Phuket
The phone slipped out of your hand as you climbed into the boat
Island boats leave from Rawai and Chalong, and a chartered long-tail is the only way to reach Freedom Beach.
A phone dropped into the sea while boarding a boat off a Phuket beach is worth a search when the boat was close in and you can say where it lay. Everything turns on the spot: which beach or pier, which boat, and how deep the water came on you when it fell.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Phuket with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Phuket sits in the Andaman Sea, and this page covers its beaches from Mai Khao in the north to Nai Harn and Rawai in the south. The southern beaches are usually crowded, and the north is far quieter.
Take the boat's name or number before it leaves
If it happened at a boat, ask the crew for the boat's name or number and where it was tied up, then stand where you were when it fell and photograph the shore from there. On the sand, before anything is packed away, look straight inland and note the hotel, cafe or rock behind your spot, and save your phone's location there. Send us that, a picture of the item or one like it, and the time you noticed it had gone.
Several of these beaches are crescent bays, so say which headland you were closer to. At Rawai and Chalong the pier and the moored boats do the same job.
Places we cover in Phuket
- Patong Beach
- Kalim Beach
- Freedom Beach
- Kamala Beach
- Laem Sing Beach
- Surin Beach
- Bang Tao Beach (Bangtao)
- Karon Beach
- Kata Beach (Kata Yai)
- Kata Noi Beach
- Karon Viewpoint
- Nai Harn Beach (Nai Han)
- Ya Nui Beach
- Windmill Viewpoint
- Promthep Cape (Laem Phromthep)
- Rawai Beach and pier
- Boats from Rawai to Ko Lon, Ko He and Ko Racha
- Chalong Bay and pier
- Nai Thon Beach
- Nai Yang Beach
- Mai Khao Beach
- Sai Kaeo Beach
- Khao Phra Thaeo forest trails
- Ton Sai Waterfall
- Bang Pae Waterfall
Up the coast from Nai Harn to Mai Khao, and out from the piers
Busier bays in the south, quieter sand in the north.
Patong and Kalim
Patong sits between Kamala and Karon, a crescent of fine sand above a still, clear sea where people ride jet skis and banana boats. Places to stay, shops and tour desks line the whole beach. Kalim, north of Patong, is a quieter beach dotted with rocks and coral reefs. Freedom Beach, white and powdery, is reached only by chartered long-tail boat.
Kamala, Laem Sing, Surin and Bang Tao
Kamala is a quiet beach north of Kalim and Patong, where families and couples come to snorkel and swim. Laem Sing is a small beach between Surin and Kamala, with white sand and rocks in unusual shapes. Surin, in Choeng Thale, is powdery sand with a small rocky cape at each end and a manned lifeguard tower, a fixed point worth mentioning when you write. Bang Tao Bay lies beyond Surin, on the side away from Kamala.
Karon, Kata and Kata Noi
Karon, south of Patong, is a curving beach with small sand dunes and restaurants along the beachfront road. Kata has clear water with hills on either side and the island of Ko Pu offshore. Both have flat, powdery white sand where people swim and play beach sports. Karon Viewpoint, on the hillside just south of Kata Noi, looks over Kata Noi, Kata and Karon.
Nai Harn, Ya Nui and Promthep Cape
Nai Harn is a crescent bay sheltered from the wind by the mountains around it, with yachts moored in the bay and sunset boat trips. The Windmill Viewpoint sits on the ridge between Nai Harn and Ya Nui. Promthep Cape, at the southern end of the island between Nai Harn and Rawai, draws people at sunset, and a paved path leads down from it to views of Ya Nui.
Rawai and Chalong
Rawai's pier is in a fishing community, with fishing boats and ferries moored close to the shore most of the time, and those boats take people out to Ko Lon, Ko He, Ko Racha and other islands. Chalong Bay, near the southern tip, has a muddy beach and an active pier used by yachts, sailboats and island ferries.
Nai Yang, Mai Khao and Nai Thon
The northern beaches belong to Sirinat National Park. Nai Yang, where the park office is, has a large coral reef for snorkelling. Mai Khao is near Phuket Airport, so some people call it Hat Sanambin. Nai Thon is an inlet split into Nai Thon Yai and Nai Thon Noi, good for swimming, and Sai Kaeo lies along a line of pines.
Khao Phra Thaeo and its waterfalls
Inland near Thalang town, Khao Phra Thaeo is a stretch of virgin forest with walking trails, giant trees and two waterfalls. Ton Sai has the park headquarters and a small restaurant with a view over the falls, and Bang Pae, at Pa Khlok, has an arboretum beside it. Say which waterfall you visited, whether you went into the water, and which trail you walked.
Working it out with you
WhatsApp, all the way through
You write to one person on WhatsApp, and the same person replies whether you are still on the island, at the airport or back home.
Other eyes on the day
If a boatman, a lifeguard or someone on the next sunbed saw it happen, ask them where, and put their answer in your message.
Out on the crossing
Something that went over the side in deep water on the way to an island is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Your yes first
We explain the costs before any search is booked, and a search is only arranged once you have agreed to them.
Rocky ends to the bays, a sheltered south, a muddy pier
How the shore changes from one part of the island to the next.
Capes, rocks and reefs
Several bays end in rock. Surin has a small rocky cape at each end, Kalim is dotted with rocks and coral reefs, and Laem Sing has rocks in unusual shapes. If you were near the rocks, say which ones and how far along the beach.
Wind at Surin, shelter at Nai Harn
Surfers and wave boarders head to Surin when the wind picks up and the waves grow. Nai Harn is shielded from the wind by the mountains around it. Tell us whether it was calm or rough that day.
Mud and moorings at Chalong
Chalong Bay has a muddy beach, not the powdery sand of Kata or Karon, and a working pier. Pin the part of the pier or the boat you were on.
Questions about Phuket
My phone dropped into the water as I stepped aboard a boat for Ko Lon at Rawai.
At Rawai the fishing boats and the island boats are moored close to the shore most of the time, so begin with where that boat lay. Ask the crew or whoever sold you the trip which boat it was, and pin the place you climbed in. Tell us the phone model too.
A wedding band came off somewhere between the jet ski and the sand at Patong.
Patong is a crescent of fine sand above a still, clear sea, so the first thing to settle is where along the curve you were. Name the nearest hotel or shop behind the beach, and tell us the last moment you are sure the band was still on your finger.
All we have to go on for a gold chain lost at Kata is a holiday photo with Ko Pu behind us.
That photo is worth sending. Ko Pu sits offshore from Kata, and where the island falls in the frame helps fix your place on the sand. Send the picture as it is, with its time, and say whether you had been swimming before you noticed.
There were yachts all over the bay at Nai Harn when my watch came off during a swim.
The yachts help. Nai Harn is a crescent bay sheltered by the mountains around it, and the boats moored in it give you something to measure your swim against. Say which end of the crescent you went in from and how far out you swam compared with the nearest yacht. Tell us the make of the watch and what the strap is made of.
The waves took my glasses at Surin Beach.
Surin gets bigger waves when the wind is up, which is when surfers and wave boarders come. The manned lifeguard tower and the small rocky cape at each end make good reference points, so tell us roughly where you were between them. Describe the frames and what they are made of.
Our villa keys dropped out of a pocket somewhere on Bang Tao Bay.
Surin sits between Bang Tao and Kamala, so if you walked over from Surin, say where you set off. Mark the stretch of Bang Tao sand you used and the path you took off the beach afterwards. Tell us how many keys there were and what they look like.
My Oura ring is somewhere off Nai Yang, where I was snorkelling over the reef.
Nai Yang, where the Sirinat National Park office is, has a large coral reef that people snorkel over. Drop one pin where you entered and a second where you climbed out, and say whether the ring felt loose before the swim.
Is Laem Sing part of Kamala? A bracelet came off there among the rocks.
Laem Sing is a small beach of its own, between Surin and Kamala, with white sand and rocks in unusual shapes. Tell us which rock you sat on or climbed, and say whether the bracelet could have gone in the water or only on the sand.
Phuket
From Mai Khao down to Rawai, one message starts it
Short is fine, because the questions come from us.
We ask our questions once you have written, so the first message can be short. Say what you lost and on which part of the island, and add a map pin on WhatsApp when you have one.