When planning a Phuket holiday choose both your season and your beach very carefully. Each of the island's beaches is quite different in atmosphere and density of hotel development. Below we list all major beaches, starting with the most densely populated, moving through to beaches with little or no habitation. First choose your beach, then look for a suitable hotel.
Phuket is just 8 degrees from the equator, helping make the Andaman Sea especially calm compared to oceans in the colder climates where the spinning of the earth creates regular trade winds, and rough ocean conditions. The waters of the Andaman are warm all year around, averaging about 28 degrees Celsius even during the northern winter months when Phuket is at its best. This is the high' season - November to April - when the Northeast winds are light, often leaving the island's entire western shore as calm as a swimming pool, and as clear.
