Cabaret or sunset dinner cruise?

The quick answer

Set side by side, the two options barely overlap, and the choice tends to make itself once you know whether you can spare a full day. The cabaret is a one-hour revue in a Patong theatre that you can drop into after a day of anything else. The catamaran is most of a day: pickup before lunch, snorkelling off Coral Island, then the sail back with dinner on deck near Promthep Cape as the light goes. Pick by time, by whether you want the sea at all, and by who you are travelling with.

Two very different nights out

The cabaret asks for an hour and a short ride; you could fit it into a day spent at the pool, on a tour or in the old town. It is indoors, so rain does not touch it. The sunset cruise turns the whole day into the outing and leaves you back at your hotel after dark, salty and fed. One is a stage show, mimed to recorded songs by a kathoey cast in costume after costume. The other is a boat, a reef and a sky. Comparing them is less about which is better and more about what the rest of your trip already holds.

What the cabaret hour gives you

An hour-long revue of show numbers running from Thai classical to Western pop, each with its own costume and backdrop, performed by a professional kathoey company in a theatre in Patong. The songs are recorded and the performers mime, so the craft is the dancing, the costumes and how fast the stage changes. You collect your ticket at the theatre, phones and cameras stay away during the show, and afterwards the cast poses for pictures, each for a small fee. Food, drinks and the trip there cost extra, and child rates exist.

What the sunset cruise gives you

The catamaran outing starts with a van from hotels in Patong, Kata or Karon to the pier, Chalong or Rawai depending on the day's scheduling and the weather. You sail to Coral Island, also called Koh Hey, to snorkel over the reef and spend free time on the beach, with water sports such as kayaking or parasailing for those who want to pay for them. On the way back a Thai buffet dinner is served on board near Promthep Cape as the sun goes down. Water, soft drinks and fruit juice come with it, and a photographer sails with the boat.

Time: one hour against six

Time is the clearest dividing line. The cabaret takes about an hour plus the ride there, so you can pair it with almost anything: a morning tour, an afternoon by the pool, a late dinner. The cruise takes about six hours from pickup, which means the day is planned around it. It also comes with a booking cut-off well ahead of departure and asks for your hotel name and a contact number, so it is not something to decide on at the last minute. If your trip is short, the cabaret steals less of it.

Food, drink and the bill

With the cabaret you pay for admission only and choose where to eat, before or after, from the many places in Patong. That keeps the ticket small but means dinner is a separate decision and a separate bill. The cruise folds dinner into the day: a Thai buffet on board, plus water, soft drinks and juice, though tips and any extra water sports on the island are paid separately. Overall the cruise is the larger spend in both money and hours; the cabaret leaves more of both for the rest of your evening.

Sea, weather and the sunset

A boat trip lives and dies by the conditions. Phuket's dry season runs from December through March, and the wet season covers the remaining eight months, with occasional rain even in the dry months. The cruise operator may switch piers or boats for the weather, and no sunset is ever guaranteed. The cabaret has none of these worries: it is indoors, it runs in the rain, and an hour in a theatre is a good plan for a stormy evening. If your dates fall in the wet season, keep the cabaret as the dependable option.

Who each one suits

The cabaret suits couples and friends after a light, colourful hour, first-time visitors who want a show with a Thai flavour, and anyone with little time or patience for a long outing. Families can come, since child rates exist, as long as your children are happy with loud music in a dark theatre. The cruise suits swimmers and snorkellers, people who want the sea and a sunset in one go, and groups happy to give up a full day. It is a good choice for a trip's big day out, where the cabaret works best as an easy evening.

Who this isn't for

Leave the cruise out if anyone in your party cannot swim, is prone to seasickness, is pregnant or has limited mobility; all of these are named as unsuitable for the trip, and wheelchair users are not catered for. Skip the cabaret if you want live vocals or a meal included, or if a kathoey cast is not something you would enjoy. And skip both on the same day: the cruise returns after dark, which leaves no comfortable window to reach a theatre in Patong.

Doing both on one trip

If you have two evenings, there is no need to choose. One easy shape is the cruise early in the trip, on whichever day the forecast looks kindest, and the cabaret on a night when you want something short, perhaps your first evening after landing or your last before you leave. Book the cruise first, because it depends more on weather and has the earlier cut-off, then put the cabaret on another evening. The guide to three Phuket days shows how both fit with an island day and an elephant visit.

Read next: Three Phuket days with the show