A night in Patong, built around the fights

Before the bell: sunset and dinner

Patong beach faces west, so the sunset is the one fixed appointment of the afternoon. After it, the streets behind the beach road fill with food: seafood restaurants, stalls and the night market areas that open as the day cools.

Eat earlier than you would at home. A meal from around seven leaves time to walk to Sai Nam Yen Road — or come in when the doors open at 19:30 and eat and drink at the stadium bar while the fighters get their oil massage and warm up before the first bell at 21:00.

The bar is not the only thing inside. The stadium also has a Muay Thai gear shop and a BB Gun (airsoft) play area, so arriving when the doors open fills the time before the first bell instead of wasting it.

The fights

A card at Patong Boxing Stadium has 6 to 8 bouts and is over by midnight at the latest, with a live band setting the pace and a crowd that stands up for the good exchanges. RINGSIDE is 1,800 THB, STADIUM is 1,500 THB, and both include a stadium shirt.

It is also the part of the evening that is easiest to get wrong by leaving it late. The stadium is closed on Sunday, so if your trip includes a Sunday, plan the fights for another night.

After the last bout

Bangla Road is a few minutes' walk away and does not properly start until late, so coming out of the stadium at eleven puts you there at a sensible time rather than an early one. It is pedestrianised in the evening, loud, and free to walk down.

Quieter options exist in the same few streets: the beach road, the bars around Jungceylon, and the food stalls that stay open long after the shops close.

An evening that works with children

The fights take children — a child pays the same 1,500 THB as an adult for STADIUM and an infant on a lap needs no ticket — and the early part of the evening, the beach and the markets, is the easy part. Bangla Road after the fights is not a children's street.

If you are travelling as a family, book the free shared van both ways. Being collected from the hotel and dropped back is worth more with tired children than it is with anyone else.

Getting back

Everyone leaves the stadium at once, which is when taxis get expensive. The free shared van covers Patong, Kata and Karon in both directions when you add it to your booking.

Outside those areas, agree your return before the fights rather than after — the queue of people doing the same thing is not the moment to start negotiating.