I Thought I Hated Phuket. Then the Tourists Went Home.

The first time I went to Phuket, I had more confidence than money.

Literally.

I was backpacking around Thailand in 2018, and at one point my bank account reached $0.00.

Not “I should probably stop ordering cocktails” broke.

Zero.

I was so embarrassed by how badly I had budgeted that I told my parents I had lost my wallet so they would send emergency money.

I do not recommend this financial strategy.

Years later, an unexpected immigration problem would give me a much sharper lesson in what travel feels like when there is very little financial cushion. I tell that story in my Poipet visa-run essay.

But back in 2018, Phuket was one stop on a fast trip around Thailand.

And I stayed in Patong.

Only Patong.

That was my first mistake.

I Thought Phuket Was Artificial, Overpriced, and Overrated

I did have fun.

I met backpackers. I went out. I spent money I clearly did not have.

Then I wrote an article basically telling other travelers that Phuket was not the dream vacation they thought it was.

The original version was very 23-year-old me.

I complained about:

• Patong's crowds
• tourist-facing prices
• the nightlife machine
• the feeling that everything around me had been arranged for foreign visitors
• the idea that there were “better islands” elsewhere in Thailand

I even felt sorry for a Russian couple who had flown all the way to Thailand and were spending their whole vacation in Phuket.

Nearly eight years later, that makes me laugh.

Not because I was completely wrong.

Because I knew far less than I thought I did.

I had spent a few days in one of the most aggressively tourist-oriented parts of a very large island and decided I understood Phuket. I understood Patong.

Phuket Is Not Patong

This sounds embarrassingly obvious now.

Phuket changes dramatically depending on where you are.

There are places built around foreign visitors and places where people are simply going to work, buying dinner, taking their children somewhere, shopping at markets, and living ordinary lives.

The tourists generally do not follow them there.

I started understanding that more clearly after living in southern Thailand while teaching, because Phuket became somewhere I could return to rather than a one-time vacation stop.

Going Back Through Phuket Town Changed the Island for Me

In September 2019, I returned to Phuket from Krabi by bus.

This time, I arrived in Phuket Town first.

Immediately, the island looked different.

I noticed:

• colorful Sino-Portuguese shophouses
• small markets
• craftspeople working by hand
• local businesses
• scooters and coffee shops
• streets that did not feel built entirely around moving a foreign visitor from a hotel to a beach to a bar

This was the Phuket I had missed the first time.

And then, because I clearly had not learned my lesson, I took a tuk-tuk back to Patong.

Part of me wanted to give it another chance.

Part of me probably wanted confirmation that I still did not like it.

The difference was that now I knew Patong was not the whole island.

Then the Tourists Went Home

I returned in 2020 and barely recognized Phuket.

International tourism had collapsed during COVID-19. Entry points closed, flights stopped, hotels shut, and several areas went quiet in a way I had never seen before.

By the time I came back:

• many hostels were closed
• the hostel I found had only three guests
• Kata Noi could be nearly empty on a weekday
• Patong's main streets looked more like they were waiting than performing
• Big Buddha had only a fraction of the usual visitors
• nearby Phi Phi felt completely different

Phuket suddenly had space.

That was when I started wondering whether I had ever really hated Phuket.

I Am Not Nostalgic for COVID

There is an uncomfortable part of this story.

I preferred Phuket without mass tourism.

Phuket needed the tourists back.

Both things are true.

I am not going to romanticize that period as some magical moment when residents “got Thailand back.”

The fact that I could walk onto an empty beach and think it was beautiful existed alongside someone else staring at an empty restaurant and wondering how long they could survive.

I preferred Phuket without the tourists. Phuket needed the tourists back.

And Then Phuket Came Back

Eventually, the roads filled again.

So did the beaches.

Restaurants reopened. Flights returned. Businesses had customers again.

And everything that had irritated me before came back too:

• traffic
• noise
• parking problems
• construction
• crowds
• visitor-facing prices
• nightlife

Tourism is not happening to the side of Phuket. It is one of the forces shaping Phuket.

Who I Think Phuket Is Actually Great For

I would send someone to Phuket without hesitation if they wanted:

• nightlife
• luxury resorts
• lots of restaurant choices
• strong tourism infrastructure
• organized excursions
• an international airport
• a destination where navigating in English is relatively easy
• an accessible first trip to Thailand or Asia

It can give you “same same, but different” without dropping you straight into the deep end.

That is not an insult.

For some travelers, that is exactly the trip they need.

Where I Would Stay in Phuket

I would choose the area based on the trip I actually wanted, not simply whichever Phuket hotel appeared first in search.

If you are visiting in December, I also wrote about what Christmas in Thailand actually feels like, including the difference between seeing Christmas everywhere and having the country treat December 25 like a holiday.

Getting to and Around Phuket

From Krabi to Phuket

I came back to Phuket from Krabi by bus in 2019.

If that is your route, compare the current schedule rather than assuming the times and prices I paid years ago still apply.

Getting around the island

Transportation was one of the things that annoyed me most as a first-time visitor.

Later, living nearby changed the equation because I had my own motorbike and knew where I was going.

For visitors who do not want to ride:

• Phuket Smart Bus connects the airport with major west-coast stops including Patong, Karon, Kata, and Rawai.
• The airport route currently uses a 100-baht flat fare.
• Contactless card payments are available on the Smart Bus.
• Taxis and app-based rides can be easier, but cost much more than public transport.

I would not rent a motorbike in Phuket just because everyone else does. Traffic, hills, rain, unfamiliar road behavior, and limited experience are a bad combination.

What I Would Actually Book in Phuket

One thing I understand better now is why tourists pay for organized experiences.

When you only have a few days, you are often paying for:

• transportation
• hotel pickup
• someone else handling timing
• boat logistics
• English-language support
• not spending half the day figuring out how to connect everything yourself

If the thing you really want is jungle, freshwater scenery, caves, and a break from the island-tourism machine, I would also look at Khao Sok National Park.

Where I Would Send You Instead

I still would not call Phuket my favorite island.

That is not the same as telling everyone to skip it.

People ask which Thai island is “the best” as though Thailand is holding a pageant.

Best for what?

Different island. Different answer.

I Do Not Think “Authentic” Is the Right Word

Travel writing loves the word authentic.

I have become suspicious of it.

Phuket is authentically Phuket. Patong is authentically Patong.

The tourism industry is not imaginary simply because it exists for tourists.

But there is a difference between seeing a place and seeing the part of a place optimized for visitors.

A famous beach can be beautiful and exhausting.

A destination can be incredible for five days and somewhere I would never want to live.

A place I dislike as a tourist can become far more interesting once I understand how people actually live there.

Those contradictions are usually more useful than another list of ten things to do.

Firsthand travel writing is not more valuable because the writer has the final answer. It is valuable because they can tell you what they saw, what surprised them, and what they misunderstood the first time.

I still prefer smaller, slower islands.

But I no longer confuse Patong with Phuket.

The Phuket I came to know after years of living nearby was not the one I thought I understood after a few days in Patong.