Phuket rewards travellers who skip the tour desks: the island's best capes, waterfalls and beaches charge nothing, and Phuket Town still serves hokkien noodles for 50 baht. Three days of free viewpoints, wet markets and 30-baht songthaews.
A free public park on a 100 m hill above Phuket Town, open 24 hours, with a paved terrace looking over Old Town roofs, Chalong Bay and the Nakkerd ridge. Shaded benches, outdoor exercise bars and a resident cat colony.
Phuket Town's waterfront sports park, free and open dawn to dusk, with the Tin Mining Monument marking the 1909 dredging site. Locals jog a 2 km seafront loop while food carts near the entrance sell rice plates for 40-60 THB.
A 150 m cove wedged between Promthep Cape and the windmill headland, far quieter than Kata or Karon. No entry fee, calm snorkelling over the rocks at the north end, and tiny Koh Man island sitting a short swim offshore.
Phuket's southernmost headland and the island's classic no-cost sunset: a grassy promontory with an elephant shrine and a small lighthouse museum that opens free of charge until 16:30. The sun drops behind Koh Kaeo around 18:30.
Phuket Town's daily wet market, busiest between 06:00 and 10:00, where cooks buy Andaman fish, southern curry pastes and herbs. Entry is free, a tub of ready-made curry paste runs 30-50 THB and mango costs about 40 THB per kilo.
An open-air hawker hall on the corner of Dibuk and Yaowarat where a handful of family stalls have cooked since the 1960s. Hokkien mee, popiah spring rolls and o-aew shaved ice cost 50-80 THB, ordered stall by stall and paid separately.
Phuket's largest weekend market, Saturday and Sunday from 16:00 to 22:00 behind Central Festival, with roughly a thousand stalls of clothing, secondhand goods and street food. Entry free, T-shirts 100-150 THB, squid skewers 20-40 THB.
A night market built from painted shipping containers on Yaowarat Road, open Tuesday to Sunday from 17:00 and aimed at Phuket students rather than tour groups: noodle bowls 45-60 THB, draft beer around 60 THB, live acoustic sets from 19:30.
Khao Phra Thaeo's lowland rainforest holds Bang Pae Waterfall and a volunteer-run gibbon centre that asks only for a donation. National park entry is 200 THB for foreigners and 20 THB for Thais; the gibbon calls peak before 10:00.
A 3 km casuarina-shaded beach on the free northern stretch of Sirinat National Park, where the beach shacks under the pines serve som tam, grilled chicken and rice for 60-100 THB and loungers cost less than anywhere on the west coast.
The 11 km sand strip running past the airport runway, where arriving Airbus and Boeing traffic passes roughly 30 m overhead before touchdown. Standing on the public sand costs nothing; the beach-club viewing decks charging 300-500 THB are optional.
The 660 m crossing linking Phuket to the mainland, where the original 1967 bridge is kept as a free pedestrian pier and sunset viewpoint over Phang Nga Bay. Carts at the Phuket end sell squid skewers and iced coffee for 20-50 THB.