Patong Beach Travel Package Tours, Thailand Tour Information Hotel Guide

PATONG OVERVIEW

Patong Beach was once the most beautiful on Phuket, only reachable by boat and largely untouched. Today it's a seething mass of tourism, squalor and unrestricted development, a mess of hotels, bars, restaurants, travel agents, tailor shops and touts. The beach remains attractive, but is not a scratch on what it must have originally been like.
Although popular during the day, Patong really comes into its own in the evening, creating a truly ugly tapestry of the surreal, debauched and depraved. Bar upon bar upon bar lines the streets, urchins wander underfoot and streetwalkers wielding a menagerie of creatures, gibbons, parrots and pythons -- try to extort money from tourists.
Call us killjoys, but Patong is everything that tourism to Thailand should not have become. Nevertheless, thousands enjoy it. The accommodation listings here are just a sample -- there are more than 100 places to stay, many indistinguishable from the next.
The beachside strip of Patong was badly hit by the2004 Asian Tsunami, with the hotels on the beach side of Thaweewong Rd suffering the brunt. Repairs and reconstruction are moving along quickly, however.
The dark heart of Patong is Bangla Road, bisecting the beach road and running up as far as Rat U-Thit 200 Year Road where it pretty much gives up. This is where you'll want to spend all of your time, or as little as possible, depending on your leaning. The strip is really quite tame in the daylight -- the goblins only come out at night and before six in the evening you can drive on it , heading away from the beach but after that it's closed to vehicular traffic.
Thaweewong Road is packed ,this is where you'll find Starbucks, KFC, McDonalds, and no fewer than two Subway shops , just in case the last sandwich you ate wasn't quite filling enough and you're too embarrassed to walk into the same shop and order another. Tuk-tuk drivers on every corner aggressively offer rides to everyone who passes and numerous sois run off the road, lined with Thai shops full of overpriced goods, with hawkers and barkers every step of the way exhorting you to buy their goods.
The further you get away from Bangla Road, the more things simmer down. The soi off Hat Patong Road to the north, where you'll find the Boomerang and the Siam Palm, is particularly quiet, though not really easy walking distance from the beach. Kepsap Road and associated sois are also a bit tamer, but again, a bit of a walk. A good option is to visit Patong on day-trips, though after six in the evening there are no more songtheaws and a tuk-tuk back to your beach will cost as much as a cheap room unless you fill it with people.