Patong Beach (Thai หาดป่าตอง) is a beach on Phuket's west coast, and to the town adjoining it. It is the main tourist resort in Phuket. It also contains an important centre of Phuket's nightlife and is the centre of cheap shopping on the island. The beach became popular with western tourists, especially Europeans, in the late 1980s. Numerous large hotels and chain hotels are located in Patong.

Patong Beach is more famous for its nightlife than the 2-kilometer beach that runs the entire length of Patong Town’s western side. Nightlife is centered on two main areas Bangla Road and Paradise Complex, with Bangla Road being predominantly straight and Paradise Complex being predominantly gay. Much mixing of the two scenes occurs due to Phuket Island’s tolerant nature, with Kathoey present on Bangla Road.

On December 26, 2004, Patong Beach along with many other areas along the western coast of Phuket and Thailand were struck by a tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The wave caused a great deal of destruction to the waterfront of the beach and immediately inland, and many people were killed there. Patong was one of the worst affected areas of Phuket, although the destruction was not nearly as bad as nearby in Khao Lak.

Extracted from Wikipedia: Patong Beach

Best hotels? Anybody?

I like Summer Breeze on Soi Sansabai - small friendly place on a relatively quiet road a short walk to Bangla, of course guest friendly.

Adaman Hotel at Patong Beach. Right on the beach in the centre of town and with great views from bed room balcony. Not cheap but very upmarket. Well trained staff profesional service and excellent food. We stayed there 2005 for 5 nights and was a real treat.
I will look for a web site for you to view the hotel.

Patong is done in my opinion. Last night they MIB closed all bars at 2 AM! Really bad for tourism...
Have been there a couple of times before and always loved it though. Its much quieter than Pattaya though.

I hated Bangla rd. Pattaya has it beat every way, can't really go into detail in this section.

I'd like to get to know Phuket & Patong better from an expats point of view.
As a tourist I have to say I prefer Pattaya for eating, drinking & mongering.
Can't stand the taxi mafia in Phuket anyway.

But for the beaches, and beautiful Phang Nga Bay, Phuket is well worth visiting.

I live in Phuket so maybe I'm prejudiced. I don't live in Patong any more but still go over probably 5 nights a week to party. Of course, when I really want to party I come to Pattaya, but that's another story. Phuket is still (mostly) clean and green with great diving, beautiful beaches etc. I may move to Pattaya eventually, but for now I'd rather save it for a holiday destination and continue to live in the beautiful South.

Phuket has indeed beautiful beaches etc. Its nightlife is just poor compared to Pattaya imo. I've seen the same beautiful beaches in Langawi and Penang (Malaysia) as well. Doesn't make up for the lack of action at night for me anymore. I'll be returning their for sure, but not for no more than a couple of days ...

I like Pattaya, but I prefer Patong.

:Best_Wishes:

well Iam moving to phuket, I think its a beautiful place.. I havent beent to pattaya yet, but I will make a trip there in sept or oct.. Ive spent 6 months in phuket thou

The only thing better about Pattaya is that it has more girls but not really better girls, other than that its a shithole of a place to live in-u can find stunnas and uglies in Patts and Phuket.