Bang Tao Beach

Bang Tao runs along Phuket's north-western coast, six kilometres of golden sand between headlands, with the Laguna complex behind its central section.

The land was a tin mine. Phuket's economy was tin for a century, and by the 1970s the area behind this beach was worked-out pits and spoil, declared unusable; the rehabilitation from 1983 onward — refilling, replanting and relandscaping into lagoons that give the resort area its name — is one of the more substantial mining-to-tourism conversions anywhere, and the lagoons visitors swim beside are the old workings.

The beach itself is broad and open to the Andaman Sea, which means the monsoon governs it: from May to October the south-west monsoon brings swell, a shore break and rip currents, and the red flags on this coast account for most of Phuket's drownings. From November to April it is flat and easy. Phuket's tin was worked by Chinese labour from the nineteenth century, and Phuket Town's shophouse architecture is what that money built.

Development runs from large resorts in the centre to quieter ends north and south, with beach clubs that have grown substantially since the 2010s. Thai law makes beaches public and the sand is walkable end to end. Surin and Kamala to the south are smaller and quieter versions of the same coast, and Nai Yang to the north sits inside a national park.

Six kilometres of sand standing on a worked-out tin mine that was declared unusable and rehabilitated from 1983 — the resort lagoons are the old pits. November to April it is calm; from May the south-west monsoon brings the rips that account for most of Phuket's drownings, and the red flags are not advisory. Layan at the northern end is quieter and has a lagoon behind it, and the airport is twenty minutes away, which is closer than most of Phuket.