Around forty-five minutes south of the international airport, Phuket Old Town is the historic heart of the island, its storied soul where the rest can occasionally be a little superficial, or, at times, downright seedy.
A small grid of impossibly attractive streets that grew rich on tin mining in the late nineteenth century, the old town’s shophouses were built by Hokkien Chinese merchants who married into local Thai families, and their Peranakan descendants still run many of them today.
The buildings themselves are what most people come to photograph: rows of two-storey Sino-Portuguese shophouses in faded pastel, all arched windows, tiled five-foot ways and ornate stuccowork. Most are now cafes, fashion and jewellery boutiques, small museums and, most famously, restaurants.
Because what keeps people here longer than they planned is the food: roti slapped and fried fresh to order, fearsome curries with coils of fresh fermented noodles, laughably cute dim sum, old-school Hokkien kopitiams thick with patina, and a Sunday Walking Street that turns the old town’s main artery into a street feast every weekend.
Phuket Old Town sits on the opposite side of the island from the main beach resort strips of Patong, Karon and Kata, and sits in stark contrast to those places, too; the vibe here is regal and refined, the mood less showy. Most visitors spend a single afternoon here between beach days, but the ones who know the island better book a hotel and stay for longer.
Choosing the right accommodation for the old town, then, is a different exercise from booking in Patong or Cherngtalay. The brief here isn’t beach access, infinity pools or sundowner views; it’s walkability, heritage character, and how close you are to the food. We’ve stayed in all six of the hotels below, alongside many more that didn’t make the cut, whether that’s because the rooms were tired, the location was old town in name only, or something didn’t quite click in terms of perceived value.
Here, then, are the best hotels in Phuket Old Town. None of them are beach hotels, and none of them pretend to be. The nearest swimmable sand is half an hour away by car, but what they offer instead is something rarer in Phuket; a sense of place, walkable streets, and proximity to some of the best food on the island.
Hotel Verdigris Phuket Old Town
Ideal for design-conscious couples, food-obsessed travellers, and anyone who finds resort hotels a bit hermetic…
On Yaowarat Road and built in keeping with the heritage architecture around it, Hotel Verdigris is the debut hotel project of Pichakorn ‘Peach’ Phanichwong, a young Phuket-born Peranakan Hokkien who opened the place in 2022 as a tribute to the Peranakan culture that shaped the old town. The design takes inspiration from Martina Rozells, the Phuket-born Thai-Portuguese wife of Francis Light, using her story as a lens for the Chinese, Thai, Malay and European influences fused into Peranakan identity.
A tight, fourteen-room boutique affair, its interiors lean into the verdigris palette the hotel takes its name from – oxidised copper tones, brass details, a little old-world glamour. Jazz drifts down the corridors, and the staircases are photogenic enough that you’ll find yourself reaching for your phone on the way to breakfast.
Speaking of which, breakfast is the move that elevates the whole property to something truly remarkable. You choose your morning order from a curated menu at check-in, and the next day it’s collected fresh from the shophouse and served at your table; kanom jeen, dim sum, kaya toast, the whole local repertoire, many of them Michelin-recommended. Western options (eggs, toast, the usual) are available too, made fresh in-house, but they’re not why you’re here. You’re here for the island’s best hotel breakfast, one with a grounding sense of place, and arguably the single best reason to stay here.
Verdigris itself sits in an excellent spot for exploring on foot. The photogenic Soi Rommanee, the Sunday Walking Street Market on Thalang, the old town museums, and a clutch of the area’s best restaurants (Raya, Charm Dining Gallery, Royd, Blue Elephant) are all within a few minutes’ stroll. The hotel runs a free shuttle anywhere around the old town, which is a nice touch in the heat.
If those temperatures do get too much, there’s a small marble-lined swimming pool tucked into the courtyard, and a private rooftop plunge pool reserved for guests of the top-category Copper Junior Suite. Adults-only means a grown-up atmosphere whichever tier you’re in; no buffet queues, no kids’ clubs, no resort scrum.
Prices for the entry-level Brass Room start from around 6,000 baht (£140) per night in low season (May to October), rising to roughly 8,500–10,000 baht (£200–£235) at peak (December to February). Rates include breakfast.
You can read our full review of Hotel Verdigris here.
Address: 154 Yaowarat Rd, Tambon Talat Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket
Website: hotelverdigris.com
HOMA Phuket Town
Ideal for digital nomads, long-stay travellers, and families wanting space without resort prices…
HOMA sits about ten minutes by Grab to the north of the old town, set down a cul-de-sac in a residential pocket of Ratsada district. Rather than the beach, guests here treat the old town as their primary anchor and playground, and nothing in the central grid offers what HOMA does.
Which is, co-living rather than a standard hotel stay. The 505-unit complex is part hotel, part serviced apartment block, part small neighbourhood. Kitchenettes have hobs, big fridges and even freezers. The WiFi runs on three networks, there’s a co-working space and soundproofed call booths. A fitness centre offers round-the-clock classes, alongside a cinema, a kids’ playroom, and a pet-friendly policy. The headline facility is the 80-metre rooftop pool, reportedly the longest in Phuket, with a 50-metre Olympic lap section. And the residents actually use the common spaces.
You can book a night, a week or a month, with rates that flex accordingly. The HOMA app handles everything from housekeeping requests to community noticeboards, where, on a recent visit, a missing pet bearded dragon was being collectively hunted by the residents.
For the price, it’s superb value, particularly for anyone who’d otherwise feel claustrophobic in a standard hotel room for weeks at a time. The trade-off is the location. The nearest swimmable beach is Patong, around half an hour by car, and the immediate surroundings (motorbike rental, local eateries, Chillva Market, Central Festival mall) are functional rather than pretty. But if you’re choosing between this and a generic city hotel, HOMA wins on every count that matters; on facilities, on flexibility, and on the simple fact that you can cook a meal, do a load of washing, take a video call without booking a meeting room, and feel like you actually live somewhere that looks after you for the duration of your stay.
Prices start from around 1,500 baht (£35) per night for short stays in low season, with high-season rates climbing to roughly 3,000–3,500 baht (£70–£80). Significantly reduced monthly rates are available.
You can read our full review of HOMA Phuket Town here.
Address: 3, 41 Soi Samkong 1, Ratsada, Amphoe Meuang, Phuket
Website: homa.co
Royal Phuket City
Ideal for business travellers, conference delegates, and families wanting facilities and a central base…
The Royal Phuket City is the established four-star option in the area; nineteen storeys of glass and concrete on Phangnga Road, set slightly back from the heritage core but still within easy walking distance of central Thalang and Soi Rommanee. The Atrium lobby – vast, high-ceilinged, with a pianist tickling the ivories and a singer doing a polite turn into the evening – calls to mind the grand old hotels of Bangkok, and you won’t find many like it elsewhere in the old town.
With 251 rooms and nine event spaces (including a 1,637 square metre Grand Ballroom), it does a brisk trade in business meetings, weddings and conference groups, and it shows in the lobby. There’s a steady churn of suited delegates picking up keycards, and strangers and stragglers of all stripes clinking ice in heavy-bottomed tumblers, passing some time until dinner.
That anonymity is part of the appeal. After a long day eating and drinking the old town, slipping back here quietly, into a plush, well-appointed room for a good night’s sleep is sometimes all you actually need. Opulence beyond that feels beside the point when you’re so close to the action. The rooms themselves are dated in the way that mid-2010s South East Asian four-stars tend to be; comfortable and spacious rather than design-magazine-worthy, but at the price point, that’s a fair trade.
What distinguishes Royal Phuket City in this list is its facilities-to-price ratio. There’s an outdoor pool with separate adult and children’s areas, an enormous fitness centre run by Workout Club, the Royal Wellness Spa, three on-site restaurants (the very capable Yan Long for Cantonese-leaning Chinese, the rooftop TWIST Restaurant & Bar – great views – and the all-day 154 Bakery), and indoor parking for 350 cars, with EV charging available. A free hotel EV shuttle bus stops right outside, which makes getting around the wider city straightforward.
It won’t suit anyone looking for boutique character, but the Royal Phuket City will suit those who want a full-service hotel, the full facilities stack, and a location that lets you walk into the heritage quarter for dinner. The buffet breakfast on the nineteenth floor, with its sea-and-city panorama, is a highlight of staying here.
Prices for the entry-level Premier Superior start from around 2,550 baht (£57) per night in low season, rising to roughly 4,700 baht (£105) at peak.
Address: 154 Phangnga Rd, Tambon Talat Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket
Website: royalphuketcity.com
Courtyard by Marriott Phuket Town
Ideal for Bonvoy loyalists, business stays, and travellers who want a familiar standard close to the action…
Sitting on Soi Surin directly opposite the totemic (if your totem is rendered in bright mustard) Surin Circle Clock Tower, the Courtyard is a contemporary 248-room hotel built on the bones of the old Metropole. For a generation, this was the grand dame of Phuket Old Town’s hotel scene. It reopened under the Marriott banner in 2021, with the architectural shell kept intact but the old-world formality swapped for something calmer: soaring ceilings and white columns are still there, the galleried upper floor still overlooks the lobby, but the chandeliers have given way to drum-shade pendants and the palette has been pulled back to muted greys and pale marble. Heritage shell, contemporary interior.
Inside the rooms it’s pure international Courtyard, though; sleek work desk, ergonomic chair, plush bedding, flat-screen, free, fast WiFi, and the dependable consistency that’s the whole point of staying with a chain of this specific standing.
There are four dining outlets across the property. Krua Talad Yai on the third floor is the all-day restaurant, a marketplace-style room with open kitchens serving Southern Thai and international dishes, though convenience really is the main reason to eat here when there’s so much amazing Thai food just outside the hotel’s door. The buffet breakfast (THB 499, around £11, per person if not already included in your rate) is a sprawling spread.
Talung Lounge on the lobby level does coffee and pastries by day, cocktails and Clock Tower views by night. Kolae Pool Bar on the fourth floor handles poolside drinks and light bites with a view across Phuket Town. The most interesting of the four is Yue, a Cantonese restaurant on the second floor that opened in 2023 under chef Kenny Chang; the dim sum buffet (THB 555 per person, all you can eat) made the Top 25 Restaurants in Phuket list in 2024 and is a draw for locals as well as guests.
There’s also a 24-hour fitness centre with a Thai boxing area, an outdoor pool with a children’s section, a kids’ club, free on-site parking, and a 660-square-metre pillarless Grand Ballroom that does brisk trade in weddings and conference groups. The Sunday Walking Street Market on Thalang is a ten-minute walk away, which means you’re close enough to wander out for dinner but far enough that the market’s noise and impenetrable foot traffic don’t reach you.
The trade-off is character. The Courtyard could sit comfortably in any major Southeast Asian city, and aside from the lobby it doesn’t pretend otherwise; what you get is a competent international four-star. For Bonvoy-points collectors, business travellers, or anyone wanting a known quantity in a part of Thailand where the boutique scene can be hit and miss, that’s exactly the appeal. Service is consistently strong, and the position on the southern edge of the heritage grid is genuinely useful: walkable into old town one way, and a clean run south out of the city the other, without having to negotiate the tight one-way streets that can make old town traffic a slow-moving puzzle.
Hey, and why not check out our review of the Courtyard by Marriott’s outpost over in Patong while you’re here?
Prices for an entry-level Deluxe start from around 3,050 baht (£68) per night in low season, rising to roughly 4,850 baht (£108) at peak.
Address: 1 Soi Surin, Talad Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket
Website: marriott.com
Casa Blanca Boutique Hotel Phuket
Ideal for solo travellers, couples on a budget, and old town first-timers…
Of all six hotels here, the exterior of Casa Blanca looks most like the picture-perfect old town you came to see. A whitewashed Sino-Portuguese building in the heart of the heritage quarter, it has a small rooftop pool, an indoor garden cafe under a vaulted skylight, and a chandelier-hung lobby that does cool refuge from the midday heat better than almost anywhere in town. The owners have clearly resisted the temptation to over-restore; the building’s quirks (a tiny lift used mostly for luggage, some street noise from the bar opposite, a steep spiral staircase up to the rooftop pool) are still present, but so is the soul.
Three room types are on offer: the 25-square-metre Superior for couples, the 35-square-metre Deluxe with city or courtyard views (and an extra bed option for three), and the 50-square-metre Family Suite, which has a master bedroom with a king bed, a junior bedroom with twin beds, a small living room and a microwave, working well for small groups or families with older children.
There’s no in-house restaurant, no spa, and breakfast is served à la carte rather than buffet, but the staff are wonderful, the best thing about the place. They’ll happily organise tours, transfers, motorbike rental and onward travel to the Phi Phi islands or the wider Andaman coast, and they’ll throw in a few ‘hidden gem’ restaurant recommendations if you ask nicely.
What makes Casa Blanca worth choosing over the generic mid-range options elsewhere in Phuket Old Town is the location. Sure, rooms could do with a lick of paint and there are slight soundproofing issues, but you’re right in the mix of the old town rather than on its edge, with the night markets, the best of the food, and the prettiest streets all within a five-minute walk. That counts for a lot.
Prices start from around 2,000 baht (£44) per night in low season for a Deluxe King with pool view, rising to roughly 2,800 baht (£63) at peak.
Address: 26 Phuket Road, Talad Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket
Website: casablancaphuket.com
The Memory at On On Hotel
Ideal for history buffs, film fans and heritage hunters…
The Memory at On On is the oldest hotel on Phuket. Built in 1927 by a Hokkien tin merchant named Yoktiew Saepae, designed under the supervision of a Penang architect, and originally called Un Un, it has been in continuous operation for nearly a century and now occupies a focal position on Phangnga Road. Visitors of a certain vintage might recognise it from the opening scenes of Danny Boyle’s The Beach (2000), when it was still a backpacker dive with 180-baht fan rooms.
The 2012 restoration brought it firmly into boutique territory while leaving the architectural character intact: exposed brick walls, handcrafted shutters, the original wooden staircases, and a central courtyard (a chim chaeh, in Hokkien) that opens to the sky to flood the ground floor with natural light. Rooms are spread across four categories (Superior, Deluxe, Junior Suite and the Memory Suite) and individually themed around the trades and crafts of nineteenth-century Phuket; the Sewing Room, the Carpenter Room, the Photographer Room, the Travellers Room, and the Red Peony, which leans into Peranakan red and gold for a maximalist take on romance.
Facilities are deliberately sparse, an acknowledgement of the constraints of being so central. But what you do get is a 24-hour reception, a tour desk, complimentary drinks and snacks in the lobby, and a level of period detail that no new build could replicate. Kanta Phuket, the independent Modern Peranakan restaurant that occupies a side unit of the same building, is a thoughtful place to eat without leaving the property – its menu reworking Hokkien-Malay family recipes with a more contemporary touch – and you’re a two-minute walk from some of the old town’s best food on Soi Rommanee and Thalang.
Come for the history, stay for the courtyard, and book the Junior Suite they’ve themed as ‘The Beach’ if you want to wake up in DiCaprio’s old room.
Prices start from around 2,400 baht (£53) per night in low season for a Deluxe, rising to roughly 3,250 baht (£72) at peak.
Address: 19 Phangnga Rd, Talat Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket
Website: thememoryhotel.com
