Travelers’ Guide to Phuket and Phi Phi, Thailand

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The Travel Exchange is a Whatsapp group where we focus on one country at a time, with a day or 2 dedicated to a different city. Members describe their personal experiences and tips. To join our next conversation send a message to PadovaTravels to get an invite to the group.

In September 2025, we started a conversation about Kosher travel to Thailand. First up was Phuket and Phi Phi.

Below we tried to sum up thoughts and helpful links shared regarding food, accommodations and activities. Feel free to add your own experiences in the comments below.

Phuket

Getting Around

Bolt is the easiest taxi app to use IMO.
Yitzchok Phuket driver Guide

Where to Stay

Keemala
- Really cool hotel. Really nice property, and experiences. It’s a rain Forest vibe, not overlooking the beach.
- Only 18 villas.
- Keep in mind the pools aren’t so private.
- We had free breakfast, so chef gave us brand new pan, eggs, tomatoes, avocado, etc, and brought out a burner, so we had a great breakfast every morning! (We picked up some pita from chabad as well)
- Booked with hh FNC.
The Naka Phuket, a member of Design Hotels – Awesome suits, private pools, sick spot.
Dinso Resort & Villas Phuket, Vignette Collection by IHG – Great spot nice and quiet with very private pools. And 10 minutes from Chabad.
Crest Resort and Pool Villas Phuket –
- Options for completely private pools.
- 5 star service.
- I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to Phuket.

What to Eat

Chabad Phuket Restaurant
Babi’s Grill Phuket
- Great restaurant. Very solid food. Opened a little over 2 months ago. The owner is in the restaurant a lot and is super nice and friendly.
- Amazing food.
Imo my best shabbos in Thailand was by chabad of Phuket

What to Do

Tiger Kingdom – Phuket
Lion Land Phuket – The only place in thailand you can touch lions
Elephant Swims @Lucky Beach , Tri Trang – Great spot for elephants
Kathu Cobra Show
Phuket FantaSea Park – They have these throughout Thailand, It’s their theme park with a cool show with elephants and other animals.
Bangla Rd – This is the famous market there, By day it’s a great market but at night it changes….
Khao Rang Viewpoint – Insane views and monkeys all around.
Monkey Hill Viewpoint – Another cool spot with monkeys and views.
Paradise Trip ATV & Zipline Adventure and Paintball – Great spot to do Zipline and atv
Jet Ski Tour Phuket – They offer amazing tours to different islands.
Roon Photo Shoot Phuket – Great price and nice guy great photo shoot take you to a bunch of low key spots.
Rock Beach Swing – Really cool props for photo shoot, Though they charge money.
Tee Amad Bike Rental Phuket – This guy is slightly more expensive than anyone else, but he’s easy to work with, and he shares you routes to avoid the police checkpoints.

Other Tips

Rule for all ATMs When take out $ from ATM make sure to decline conversion rate. Otherwise they charge you a arm and a leg.
Instead of doing a day trip to phi phi, where you have to get up really early in the morning and the whole day is just hustling, we slept over for 2 nights. Really happy we stayed over and didn’t just do a day trip there!! actually got to chill by the beautiful beaches. IMO definitely worth it over spending more time Phuket

Phi Phi

Getting Around

You can either take a ferry there or a speed boat.
When there’s bad weather the speed boat is really bad, so some would say to take the ferry, though I’ve heard the ferry is really rocky (safer though) in bad weather, and the trip is 3x longer
The speed boat the way there for us (with a infant) was great, but the way back was rough, I’m not sure I’d do with a infant again

Where to Stay

Phi Phi Holiday Resort – Under $200 a night with private pool and sea view. Not the most modern, but looked like the best option on the island.
SAii Phi Phi Island Village Resort – Another great option on phi phi although no private pool

What to Do

Phi Phi Viewpoint 2 – All the phi phi viewpoints are gorgeous by sunset and a solid 20 min walk from the bottom with very steep stairs
Reggae Bar – Great bar with live muay Thai boxing, you can volunteer to fight in the ring in phi phi island
Slinky Bar – This beach has some cool fire shows and jump roping w fire at night
If you’re staying in the main area in phi phi and want a nice beach take a long tail boat to Long Beach koh phi phi (very cheap, do a one way each way)