Originally Posted by
italdesign
Another perspective: I avoided Patong myself, but my mom and aunt spent half day there shopping courtesy of a free hotel shuttle. They really enjoyed being able to find a lot of cheap crafts . So, it's not all parties and drugs.
You are right. Patong is (beside of Phuket town) the main shopping area of Phuket. But people do that on daytime, most of them not every day and it's easy to get to Patong and back on daytime from almost all other beaches/hotels.
So shopping shouldn't be an argument to chose a hotel in Patong.