Kynd Massage : Phuket Old Town, Thalang Road

Half the charm here is that it doesn't look like a spa at all. The massage sits inside a shop selling fashion and food, which sounds like a gimmick until you're in the chair. Reviewers describe clean, comfortable seating, modern surroundings and aromatic scents, and the therapists get consistent praise for detailed work, hunting down knots and checking in mid-session to make sure the pressure is right. Foot massages are the popular order, and there's a fair number of people coming back on a second or third trip to Phuket, which tells you more than any single glowing review does.

The one real complaint worth flagging is scheduling. One visitor turned up mid-afternoon, was told to come back in half an hour, waited again, then found their therapist had been given to someone else. That's a management problem rather than a massage problem, but it's your afternoon either way. Treat it as a place to book rather than drift into.