10 Best Shopping in Patong Beach

Jungceylon Shopping Complex in downtown, diagonally opposite Bangla Road, radically changed the face of shopping in Patong. The 2 main stores in the complex are Robinson – a well-lit department store – and a Big C supermarket.

The 200-plus other stores in this shopping heaven sell brand-name clothes, sunglasses, cosmetics and perfumes, shoes, tons of mobile phones and accessories, and electrical goods, but it's also a great entertainment haven with a modern movie theater and a 16-lane bowling alley, perfect for rainy days or to escape the heat of the day.

Banzaan Market in Patong is a modern-looking Thai fresh market on Sai Kor Road, right behind the Jungceylon megamall. You can get anything you would expect from a local market but in a much more pleasant environment. Prices are reasonable as well.

The Banzaan Market is the brainchild of a well-known Phuket family who sought to offer shoppers an alternate experience other than visiting a typical local market. The word banzaan means 'fresh market' in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect popular among many overseas Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia.

Malin Plaza Patong offers fair prices and an impressive range of souvenirs in Phuket. It's just as bustling as most of the island's markets, but in a cooler environment and with cheaper food available around it.

Some of the things you can buy at Malin Plaza Patong include T-shirts, denim, beachwear, bags, luggage, spa products, mobile phone accessories, and a good range of trinkets and souvenirs. Some of the shirt designs at Malin Plaza Patong are quite unique. Very few local markets in Phuket have a tailor, making this a good place to visit if you want something a little bit different.

Even though the name of this market sounds a little like an oil monopoly, OTOP is, in fact, a canny scheme to promote and stimulate locally made and marketed products of each ‘tambon’ (subdistrict) throughout Thailand.

Standing for ‘One Tambon One Product’ the OTOP idea originated in Japan and encourages village communities to improve the local products' quality and marketing, selecting one superior product from each tambon to receive formal branding as its ‘starred OTOP product’. At OTOP markets expect to see traditional handicrafts, silk garments, cotton products, pottery, fashion accessories, household items and food.

SB Plaza in Phuket is a great place to pick up budget souvenirs in Patong. Conveniently located right in the heart of the city, between the expansive (and, generally, expensive) Jungceylon Shopping Center and the Sleep With Me Design Hotel along Rat-U-Thit Road, it has quite an impressive choice of small market-type stalls selling a variety of wares.

Its location close by some of Patong’s key attractions – including Bangla Road and the large shopping malls which surround it – makes it the most convenient market of its kind in the popular resort town, but the good prices and large number of stalls insure that you don’t have to pay extra for that convenience.

Banana Walk is Patong’s newest mall and is just 100 meters south of Soi Bangla on the Beach Road, right next to Banana Disco.

With over 4,000 square meters of retail space, the mall is multilevel (3 floors) and its overall design leans toward minimal and modernistic. The buffed concrete walls, the metal structure of the tall Plexiglas roof above a large open space, and at night the lighting ranging from blue to red all give Banana Walk the feeling of entering a spaceship dock in a science fiction movie.

Paradise Night Market, like many other markets and malls in Patong, has developed and cleaned up its act over the years. Nowadays this nightly market has blossomed into at least 100 stores and you can browse through items ranging from mobile phone covers, sun hats, cushion and bedcovers, lamps, and beachwear and of course much more.

The market ‘begins’ along busy Rat-U-Thit Road outside the towering Royal Paradise Hotel and turns to snake through the middle aisle of the 3 Royal Paradise Hotel entrance sois.

Bangla Mall sits squarely in the middle of chaotic Patong's Bangla Road – the epicenter of Phuket Island’s nightlife, shopping, and entertainment. An island of relatively family-friendly attractions in the middle of the hedonistic ones of the famous club and bar street, it's directly opposite the famous Tiger Disco and is currently home to a spa, a couple of restaurants, a bank and a laser tag center.

While Burger King and KFC have flanked the entrance since the opening, the majority of the internal space is now occupied by Laser Battle. The upper floor is occupied by the large and luxurious Pimnara Spa. A branch of Bangkok Bank is found on the basement level, accessible down a flight of stairs near the front entrance.

China Town Plaza (Sai Nam Yen Plaza) is a collection of renovated stalls in downtown Patong near the Novotel Phuket Vintage Park Resort and the Royal Paradise Hotel. The mall makes the corner of Rat-U-Thit Road and Sai Nam Yen Road and is a busy place.

Sai Nam Yen Road itself is certainly not Patong’s most appealing quarter as it is run down and rather scruffy but if you’re looking for a cheap meal or even cut-price airline tickets or even a ‘local’ haircut it’s worth a look at.

Future Plaza on Patong’s southernmost main soi (road) renovated from its former incarnation - DJ Plaza. Consisting of a broad range of shopping and entertainment options, this is a much quieter location than central Patong. Here, you can browse in several arts and crafts shops, choose to have a family or individual portrait done from a photo or buy a ‘classic’ painting or even an Andy Warhol copy, a ‘recycled art’ monster made out of used motorcycle parts, and get stocked up at the pharmacy.