we stayed at 2 differant areas on phuket , patong and karon beaches. unfortunetly they are both very busey places and after staying on the smaller islands for a month it was a shock. if you want to party and drink patong is for you. it was like being at brighton , the beaches full of deck chairs and shops everywhere. we hired a scooter and went for a ride which was real fun , nearly running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere with a broken phone, bum twickin time. ha! karon beach was slightly better but still to busy for us. the accom was very good and pretty cheap which helpped. the thing that got to me most was all the dirty old men with young thai girls , please stop it , it's not nice! sorry about that well off to oz next so see you there .