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• Beaches
  • Patong- the active heart
  • Karon - 4 kms beach
  • Kata - beach in a bay
  • Naiharn Beach
  • Bang Tao Beach
  • Kamala Beach
  • Nai Yang Beach
  • Rawai & Chalong
  • Cape Panwa -the Southeast
  • The Far Northern Beaches
  • Layan Beach
  • East Coast- Few Beaches Here

A Private Corner of the Island

Cape Panwa is the long peninsula that juts down the Southeastern corner of Phuket island. It s far from the major tourist beaches, offering an entirely different atmosphere. A very serene one.

This long, snaking corner of the island is quiet, picturesque and not very touristy. The reason for this is obvious - there are few beaches here. Phuket’s most famous beaches are all down the West coast facing the open Andaman Sea, and the monsoon season wave action that creates sand, plus restores and reshapes the beaches each year. This Panwa corner is more protected, and few beaches have formed here. But there are a couple of small stretches of sand that are especially pretty, and almost private. These have been occupied by two up-market resorts, the Cape Panwa Hotel and the newly opened, luxurious Panwaburi Resort.

The lack of long, tropical beaches along this peninsula should not turn everyone back to the West coast, for Panwa offers an entirely different atmosphere that many visitors simply love. The drive from Phuket Town down this peninsula says a lot, for the road, with little traffic, winds around hills and through coconut and rubber plantations. Through the coconut gardens views of the ocean flash past, the slender, long trunks slicing the blue of the ocean into vertical slits.

Designed with Balinese-Thai rooflines and mood, The Panwaburi Resort is particular attractive. Its individual bungalow rooms cascade down a hillside landscaped in lush tropical foliage to a private beach. Relatively small and private, it offers up-market luxury at Phuket prices, and is the kind of tropical resort most people dream of, and the well-planned kind that promise Phuket a good future.

Most every room of the two hotels on Cape Panwa gives panoramic views of an ocean that, on a clear day, thrusts back a vivid blue backdrop broken by the humpback outlines of distant islands. On an exceptionally clear day the more rugged forms of the Phi Phi islands are visible.

This whole corner of the island is far away from most of the tourist action. It will take about 45 minutes to drive to Patong, Kata or Karon, for their abundant restaurants and nightlife, so this area is hardly suitable for someone travelling alone. But if you are with a loved one and want a quiet and beautiful get-away, this green corner of the island might be ideal.

After a few days of tranquillity, most visitors to Phuket who find quiet, out of the way resorts like this latter one, generally start looking for more excitement and local sights. If staying at Panwa we strongly recommend renting one’s own vehicle and driving. For hints on this see our pages on Driving Tours of Phuket. And take note of the warning about insurance.

As we develop this site we will provide more information on this area, a map, plus photos of the hotels, with links.
 

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