Phuket Old Town
The Sino-Portuguese heart of Phuket Town: arcaded shophouses, merchant mansions and coffee shops along Thalang, Dibuk and Krabi Roads.
Phuket Old Town
Phuket Old Town is the historic centre of Phuket Town, built on the wealth of the island's nineteenth-century tin boom. Chinese, Malay, Thai and Portuguese influences met here, and the result is the Sino-Portuguese architecture the quarter is known for: arcaded shophouses with shuttered upper floors, painted in ochre, pink and pale blue, and a handful of much larger merchant mansions behind them.
The core is walkable in an afternoon. Thalang Road is the busiest of the old streets, with narrow Soi Romanee running off it; Dibuk, Krabi and Phang Nga Roads hold more of the mansions and civic buildings. Many of the restored shophouses are now cafés, galleries, small museums and guesthouses, and street food is easy to find at any hour.
On Sunday evenings Thalang Road closes to traffic for the Lard Yai walking street market. The quarter sits inland from the island's main piers, which makes it a straightforward half-day either side of a ferry.
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