone number and daily hours.
08:00–17:00 daily · 387 m from Thalang Road
- Kuan Yin Temple4.8 from 174 reviews
On Ranong Road, and the best-rated shrine in the district that anyone much visits. No published hours.
Hours not published · 828 m from Thalang Road
The ones on Thalang Road
Three listings sit on the heritage strip itself, a couple of minutes from everything else on this site. Two of them are the same shrine, so what you can actually walk into is these two doors, and both publish hours.
Shui Wei Sheng Niang is the only place in this cluster that closes on any day of the week.
- San Chao Hainan4.4 from 25 reviews
40 Thalang Road, and the closest shrine to everything else on this site. Open 10:00 to 17:00 daily.
10:00–17:00 daily · 103 m from Thalang Road
- San Chao Shui Wei Sheng Niang4.4 from 9 reviews
24 Thalang Road, 10:00 to 16:00, and shut on Fridays.
10:00–16:00, closed Fri · 150 m from Thalang Road
Further out, San Chao Mae Yanang publishes 08:30 to 18:00 daily. Eighteen people have ever reviewed it, so expect to be the only visitor.
Do not count shrines off Google
At least three of the listings here are the same place twice, or something else entirely. We checked by coordinates.
- Shui Wei Sheng Niang has two entries 10 m apart, at 24 and 26 Thalang Road, one of them all but empty. One shrine, two listings.
- Jui Tui appears twice, 28 m apart: the shrine itself, and its own foundation listed as if it were a second place to visit.
- An entry called "Old phuket Town museum" is filed under place of worshipand sits 8 m from the Thai Hua Museum's front door. It is not a shrine and it is probably not a separate building.
A third Hainanese shrine, San Chao Hainan, sits 48 m from the pair at number 24. On a street of shophouses that is a few doors along, so it may be a separate building or a third listing of the same one. We have not been able to settle it from the desk.
The Vegetarian Festival is not on this site yet
These shrines are the centre of it, and it is the one thing about Old Town that a wrong detail really costs you.
The dates and procession times circulating on hotel blogs disagree with each other, with the shrines' own published schedule, and in one case with a Thai-language municipal source by a full day. A reader acting on the wrong one stands on the wrong road at 06:00.
We have the sources narrowed and the current year's schedule is not published yet. Nothing goes up here until it is.