Old Town: the island's soul

Phuket's fortune was tin before it was tourism, and the mining century built a town the beaches make people forget: streets of Sino-Portuguese shophouses in ice-cream colours, clan houses and shrines, and a Peranakan food culture found nowhere else in Thailand. Skipping it is the classic Phuket error.

The heart of it

• Thalang Road and its neighbours (Dibuk, Krabi, Phang Nga roads, and photogenic little Soi Romanee) hold the shophouse core — arcaded five-foot walkways, carved doors, and a café-and-gallery revival that's kept the buildings alive;
• The Sunday Walking Street market (Lard Yai, on Thalang) is the town at full wattage — street food, music and half the island strolling;
• The mansions and museums: tin-baron mansions in Sino-Colonial splendour and the town's small museums tell the mining-migration story that explains everything you're looking at;
• Shrines and temples: Chinese shrines anchor the community — and power the spectacular Vegetarian Festival each autumn.

Doing it right

• Come morning for photographs and coffee culture, or evening when facades light up and kitchens open — the midday sun flattens both light and enthusiasm;
• It's a walking town: two-to-three unhurried hours for the core, a full day with museums, cafés and a long Peranakan lunch (what to order);
• Base here for a night or two on a return trip — Old Town evenings, when the day-trippers leave, are the island at its most personable. Where to base.