The fun at Banana usually starts at 11 pm and goes full-on until closing time at 2 am. The crowd is a mixture of tourists of many nationalities, along with Thais and local expats. This disco has somehow become the most famous in Phuket among Japanese tourists, and features in almost every Japanese-language tour guide and magazine about Phuket.

I asked Ayumi from Tokyo what she thought of it. “It’s a good place to make new friends,” she said. “One night a week – Wednesday, I think – they have a theme night called ‘Disco on the Beach’. They bring the beach into the disco. We were dancing on sand. It was a lot of fun.”
Banana charges 400 baht per person entry fee, which includes two complementary drinks.

Also worth a visit when you’re in Patong is Rock City. It’s easy to find, just opposit Bangla Road on Rat-U-Thit Road.

The clue is the huge neon guitar outside. Rock City is for all rock fans, and features “tribute” bands playing the best of Bon Jovi, Metallica, U2, Oasis and more every night.

The place also serves up burgers, burritos and spare ribs – just the right kind of thing to lay down a solid foundation for the regular Kamikaze drinking competitions – for girls only.            

Safari is a Phuket icon, one of the island’s favorite venues for night owls. Many people start off the night somewhere else but wind up at Safari, staying there until late, late, late. As a result, it’s pretty much guaranteed that the place will be jumping any night you go there, provided you arrive no earlier than midnight.

Safari is a huge complex, with all styles of music from both deejays and live bands. It’s the perfect place for anyone who enjoys dancing, singing (yes, you can step up to the mic at Safari) or rock climbing (yes, they have a climbing wall), but perhaps not all at the same time... 

Or you can just hang out meeting people and having a fine time until waaaaay past the time that Mother always said you should be in bed. When you get hungry, there are also two restaurants in the complex. To fit with the name, décor is jungle primitive, with fiberglass rocks and lots of greenery.

Safari is at the top of the first hill between Patong and Karon, not far from Le Méridien Phuket Beach Resort. Because of its distance from Patong, and its rather isolated location, it’s wise to travel there and back with a group of people. You’ll need transport to get there. Be aware that tuk-tuks tend to charge one rate to go there and another, much higher, rate to come back – they know you have no choice!
There is no fee to get into Safari.

This is possibly the most talked-about disco on the island. It’s been open just over a year and has the latest in sound and light equipment. The atmosphere here is less Thai and more like the big discos in Europe or the States. Expert deejays play everything from the latest house, jazz or hip hop sounds to hits from the ’70s and ’80s.

If you’re feeling particularly bold, there’s a small stage in the middle of the dance floor where you can get up and get jiggy. Above the dance floor, a wide balcony runs around all four walls. There’s a bar up there, and comfortable seating, from which you can watch other people making fools of themselves on the stage.

At most other discos in Phuket people turn up in shorts and T-shirts, but for some reason, perhaps because it’s a classy place, people who go to Seduction tend to dress up. There’s one other big advantage, Danielle Chupak from Hong Kong told me: the toilets are squeaky-clean. “For women, if you go somewhere that has a terrible toilet, it puts you off. But at Seduction, the toilet is nice, and very clean,” she said.