Rawai, Phuket: who it suits, the beaches and what homes cost

Where Rawai is

Rawai is Phuket’s southern tip. Administratively it is a subdistrict (tambon) of Mueang Phuket district, run since 2007 by Rawai Municipality, whose boundaries match the subdistrict. It covers about 38 km²: roughly 23 km² on Phuket itself and 15 km² spread over nine islands.

According to the municipality, Rawai borders Chalong to the north, Karon to the west, Chalong Bay to the east and the Andaman Sea to the south. It has seven villages; the most populous are Bang Khonthi (6,737 registered residents) and Hat Rawai (3,713). If a listing says Nai Harn, Ya Nui or Promthep, it is in Rawai. Nai Harn, with its beach and lake, has its own page.

Who Rawai suits

• People who head out to Racha Yai and the other islands. Boats leave Rawai pier for Racha Yai, Koh He, Koh Lon and Koh Kaew Pisadan, all within the subdistrict. Racha Yai, about 15 km out, has shallow coral reefs and swimming beaches, per the municipality. More in our Racha islands guide
• People who want a quiet cove. The municipality describes Ya Nui as a small cove north of Promthep for visitors seeking peace and quiet. Nai Harn is a long beach of fine sand next to a lake and park
• Families who want an international school in the subdistrict. There are three MOE-licensed schools here, including Lighthouse at Rawai International School, and seven more in neighbouring Chalong
• People who commute to town. Phuket Old Town is 16.7 km away, about 19 minutes without traffic
• People eyeing a new project near the southern beaches. Six condominiums with Rawai in the name received EIA approval between 21 December 2021 and 23 February 2026, and The Title Cielo Rawai is offered from THB 5.7 million as of 2026-10-17

Who should look elsewhere

• People for whom the airport is too far from the southern tip. HKT is 46.8 km from Rawai Beach and 48 km from Nai Harn, 56-59 minutes without traffic: Rawai is at the southern tip of the island and the airport at the northern end
• Anyone who wants a swimming beach right at the door. Rawai Beach is not for swimming: mud and rock, and the water goes out about 100 metres at low tide. People swim at Nai Harn, which has strong waves from May to October, and at Ya Nui, which is small and, the municipality notes, crowded in high season
• People who want a hospital round the corner. There is no licensed inpatient hospital in Rawai itself: the state Chalong Hospital is 6.9 km, 9 minutes away, and Bangkok Hospital Phuket 18.6 km, 22 minutes
• Anyone who wants to tour the southern beaches by taxi and bus. The Smart Bus (THB 100) stops at Kata Palm, Sai Yuan and Rawai Beach, the municipality notes there are no taxis and little parking at Ya Nui, and we found no official songthaew route
• Nightlife seekers. Rawai’s official descriptions do not mention bar strips or nightlife. For that, people head to Kata or Patong

Rawai by the numbers

A note on the valuation. The Treasury Department’s appraisal is used to calculate transfer fees and taxes; it is not a sale price. We took all residential units, with or without balconies, the median for each floor, then the median across a building’s floors, then the median across Rawai’s 33 buildings (snapshot 2024-08-05). The calculation is reproducible; we can share the script on request. We do not publish rental figures until we have our own dated measurements.

Weather: the nearest Thai Meteorological Department station with 30-year normals is in Phuket Town. February is the driest month (24 mm of rain), September the wettest (350 mm). From May to October it rains on 19-23 days a month, from December to March on 3-10. More on Phuket weather by month; for wet-season swimming see calm beaches in Phuket.

Beaches and landmarks

Chalong Pier, where many tour boats depart, also falls inside Rawai on OpenStreetMap’s boundaries, at the subdistrict’s northeastern edge.

Property and new projects in Rawai

Searching ONEP’s Smart EIA Plus database, six condo projects with “Rawai” in the name have received environmental impact approval since 2021:

More are under review, including VIP Space Odyssey Rawai Phase 2. The search was by name, so projects in Rawai without the word in their title are missing, for example Rawayana North (EIA 2024-01-18) and Rawayana South (2024-03-05). Only larger condominiums need an EIA, so a smaller project can legally go ahead without one. EIA approval says nothing about ownership type or completion dates. Our register lists 23 projects in Rawai in total.

On sale now, per developers’ sites checked 2026-10-17:

All southern projects on sale are gathered in the Rawai and Nai Harn collection (catalogue in Russian). Buying as a foreigner? Start with how freehold, the 49% quota and leasehold work in Thailand: ownership type and quota are always confirmed project by project.

Living in Rawai: schools, hospitals, shops, transport

Schools. The Ministry of Education’s private school register (OPEC) lists three international schools in Rawai subdistrict:

• Lighthouse at Phuket International School, Soi Salika
• Lighthouse at Rawai International School
• Innovative Sustainable Pathway International School Phuket

State schools on the OBEC list are Wat Sawang Arom on Wiset Road (kindergarten to grade 9, 833 pupils in 2020) and a tiny school on Koh Lon island. Seven more international schools are registered in neighbouring Chalong.

Hospitals. No licensed inpatient hospital is located in Rawai; all five private hospitals on the island are in town and its suburbs (Ministry of Public Health HSS list, 2026-07-31). Where to go from Rawai:

Distances: to Chalong Hospital and to Bangkok Hospital Phuket, OSRM, 2026-10-17. Chalong Hospital’s address (99 Chao Fa West Road) comes from OpenStreetMap because its official site sits behind a Cloudflare check. Other hospitals are listed on the Phuket Town page.

Shops. OpenStreetMap shows 15 places tagged as supermarkets, 6 markets and 1 mall in Rawai subdistrict as of 2026-10-17. Chains include two Tops, a Lotus’s go fresh and two Makro stores (the one people call Makro Chalong is inside Rawai’s boundary on the map). The chains’ store locators would not load, so locations are map-only. The big Central Phuket malls are in Wichit on the edge of town, open 10:00-22:00.

Transport. Phuket Smart Bus runs from the airport via Surin, Kamala, Patong, Karon and Kata to Rawai Beach, with local stops at Kata Palm, Sai Yuan and Rawai Beach. Every ride is a flat THB 100, paid by card, QR or cash. From the airport the first bus is at 08:15 and the last at 23:30, every 30 minutes in the daytime; from Rawai Beach to the airport, 06:45-19:30. Three a day continue to Promthep Cape. This is the operator’s timetable from 2026-01-16; journey times depend on traffic. We found no official songthaew routes or fares from the Ranong Road market and do not publish them. Otherwise it is ride-hailing (see taxis in Phuket) or your own scooter or car.

Rawai vs its neighbours

Sources: Treasury (snapshot 2024-08-05, our calculation), OSRM routes on OpenStreetMap (2026-10-17) from Rawai Beach, Nai Harn Beach, Wat Chalong and Kata, beach descriptions by Rawai and Karon municipalities.

Found an error or outdated fact? Tell the editors, we will fix it and update the check date.