Things to do in Andaman Coast
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Babylon Beach Club
Accessible by dirt road are the seaside, polished, whitewashed environs of the Babylon Beach Club. Under new Italian management, lunch is more casual 'beach fare' such as burgers and salads while dinner gets more lavish with mains such as prawn and asparagus risotto.
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Scubafish
One of the best dive operations on the island is located at Baan Laanta Resort on Ao Kantiang; there's also a small second office at the Narima resort. Unlike some of the large and impersonal operators based in Ban Sala Dan, Scubafish runs personal and personable programs tailored to one's needs, including the Liquid Lense underwater photography program. The three-day dive packages (9975B) are quite popular.
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Baru
OK, imagine that (fashion) disaster has struck. More specifically, that the ‘bozos’ at the airlines have misplaced your bags. Which means that you have arrived on Phuket with only the clothes on your back – ie sweaty leather shoes, a ‘comfortable’ (read: unsexy) ankle-length skirt and a long-sleeve knit sweater (relax, we know, you were dressed for the plane). But now the sun is shining, the beach boys are beckoning and you need a shot of beach sexy (think skimpy bikinis, beach wraps and candy-coloured flip-flops), and fast. Welcome to your Eden.
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May & Mark
One of the first places in town to start serving Western food way back when, May & Mark still does it best thanks to recipes collected from helpful faràng (foreigners of European descent) over the years. Specialities range from excellent fresh bread to bangers and mash and cordon bleu meals.
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Sovrana Spa
At first blush it looks like just another local massage salon. Then you’ll notice the gallery is stocked with all-natural aromatic oils, soaps and creams, which seems like reason enough to indulge in a massage, facial or both.
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Adventure Club
Our favourite diving operation on the island runs an excellent assortment of educational, ecofocused diving, hiking and snorkelling tours. You won't mind getting up at 6am for the much-loved shark-watching snorkel trips on which you're guaranteed to cavort with at least one reef shark.
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Phuket Fantasea
This is a US$60 million 'cultural theme park' located just east of Hat Kamala. Despite the billing, there aren't any rides, but there is a show that takes the colour and pageantry of Thai dance and combines this with state-of-the-art light-and-sound techniques that rival anything found in Las Vegas (think 30 elephants). All of this takes place on a stage dominated by a full-scale replica of a Khmer temple. Kids especially will be captivated by the spectacle but it is over-the-top cheesy, and cameras are forbidden.
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Wicked Diving
An exceptionally well-run and environmentally conscious outfit that runs diving and snorkelling overnight trips offering a range of live-aboard options including Whale Sharks & Mantas, Turtle & Reefs and Sharks & Rays conservation trips, run in conjunction with Ecocean. It does all the PADI courses, too.
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Time for Lime
On Hat Khlong Dao, this place has a huge, professional kitchen with plenty of room to run amok. It offers cooking courses with a slightly more exciting selection of dishes than most cookery schools in Thailand; five-hour courses cost 1800B with substantial discounts if you take more than one class. Profits from the school help finance Lanta Animal Welfare.
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Krabi Thai Cookery School
About 10km from Ao Nang between Wat Sai Thai and Ao Nam Mao, this school offers one-day Thai-cooking courses from 1000B; transfers are included in the price.
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Drunken Sailors
This hip, ultra-relaxed, octagonal pad is smothered with beanbags. The coffee drinks are top-notch and go well with interesting bites like the chicken green curry sandwich.
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Viking Steakhouse
Offering a fine line in pizzas, pastas and Nordic meat feasts, this is a longstanding favourite. The cosy, open-fronted interior features all sorts of welcome trimmings.
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Blue View Divers
Focuses on community involvement and beach clean-ups (its latest effort cleared up 700 tonnes of rubbish) and is the only shop to offer dives from a long-tail.
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Ko Rang
By far the best diving in the region is in and around Ko Rang. Protected from fishing by its marine park status, this place has some of the most pristine coral in Thailand. Visibility is much better than Ko Chang and averages between 10m and 20m.
Ko Yak and Ko Laun are both shallow dives perfect for both beginners and advanced divers. These two small rocky islands can be circumnavigated and have loads of coral, schooling fish, rays, morays, barracuda, puffer fish and the occasional turtle.
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Hat Bang Ben
The most accessible beach in the park is Hat Bang Ben, where the park headquarters are. This long, sandy beach, backed by shady casuarinas, is said to be safe for swimming year-round. From Hat Bang Ben you can see several islands, including the nearby Ko Kam Yai, Ko Kam Noi, Mu Ko Yipun, Ko Khang Khao and, to the north, Ko Phayam. The park staff can arrange boat trips out to any of these islands. During low tide you can walk to an island just a couple of hundred metres from Hat Bang Ben.
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Phuket Scuba Club
This ecologically sensitive outfitter has a shop here and another on Karon. It can arrange day trips to Racha Yai and Racha Noi Shark Point et al, as well as live aboards to the Similan Islands, and it’s the only shop in the area to offer two beach dives from Hat Karon daily (11am and 3pm). The visibility isn’t as magical as more distant reefs, but there are interesting fish around, plus it’s close, so you’ll be able to slip underwater and be back with the family in no time.
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Laem Son National Park
The Leam Son National Park covers 315 sq km of land shared by Ranong and Phang-Nga Provinces, it also includes around 100km of Andaman Sea coastline –the longest protected shore in the country –as well as over 20 idyllic islets. Much of the coast here is covered with mangrove swamps, home to various species of birds, fish, deer and monkeys (including crab-eating macaques), often seen while you’re driving along the road to the park headquarters.
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China Inn
The organics movement meets Phuket cuisine at this turn-of-the-century shophouse. There's red curry with crab, a host of veggie options, homemade yoghurt and fruit smoothies with organic honey. There's also a gallery here with textiles, carvings and clothes from Myanmar and Laos.
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Amazing Bike Tours
Phuket’s best new adventure outfitter leads small groups on back-road bicycle tours through incredibly scenic countryside. In addition to its half-day rides through Thalang, which take in the Khao Phra Thaew National Park, it offers terrific day trips through Ko Yao Noi and the overlooked yet gorgeous beaches and waterfalls of Thai Muang in nearby Phang-Nga province.
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Shrine of the Serene Light
A handful of Chinese temples inject some added colour into the area but the Shrine of the Serene Light, tucked away at the end of a 50m alley near the Bangkok Bank of Commerce on Th Phang-Nga, is a cut above the rest. You'll see Taoist etchings on the walls, the vaulted ceiling stained from incense plumes, and the altar is always alive with fresh flowers and burning candles. The shrine is said to have been built by a local family in the mid-1880s.
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Savoey
On an island packed with weighed-to-order fish grills, this is one of the best. Its huge ice shelf is packed with lobsters, prawns, grouper, red snapper, sole, trevally and barracuda. It also has live lobsters. It has one menu and four dining rooms – two of them on the sand. The food is always great, and the prices are quite reasonable.
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Phi Phi Scuba
One of the largest operators on the island, churning out dive certifications by the boatload. There’s a sociable and professional atmosphere, although nervous newbies might feel as though they aren’t getting enough handholding.
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Dino Park
Jurassic Park meets minigolf at this bizarre park on the southern edge of Hat Karon. It’s a maze of caves, lagoons, leafy gardens, dinosaur statues and, of course, putting greens. Kids will dig it the most.
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Ao Nang Princess
You can do day tours to Ko Phi-Phi on the Ao Nang Princess. The boat leaves from the Hat Noppharat Thara National Park headquarters at 09:00 and visits Bamboo Island, Phi-Phi Don and Phi-Phi Leh.
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