Phuket Bars
Phuket has a wide variety of bars to suit most tastes and budgets, from small huts on the beach to sophisticated hotel lounges, with a colourful mix of the weird and the wonderful in between.
Beer Bars
These are usually a small bar with a few stools. You can have a beer and play games or chat with the ladies working in the bar. Popular games include connect four, jenga, dice games and “hit the nail with the hammer”. If you like the girl and enjoy her company you can buy her a drink for which she earns some commission. Of course if you just want to nurse a cold one and people watch, that's fine too.
The vast majority of beer bars in Patong are located just off of Bangla Road within covered complexes such as Tiger, or down sois such as Soi Eric, Soi Gonzo, Soi Seadragon and Soi Crocodile. Just to the north of Bangla along Rat-U-Thit road is Sukhumvit Road, another covered beer bar complex.
Go-go Bars
Girls go-go bars dance on stage often wearing nothing more than a bikini, or even less depending on the bar and the local authorities. The girls may spend time with the customers when they are not on stage and, like beer bars, girls can have “lady drinks” bought for them and are available for take-out. Prices for drinks and barfines are higher than in beer bars.
Go-go bars are restricted to the Bangla road area of Patong. Popular go-gos include: Rock Hard A Go Go and Suzy Wong's A-Go-Go. A few smaller go-gos can also be found along Soi Seadragon.
Live Music
If you prefer live bands to DJ spun tunes try one of Patong's two Irish pubs, Molly Malone's and Scruffy Murphy's. Scruffy's is located on Bangla, while Molly's is next to McDonald's on the beach road.
Towards the northern end of Patong along the beach road in front of the Club Andaman hotel is Rock City, which has nightly performances of rock party hits, from hard rock anthems to ballads.
Another popular haunt in Patong is Tai Pan, opposite the entrance to Bangla on Rat-U-Thit Road. A darkly lit bar with lots of small tables, Tai Pan can get quite busy late in the evening with a mixture of tourists and bargirls who have finished work.
If you like jazz head over to Baan Rim Pa, a famous Thai restaurant overlooking Patong Bay at its northern end. You can sit right at the bar and enjoy a drink while watching the ocean waves rolling against the cliffs just below the restaurant.
Phuket City (Town) also has a few live music venues such as Timber Hut, Jammin' and Kor Tor Mor. See Phuket City nightlife for more info.
Pool & Sports Bars
Quite a few bars will show live sports matches from around the world. The English Premiership is particularly popular but other leagues and sports are also shown, including rugby, Aussie rules and formula one. Most bars showing sports events will advertise viewing times on blackboards out front.
If you are looking to play some pool, there are a couple of pool halls on Bangla road in Patong which have two or three floors of pool tables. Tiger also has a few tables upstairs in fairly good condition. Many bars such as the Aussie Bar and Club Rio have one or two pool tables. Games usually cost around 20 or 30 baht. In the smaller bars, if there are already people playing, you write your name on the board and wait your turn. Its “winner stays on” and the challenger pays for the game. The predominant game in Phuket is 8-ball.
