Patong well before booking a room here. Patong itself is a classically beautiful Andaman beach, with soft coral sands and clear, warm waters – the very thing that virtually every visitor has come for.

The nightlife in Patong, often bawdy, is famous, or infamous, depending on your view. Open-air beer bars line most side streets, tended by hostesses who attract the male set. But there are also all manner of bars, a-go-go places, discos and cabaret shows. The ‘kratoeys’, transvestites, who prance and dance in the middle of the main bar street, Soi Bangla, are perhaps the single most famous night-time attraction. Tourists of all ages and nationalities stop to watch, click photos with them and enjoy the outrageous costumes and antics right on the sidewalks.

If Patong appeals, you will find a huge choice of hotels and bungalows spanning all budgets here. A main road runs along most of the beach, and right across from this is a long line of hotels facing the ocean, most of 3 or 4 star standard. Moving away from the beach the hotels get cheaper, and there are scores of smaller guesthouses back here. Some are several hundred metres back from the beach, so check our map for locations.