What To Do In Thailand: 3 Days In Phuket

I’m back!! I had every intention to prepare and schedule posts for this last month but obviously that didn’t work out! For those of you who didn’t read my post on How To Plan An Epic Trip To Southeast Asia, I was traveling through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam with a friend. The last two weeks, I’ve been helping my parents move. Coming “home” to a completely new place in a different state was a little jarring to say the least. Now that there’s less going on, I wanted to share more from my trip. First up is Phuket, Thailand.

Patong

After a long travel day, we landed in Phuket Airport around 11pm and made our way to Patong Beach to our hotel where we begin to notice a theme throughout our trip, paying more than we expected for taxis and tuk tuks. It was pretty dead around our hotel at 12-1am so we stocked up on junk food and called it dinner. After falling asleep around 3am, we woke up mid-morning and ventured out for brunch. Less than 24 hours into our trip, we were already enjoying some of the best Pad Thai our whole trip at No.6.

We walked around some more and quickly realized Patong wasn’t for travelers like us who didn’t come for the partying. The bars looked extra sad during the daytime since it was low tourist season and not many were around. However, we did want to go to the Big Buddha and Wat Chalong as well as some of the other beaches. While we were walking around, we found a taxi that would take us up a few hills to Big Buddha for a good price so we hopped in although we weren’t really equipped with water and appropriate clothing.

The view from Big Buddha was amazing!

Beach Day

The next day was a beach day. We took a 15 minute taxi to Karon Beach after breakfast and walked 20 minutes to Kata. It was so nice to relax on the sand and get in the super blue water. We loved Kata! For lunch, we walked what seemed like forever in direct sunlight in slippery sandals up a hill towards Karon. At the time we had no idea what the reviews were but now I realize that it has great reviews on Trip Advisor! It was definitely what we needed after a morning in the sun.

The beach day wasn’t over yet though. We spent the rest of the afternoon in Karon Beach until the rain got a little too intense. It was so fun and I loved being in the ocean while it was raining but it quickly turned into crazy waves and a heavy downpour. I was a *little* stubborn and wanted to haggle as much as possible for our taxi back. We quickly found that it was going to be more than we were originally willing to pay, especially due to the rain. After taking some shelter on the side of the road, we decided we were already wet and in swimsuits so we started walking. Eventually, we found a tuk tuk and got back to the hotel.

Phuket Town

After our two days in Patong, we took a taxi to Phuket Town. Our hotel was really cute and great place to stay even though we were there for a night. After lunch, we were able to check in and headed out to explore. Some of the streets reminded me of NOLA because of the brightly colored Sino-Portuguese buildings. We made our way up the hill to the Khao Rang Hill View Point and recovered at the overlook.

Of course, we got a liiitle lost on the way back but we got to see more of the Phuket that Thai people live in rather than the tourist parts. After recouping with AC at the hotel, we ventured out again for our first night market! The Weekend Market (Naka Market) was a great first night market with the crowded stalls under a giant tent. My friend had a greasy seafood pancake but the rest of our finds were safe choices although delicious.

Phuket > Phi Phi > Krabi

Our final day in Phuket consisted of waiting, ferries, and sun burns. We headed to Rassada Pier and after a 20 minute delay we headed to Phi Phi. Unfortunately, this is where I learned that I do in fact burn. I stayed on the top deck the entire 3 hours and gravely misjudged the amount of sunscreen I needed. Due to the anti-malarial medicine that makes your skin more sensitive and the direct sunlight, I got my very first sunburn… on my face.

Fortunately, Phi Phi was beautiful and we wished we could stay there longer! The view of the islands around Koh Phi Phi and the blue waters were incredible while we ate lunch. After an hour, we lined up at the dock but had to wait another hour before the ferry to Krabi appeared. After another 3 hour boat ride, we arrived in Krabi!

The next leg of our trip in Krabi will be fully recapped in the next post so stay tuned! If you’re interested in more from me, follow me on Instagram – I’ve been posting pictures from my trip almost every day.

Have you ever been to Phuket? Would you ever want to visit?