This guide is built from the live tour page of Phuket Old Town Food Tour on A Chef’s Tour — price, start time, group size, tastings and dietary notes come straight from the operator, never invented.

Two Phuket Tours, One Town

A Chef’s Tour runs small-group food walks in about 80 cities, led by cooks, chefs and local foodies. Phuket has two listings at US$59 per person. Both take place in Phuket Town rather than on the beaches, both promise 15+ tastings in the listings’ structured details, and both are walking tours with groups of no more than eight. They differ in time of day, in what they emphasise and in a few details the operator’s pages spell out.

How we wrote this: we are Joona and Alla, family travellers based in Rovaniemi, Finland, and we have not taken this tour. We research food tours from the live tour pages and send readers to the ones that hold up, so every fact below comes from A Chef’s Tour’s own page.

Both pages lean on Phuket’s food heritage. The Phuket Old Town page says Phuket is a melting pot of Thai, Malay, Burmese and Chinese cooking and states it was crowned “Thailand City of Gastronomy 2017” by UNESCO. The Phuket Food Tour page says its tours have been “voted the #1 culinary experience on the island” and refers to UNESCO World Heritage intangible status for the food. We cannot verify those claims and repeat them only as the operator’s.

The Phuket Old Town Food Tour: Market, Teashop and Noodles

The page describes a lunchtime tour: mop up Burmese curries with wood-fired naans, slurp chai at a tucked-away Burmese teashop, work chopsticks over what it calls the best bowl of Hokkien noodles in Phuket Town, and dip flaky roti into creamy massaman curry, “along with more than a dozen more dishes”. The listed time is 10:00–14:00.

The page also gives an unusual amount of schedule detail. The regular tour runs at 10:00am and 10:30am, and sometimes an extra tour is added at 12:30pm. Only the 12:30pm tour “doesn’t go inside the market (but our earlier tour times do!)”. So if the market matters to you, pick a 10:00 or 10:30 departure. The page also warns that street food vendors take time off, so not every Phuket food tour will be exactly the same.

The Phuket Food Tour: Old Town Streets and Sino-Thai Cooking

The page for the Phuket Food Tour sets out a four-hour walk round the back alleys and Sino-Thai streets of old Phuket Town, from 15:00 to 19:00. The tastings it names are sticky handmade fresh spring rolls, wok-fried mee hoon, Hokkien noodles with prawn wontons and char siu barbecue pork, leaf-wrapped miang kham bites, spiced chicken curry puffs and gaeng som fish curry, “along with plenty more”. It describes the route as a journey through Baba and Peranakan food history, covering Chinese and Malay influences, ingredients and the history of the dishes.

The page says it is not about “Thai green curry or spicy som tum salads; that’s mainland fare”. The text says 14+ tastes while the structured details say 15+; plan for 14 and treat the rest as a bonus.

Side by Side

Morning or Afternoon: Heat, Crowds and Energy

Phuket is hot and humid all year, and a four-hour walk is a long time to be outdoors. The Old Town tour begins at 10:00 and runs into the early afternoon, which means the last stretch happens at the hottest time of day, though the market and the teashop provide shade and a place to sit. The Phuket Food Tour starts at 15:00 and finishes at 19:00 as the light and temperature drop, which many travellers find easier. On the other hand, a mid-morning start leaves your afternoon free for the beach, and the market is livelier earlier in the day.

Neither page lists a child policy, so we cannot say whether children pay less. A 10:00 start suits young children’s routines better than a 19:00 finish, but the afternoon tour avoids the sun at its strongest. Ask A Chef’s Tour about prices for children before you book.

Getting there is the other practical question. Phuket Town is the island’s old administrative centre, inland from the beach resorts, so most visitors will need a taxi, ride-hailing car or hired transport to reach it, and should allow generous travel time. The Old Town page says guests come from all over the island, so there is a meeting point instead of hotel pick-up, and your guide can help you find transport back at the end. The Phuket Food Tour page says pick-up is not included. Neither page names the exact meeting point, which is sent with your booking confirmation. Plan your transport after you have confirmed the date, and ask for the meeting point as soon as it is available so you can check the journey time from your hotel.

Dietary Notes: Thin on Both Pages

The Old Town page lists one dietary line: “Gluten in 2-3 tastings (out of 15 total) so OK if a mild intolerance. Not advised for celiac disease, as unavoidable traces of soy sauce in some tastings (out of 15 total)”. The Phuket Food Tour page lists none.

That is a gap, not a clearance. The dishes both pages name include pork (char siu, Hokkien noodles with wontons), seafood (prawn wontons, fish curry), wheat (noodles, roti, naan, spring-roll wrappers) and chicken, so vegetarians, pork-avoiders and anyone with a shellfish allergy should ask A Chef’s Tour before booking (info@achefstour.com). Street-food tours cannot guarantee allergen-free dishes.

Which Phuket Tour Should You Pick?

Our rule of thumb: pick the Phuket Old Town Food Tour if you want to see a working market from the inside, enjoy a Burmese-influenced menu and prefer to eat earlier. Pick the Phuket Food Tour if you want a cooler walk, a Sino-Thai menu and an evening finish. If you have a few days in Phuket Town, doing both is reasonable because the named dishes overlap only on Hokkien noodles. Doing both on consecutive days also lets you compare how the same town’s food looks in the morning market light and in the early evening, which is a good reason to spread them out instead of booking both in one day.

One caveat for the Old Town tour: if you book the 12:30 departure you lose the market, which the page says only earlier departures include. Check the calendar and choose 10:00 or 10:30 if the market is your reason for booking.

How to Book

Bookings are made directly on achefstour.com, not through us: open the tour page, pick a date on the live calendar and you get instant confirmation. We never take payment. Open the Phuket Old Town Food Tour or Phuket Food Tour page and choose your date.

1. Choose the date and the number of guests on the tour page.
2. Check the meeting point and start time on your booking confirmation.
3. Tell A Chef’s Tour about dietary needs when you book (info@achefstour.com) rather than at the stall.

Both pages say you can cancel any time up to 48 hours before your tour for a full refund. The Old Town page also says street food vendors take time off, so a given day’s tastings can differ.

We are an A Chef’s Tour affiliate and earn a commission on bookings made through our links — it does not change the price you pay.

FAQ

Our Honest Final Word

These are two sensible Phuket Town walks at the same price, and the choice is mostly time of day. If you want a market and a Burmese teashop, book the Phuket Old Town Food Tour on a 10:00 or 10:30 departure. If you want a cooler, later walk through Sino-Thai Phuket Town, book the Phuket Food Tour. Both have dietary gaps, so ask first if you have restrictions.

We haven’t taken either, so this is research, not a review. Treat the operator’s UNESCO and “#1” claims as its own, and judge the tours on the menu, the timetable and the small group.

On value: US$59 for 15+ tastings and a guide in a group of eight is mid-range for A Chef’s Tour’s Asian tours, in line with Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Individual dishes in Phuket Town are cheap, so you are paying for selection, access, the story behind each dish and not having to work out where to start. If you only want a quick lunch or you eat very little, the price is harder to justify; if you like to try many small portions, it is straightforward.