Enjoying The Family-Friendly side of Patong With Swissotel Phuket Patong
Have you dreamt of a trip to Thailand with your family but quickly grown overwhelmed by the number of options? Swissotel Phuket Patong Beach offers it all with an incredible location and amazing family-friendly amenities in the heart of Patong Beach. It’s the perfect place to start your adventure through Thailand.
Our visit to Swissotel marked our third trip to Thailand and also our THIRD visit to Phuket! So why do we coming back to the same spot? Not only is the island centrally located and easy to get to, it also has the best weather from October - April, which makes it the perfect winter escape from the US. The first time we visited was pre-kids and we chose to stay here in party-centric Patong beach. It was perfect for playing on the beach all day, and bar-hopping down Bangla road all night (or until I fell asleep around 10 pm, which was almost always the case!)
Patong Beach with kids… just a bit different than our pre-kids days!
Where to Stay
For this visit, we stayed at the Swissotel Phuket Patong Beach. Swissotel Patong is located, unsurprisingly, in Patong Beach. But don’t let that deter you! Swissotel offers plenty of activities and features to keep things kid-friendly and make sure everyone has a great time.
We arrived at night on a late flight from Taiwan, so Liesel was out for the night. What she woke up the next morning and saw the pool view from our patio window, our hopes of having a nice, leisurely breakfast went out that window and we hit the pool first thing! There are three pools at Swissotel Patong: a small, shallow wading pool, a pool with a swim-up bar, and (my fave) a rooftop pool. It’s like a rooftop oasis with shaded lounge chairs, a hip little bar and seating area, and a pool with a view out to the ocean!
There’s also a kids’ club on-site. We spent our fair share of time there. They offer daily activities for the kids, and our personal favorite was pizza-making! Liesel was much more interested in the ball pit than anything else!
Painting at the Swissotel Kids Club
What to do
If you find yourself looking to leave the hotel, have no fear! There are tons of great things to do nearby. The hotel is a short stroll to Patong Beach for some toes-in-the-sand fun. Along the way, there are several restaurants and fresh fruit stands for fruit smoothies. Along the strip of Patong beach, there are even more shops and restaurants, and about 10-15 minutes walking will get you to Bangla road and the Junceylon mall.
Pizza making; another fun activity at Swissotel for kids
When choosing a place to stay we always look for
Where we can stock up on kid essentials (diapers and milk)
Where we can get grown up essentials (coffee)
What’s nearby or how do we get around?
Is this place a good value?
Here’s how Swissotel Phuket Patong Beach delivered:
Diving in to the pool at Swissotel Patong
Where to find diapers and milk: Inside the Junceylon mall (about a 15 minute walk), there is a Big C grocery store with almost anything you could need. There are also 7-Eleven stores on almost every block. So you won’t need to go too far to get the essentials.
Where to get your caffeine fix: Believe it or not, we didn’t have too much time to cafe-hop here in Patong! And when we were out exploring, we were much more likely to grab a fresh coconut from a stall instead of a coffee. There are stalls and vendors all over, and 60 baht (about $2 usd) is a decent deal for a beach-front coco. So, grab you towel or sarong and head to the beach to enjoy a coconut with a fantastic view!
Loving the ball pit at the Kids Club, but where is Ben?!
Getting around: Patong is super walkable with tons of shops and restaurants easily accessible on food. You have a few options for crusing around Patong. You can rent a scooter or hire a Tuk Tuk (usually a red or yellow bus-looking thing). Grab (similar to lyft or uber) is also widely used here). The Swissotel itself is a block off Patong beach. It’s in the middle of everything but set back off the main road so it's not too noisy.
Value: With rooms starting at $60 USD / night, the Swissotel Patong is a super-affordable option for families looking to spend a few days or a week in Patong.
Enjoying the roof-top pool at Swissotel Patong
The bottom line
If you love to explore and want to be close to it all, Swissotel Phuket Patong Beach is the place for you. The rooftop pool is amazing and there are tons of shops and cafes (and the beach) just a short walk away. This is the perfect jumping off point to explore Patong, and all of Phuket, while still having a great spot to rest your head at the end of a long day.
Note: Accommodations were provided by Swissotel Phuket Patong Beach, but opinions are always my own!