For half the year the Andaman Sea treats Phuket's west coast as something to hurl itself against. By January it has lost interest. The swell that closes beaches and cancels boat trips in the wet months has gone, and the water off Kata and Karon settles into the flat, improbable blue that sold the island in the first place. It is about as dependable as beach weather here gets, which is precisely why so many other people have booked it.
Highs around 30°C and lows near 24°C mean the nights never really cool, and about 11 days bring some rain. That looks alarming for a dry season until you set it beside more than ten hours of sunshine a day. What January runs short of is rooms, so book early.
Patong is loud and neon-lit until the small hours, and its regulars would not have it otherwise. Kata and Karon, further south, are broader and quieter. All three, along with Surin and Bang Tao, have lifeguards in season, and their flags deserve obedience even in a calm month, since Karon has a long reputation for rip currents. A red flag means stay out of the water, and it is not an opening bid.
The Similan Islands, a marine national park out to the north-west, open to visitors from mid-October to mid-May, and January sits in the calm, clear middle of that season. Closer in, Phang Nga Bay has Khao Phing Kan, which The Man with the Golden Gun renamed James Bond Island for the rest of time, but the better trip is by canoe into the hongs, lagoons hidden inside islands such as Koh Panak and Koh Hong. The sea caves that lead to them can be passed only at the right state of the tide, and some are so low that you lie flat in the boat. It is a rare excursion in which lying down is compulsory.
Old Phuket Town deserves more than the hour most visitors give it. Thalang Road was once the island's main market street, run by Chinese merchants and tin-mining families, and its Sino-Portuguese shophouses still line it. On Sunday evenings the road closes to traffic for Lard Yai, the walking-street market, which is less about shopping than about eating your way from one end to the other. In years when Chinese New Year falls in late January, lanterns go up across the old town for its own festival, with lion dances in the street.
Promthep Cape, at the island's southern tip, is where Phuket watches the sun go down, and in January a large share of its visitors join in. Arrive at least 45 minutes before sunset for a place at the rail. The cape is named for Brahma, and his shrine beside the viewpoint is ringed with hundreds of elephant figures of every size, each one left as thanks by someone whose wish was granted.