Phuket for a long weekend: Start in Old Town, not Patong

Phuket has a beach reputation it never asked for. Its lunch deserves one.

Why go now

Phuket is worth a long weekend if you'd rather eat than bar-crawl: stay away from Patong, give Phuket Old Town a full day, and finish at the seafood market in Rawai. The compromise is logistics. The good cooking is split between the old town and the island's southern tip, much of it is cash only, and parking in Old Town is tight, so plan on Grab and a wallet of baht.

Mention Phuket in Singapore and people picture Patong's beach strip and a sunburnt bar crawl down Bangla Road. Eat your way round instead and you get a different island: the shophouse lanes of Old Town, southern Thai curries that don't hold back, and seafood grilled by the kilo at the southern tip. The 2026 MICHELIN Guide Thailand adds a twist: Old Town favourite Raya lost the Bib Gourmand it held from 2019 to 2024. We'd still book it.

How to get there

Singapore Airlines and Scoot fly non-stop, in roughly two hours; check the airlines for the current timetable.

Where to stay

Pick your base by what you want to do between meals. For a splurge, Trisara in Choeng Thale is home to PRU, Phuket's only Michelin-starred restaurant, which saves you a taxi on the big night. For a beach quieter than Patong, the Boathouse Hotel on Kata Beach has a long-running restaurant with a sommelier to match. For a wellness weekend, Amatara at Cape Panwa has a Thai hammam and pool villas. Compare prices directly.

What to eat

Spend at least one day in Old Town. Go Benz Rice Porridge on Krabi Road holds a Bib Gourmand for its joke haeng, a dry rice soup with crispy pork; it opens in the evening, is cash only and closes on Buddhist holy days. Tu Kab Khao on Phang Nga Road serves southern Thai food in a Chino-Portuguese building; the sour gaeng som pla is the dish to order. At Raya, order the crab curry, and book ahead for weekend lunch or go outside the lunch rush. One Chun is the place for Phuket dishes such as stink beans stir-fried with shrimp.

For seafood, head south to Rawai Seafood Market, where you choose your catch and pay a stall to cook it; compare stall prices before you commit. For a big night, PRU at Trisara runs a farm-to-table tasting menu that also holds a Michelin Green Star.

A few more worth knowing. Laem Hin Seafood, on the Koh Kaew side of Phuket Town, is the one for hoy tod, a crisp mussel pancake. Kan Eang@Pier in Chalong does grilled barramundi with views over the bay. And Tambu, a progressive Indian tasting menu in Patong, is the one exception to our Patong rule; book well ahead.

What to do

Time an Old Town visit for the weekend markets: the Naka Weekend Market on Saturdays and Sundays, and Lard Yai on Thalang Road on Sundays (check both before you go). Walk the shophouse streets in the morning before the heat peaks, and leave the afternoons to the sea.

What to skip

Skip dinner on Patong's beach strip; if you're staying there, go up to Baan Rim Pa on the headland for a proper sit-down meal. Skip driving into Old Town at lunchtime: take a Grab and walk. And withdraw cash in Old Town before you head south to Rawai, because Go Benz and the hawker stalls don't take cards.

Good to know Raya, Go Benz and many Old Town stalls have their own hours and holy-day closures, and some are cash only. Check recent listings before you go, and confirm flights with Singapore Airlines or Scoot.