Where to live in Phang Nga.

Phang Nga Town is the province's small administrative capital, tucked beneath dramatic limestone cliffs at the edge of Ao Phang Nga Bay. It's the practical, low-cost, largely-Thai side of the province -- markets, government offices and the departure point for boat tours into the bay's karst islands, including the famous Khao Phing Kan and Ko Ta Pu ("James Bond Island"). Long-stayers here are drawn by low costs rather than a beach lifestyle -- the town itself isn't a beach destination. Be realistic about the Phuket connection: the capital is roughly 87km from Phuket, about an hour and a half via Highway 402, and it is around 30km inland from the Sarasin Bridge crossing itself, which sits down at Khok Kloi. Guides that describe Phang Nga Town as "near the bridge" or "under an hour from Phuket" are describing Khok Kloi, not the capital -- a distinction that matters a great deal if you are planning a daily school or work run into Phuket. See the Schools guide for the area-by-area version of that drive.

Khao Lak, in Takua Pa district about an hour north of Phuket International Airport, is Phang Nga's main beach-resort town and the province's largest concentration of long-stay foreigners, dive operators and rental condos/villas. It was the area hit hardest by Thailand's 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and today carries several memorial sites -- including the Thai navy patrol boat 813, carried inland by the wave and preserved at Bang Niang, and the Ban Nam Khem memorial park and museum a little further north. Khao Lak is also the main mainland departure point (via Thap Lamu Pier) for the Similan and Surin Islands' dive sites. It suits divers, retirees and long-stayers who want a genuine beach setting with a real (if modest) expat community, without Phuket's density or prices.

Natai Beach is a remote, largely undeveloped 10km-plus stretch of sand in Khok Kloi subdistrict, Takua Thung district -- close enough to Phuket International Airport (roughly 25 minutes) to attract a handful of five-star resorts and luxury villas, including Aleenta Phuket Resort & Spa and Iniala Beach House, but without Phuket's crowds or built-up coastline. This is the part of Phang Nga that actually adjoins the Sarasin Bridge, and therefore the only part of the province from which a daily run into northern Phuket -- for work or for school -- is a normal commute rather than an endurance exercise. The trade-off is stock: most accommodation here is short-stay resort and villa rental rather than the standard monthly-lease market covered elsewhere on BAANLYY. This same Khok Kloi subdistrict is where Airports of Thailand has earmarked land for the proposed Andaman International Airport (see Getting Around, below) -- a project that, if it proceeds on schedule, would sit only a few kilometres from this stretch of coast. Note that Thai Mueang, immediately north on Highway 4, is its own district rather than part of Takua Thung; it sits between Khok Kloi and Khao Lak and is correspondingly further from the crossing.

Khura Buri district, at the northern tip of Phang Nga near the Ranong border, and the piers around Khao Lak, are the two main mainland gateways to the Similan and Surin Islands -- both run as Thailand national marine parks and, in most years, closed to visitors during the mid-May to mid-October monsoon season (confirm current dates before planning any trip or move around this). This is the least developed part of the province for long-term renters: almost no condo or villa stock, mostly simple guesthouses geared to seasonal dive tourism, and a genuinely remote pace of life.