Enjoying Your Holidays to Phuket

Phuket is Thailand's largest island and is home to many beautiful beaches, set against the background of verdant coconut palms and sparkling lagoons. Every bay is unique, every creek has its own charm, and the sunsets are invariably spectacular. Visit shimmering temples and colonial mansions, indulge in Phuket's many activities including golf and scuba diving or enjoy an excursion to the many surrounding islands during your holidays to Phuket.

Highlights of holidays to Phuket include a speedboat tour of Phang Nga Bay, which deserves its reputation as one of the loveliest in the world. This dramatic collection of limestone outcrops, rising sheer from the emerald sea, will be familiar to fans of The Man With The Golden Gun and The Beach.

During holidays to Phuket, for the keen golfer, four wonderfully scenic golf courses are available - Phuket Country Club, first and still one of the finest of the island's courses, the Blue Canyon Club (former home of the Johnny Walker Classic), Laguna Phuket Golf Club beside Bangtao Bay and Mission Hills Golf Club.

In Holidays to Phuket you will discover the "Pearl of Thailand", regularly voted one of the worlds top holiday destinations, lies just off the southwest coast, surrounded by the warm waters of the Andaman Sea. Phuket (pronounced poo-KET) is the country's largest island, some 50 km (30 miles) in length and 16 km (10 miles) across, and home to almost 200,000 people. At its northern tip, a road bridge carries traffic across the narrow strait that separates it from the mainland.

Some of the famous white-sand beaches are on the west coast, happily facing the often dramatic sunsets. Phuket offer water sports are the main attraction: all the main resorts offer sailing, wind-surfing, water-skiing and snorkelling, and you can learn to scuba-dive with experienced instructors. For variation in holidays to Phuket there is golf or tennis, a tour of the hilly interior of the island or a boat trip among the spectacular isles of Phang Nga Bay. In Phuket tropical showers can last for an hour or two, rarely interrupting the fun for long-when it's this warm, getting wet hardly matters. And the climate keeps the landscape lush and green, a backdrop for huge, vivid butterflies that flit among the flowers.

While on Holidays to Phuket you will find that the rapid growth of tourism has brought a rash of development at the main resorts, especially Patong. But tranquil spots are not hard to find, and a variety of boats can take you to Phuket's own offshore islets where you may be completely alone. By contrast, bustling night markets are a Southeast Asian tradition. The cool of the evening is a time for strolling and shopping, and when you're ready to dine, you'll be spoiled for choice.