Bangla Road, Phuket

Busy, loud and a lot. Every bar has its own sound system pointed at the street, touts hand you flyers every few steps, there are street performers, food carts and a crowd from everywhere. It's fun, but it's an overload, and it takes a few minutes to get your bearings.

The way to do it is to slow down. Pick a bar that looks your speed, sit down with a beer and watch the street go by. If the music or the crowd isn't for you, finish your drink and try the next one. There's no shortage of choice, and nothing about Bangla rewards staying somewhere you're not enjoying.

Know the difference between the bars. The open-front beer bars are the ordinary ones, with stools and cheaper beer. The go-go bars, mostly down Soi Seadragon off the middle of the street, are adult venues with dancers and hostesses, and their prices and pressure are higher. The clubs are the big rooms with DJs, and they don't really start until after 22:00.

Before 18:00 Bangla is an ordinary street with traffic, shops and cafés. From 18:00 to about 20:00 it's at its calmest, the best time to walk the length of it, eat at the night market and have a first drink while the bars are quiet. Families who want to see it do it now, and leave by 20:00.

From about 21:00 it fills, and 22:00 to 01:00 is the peak, with the crowd at its thickest and the clubs opening their doors. After 02:00 the smaller bars close and the crowd moves into the clubs, which run until 04:00.

The bar girls are friendly, and part of their job is to ask you to buy them a drink. That's a lady drink, a small drink at a much higher price, about ฿290 at Suzy Wong's, with the bar and the hostess sharing it. There's nothing wrong with saying yes, but decide before you sit down how many you'll buy, because a few rounds of them can cost more than your own drinks all night.

Watch the bill and your change. Pay per round where you can, check each tab before you pay, and carry small notes. Reviewers of some go-go bars describe the change trick, where a ฿500 note comes back as a pile of small notes and staff gesture at the ones you're meant to leave as a tip.

Walk past the ping pong show touts. Their flyers lead to upstairs rooms with steep per-person drink minimums that only appear on the bill. The same goes for tour touts on the street, so book boat trips through your hotel or the operator instead.

Keep your drink in your hand, your phone and wallet in a front pocket, and your passport in the hotel safe. Vaping is illegal in Thailand and drug penalties are severe, whatever the shops along the street suggest. If something goes wrong, the Tourist Police are on 1155. It's a well-policed street, so be as aware as you would be in any busy nightlife area and you'll be fine.

Bangla runs from Thaweewong Road, the beach road, inland to Rat-U-Thit Road by the Jungceylon mall. From most Patong hotels it's a walk. From Kata or Karon, Grab costs about ฿300–400 each way, and the tuk-tuks ask ฿400–500 for the same ride, so book the app.

Cars can't get onto the street after 18:00, so ask your Grab to drop you on Rat-U-Thit Road and walk in, and meet your ride home there too. Order it before you're tired, because late-night prices climb. Don't ride a scooter back after drinking. Checkpoints are common, and travel insurance won't cover you.

From the airport, Patong is about 50 minutes by metered taxi, ฿700–800 with the airport fee, or ฿100 on the Smart Bus, which takes 1 hour 20 minutes to an hour and a half.

I prefer a more relaxed night where locals go, and Bangla isn't that. For a quieter evening, the bars around Phuket Old Town are 30 minutes away, with live jazz, craft beer and cocktail bars where the crowd is half Thai, and the Sunday walking street on Thalang Road is the best evening market on the island. Kata and Karon have small bars and beach restaurants that close earlier, and the Bang Tao beach clubs do sunset with DJs and daybeds.

If you're in Patong but want the beach rather than the street, a table on the sand at KYMA at sunset, then dinner, then one walk up Bangla to see it, is a good night on its own.