Karon Beach
Karon is one of the longest beaches in Phuket with a beautiful expanse of uninterrupted white sand. It’s generally free of the jet skis, hawkers, and crowds of Patong Beach. There’s a bit of surfing on the Southern end of the beach and you can find a few surf boards to rent. Recently, it’s also gained some popularity with the kite surfing crowd.
Some of the hoteliers in the area will tell you that the sand is so clean that it sings as you walk on it. What they really mean by that is that the high surf in the area over monsoon season has worn the sand so finely that it has a strange texture that squeals a bit when you walk on it. Personally, the feeling of the sand shifting in quick jumps is a bit unnerving, like the feeling of corduroy, but it doesn’t seem to bother most.
There are a nice variety of shops on the beach. Toward the southern part of the beach you have local favorites (I kid) like “Dino Park”, a plethora of tailors, and some surprisingly good and reasonably priced Scandinavian restaurants.
The middle section of the beach is pretty barren for the casual visitor, with, as you move North along the beach, a large stadium, Thavorn Palm Beach Resort, and the Hilton Phuket Arcadia.
Just before you come to the Northern most section of the beach you come to the Moevenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket, which is famous for having the longest unpunctuated resort name in Phuket. It has an enjoyable restaurant complex along the beachfront with live entertainment most evenings and a good view of the sunset. Just after it, there is also the Buffalo Steakhouse, a nice Mexican restaurant, and a few other mid-range dining establishments.
At the main traffic circle at the Northern end of the beach you can turn inland to another shopping area. In case you somehow came away from your walk down the beach without a suit, there are more tailors here along with a few less enjoyable restaurants. There’s a bit of a bar scene here as well, but with Patong just right over the mountain, there’s not much point.