Mai Khao Beach ⛱️

Sala Phuket Resort

Sala Phuket Resort and Spa is one of our all-time favourite hideaways in Phuket. This hotel is a resort dedicated to couples, with a private pool in each villa for total privacy. Such a feature doesn’t come cheap but still is affordable. Read more

Range: 5-star
Swimming pools: 1 (plus 1 in each villa)
Restaurants and bars: 2
Distance to the beach: on the beach!

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Renaissance Phuket

Renaissance Phuket is a great luxury resort if you want to enjoy the relaxing side of a tropical island and still have the option to drive to discover the restless nights of Patong Beach. With so many restaurants and outlets, you can choose to chill in the resort or use it as a base to explore the north of Phuket. Read more

Range: 5-star
Swimming pools: 2
Restaurants and bars: 2
Distance to the beach: on the beach!

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JW Marriott Phuket

JW Marriott Phuket is an immense resort with a more traditional layout. It has many excellent restaurants, vast conference rooms, and the best for families: it has a fantastic kids club!

Range: 5-star
Swimming pools: 3 pools (2,810 sqm)
Restaurants and bars: 10
Distance to the beach: on the beach!

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 The Beach

The immense and natural beach is obviously the main reason why travellers choose to visit or even stay here. The beach is an eleven-kilometre-long stripe of white sand with a clear warm blue ocean during the high season. The sand is a little more coarse than on the southern beaches, but it is still soft and beautiful. The beach has remained untouched, and there are no jet skis, parasailing, beach chairs or vendors.

Plane Spotting

Then our favourite spot is to watch the planes landing at the very end of the runway of Phuket International Airport. It’s a bit of a walk in the sun, but it is awe-inspiring and loud. They get close to the beach, as you can see in the photos, and watching these monsters casting their massive shadow on the turquoise water is just amazing.

Baan Ar Jor House Museum

Baan Ar Jor is a hotel, a restaurant and a museum with a long history that started in 1936. This house has always been one of Phuket’s most mysterious old mansions, standing lonely near Mai Khao Beach in the north of Phuket.

Splash Jungle Waterpark

Splash Jungle Water Park is a popular theme park on Mai Khao Beach, just next to Phuket International Airport. It’s not huge and a bit pricey, but it’s a great way to spend the day with the kids and the family, having fun, eating or even drinking in the water of the pool bar.

Wat Mai Khao

Wat Mai Khao Temple is lesser known but worth a photo. The temple itself is tucked away from the road. It doesn’t have any particular architectural interest, but it hides a little treasure: a small bird sanctuary hidden in the park behind it. Surrounded by a protective wall, a small lake with trees growing in the water is the shelter for many white birds, probably cattle egrets. You can drive through the land and around the lake, but it is a nice gesture to stop and make a small donation. 

Nai Yang Beach

Just south of Maikhao is the calm and relaxing Nai Yang Beach, a vast sandy crescent with shallow water. Since Mai Khao doesn’t have any facilities on the beach, Nai Yang is just a short drive away, and the many restaurants on the beach are perfect for slowly enjoying cocktails and a Thai dinner with a sunset.

Toh Daeng Restaurant

Toh Daeng (which means Red Table) is a beautifully decorated Thai restaurant at Baan Ar Jor House Museum on Mai Khao Beach. The place intelligently combines two rooms in one, allowing families and friends to sit together at very long tables. You can admire how they purposely kept part of the separation brick wall. The result was a bright and welcoming room that kept an antique and charming atmosphere. You can enjoy real Phuket cuisine prepared with family recipes, drinks and cakes. Toh Daeng is listed in the Michelin Guide for Phuket.

Kin Dee

Kin Dee is a long-established Thai restaurant hidden in the quiet northern part of Phuket, not far from Mai Khao Beach. It’s been around for more than 20 years, run by a local chef who uses ingredients from nearby farms and her own garden. The restaurant is quite charming, surrounded by trees and wooden walkways, with an open-air dining area that feels very local. The food is authentic, rich in southern flavours, and beautifully presented without being fancy. It’s the kind of place we always recommend if you want real Thai food away from the tourist crowds.

Natural Restaurant Airport

Natural Restaurant Airport is an excellent place serving excellent local Thai cuisine in a good atmosphere. As the name indicates, the restaurant is located just before reaching Phuket International Airport (2.4km to be precise), making it a perfect place for lunch, dinner or any meal at any time of the day if you have to be around there for any reason.

Turtle Village Shopping

The small shopping village of Turtle Village in Mai Khao Beach started modestly more than a decade ago but grew and gained recently in popularity as the area became more in demand with travellers wanting to escape the busy beaches of the south. The place is vast and spacious and is a mix of international brands and local vendors setting up their stalls in open spaces and by the street sides.