An explosion of colour, culture, pageantry and lights, FantaSea Night Time Cultural Theme Park, now FantaSea Phuket, is Thailand meets Las Vegas. Think dancing elephants, elaborate costumes and traditional dance set to a high-tech light and sound extravaganza and that's FantaSea Phuket.
Conceived as a Thai cultural theme park in 1998, there aren't actually any rides – instead, the park consists of a theatre, restaurant, shops and other entertainment areas all inspired by Thai mythology, legends and folklore. Carnival Village Shopping Street purveys souvenirs and other locally made crafts, while the Similian Entertainment Centre is an underwater-themed games arcade, and the Songbird Luminarie and Tiger Jungle Adventure are a song spectacular and an exotic theatrical safari respectively.
The main event is the 4,000-seat Golden Kinaree restaurant, which serves buffet-style Thai and international meals, and the 3,000-seat, state-of-the-art Palace of the Elephants theatre (complete with a replica of an ancient stone palace from the pre-Sukhothai era) showcasing the Las Vegas-style, award-winning theatrical production, Fantasy of a Kingdom. The family-friendly, 75-minute show mixes Thai culture with illusion, aerial ballet, acrobatics, indoor pyrotechnics and stuntwork (plus a 400-strong cast and crew with 44 elephants, three tigers, six buffaloes, 400 pigeons, 40 goats and quite a few chickens!) through song and dance for a multidimensional event.
A show and buffet dinner ticket to this large-scale song and dance spectacle will set you back THB1,900 for adults and THB1,700 for children aged four to 12 years while kids under four are free. A ticket for the Fantasy of a Kingdom show only is THB1,500 per person. To visit, FantaSea Phuket is accessible by the FantaSea van transfer from your hotel or by tuk tuk. FantaSea Phuket is located on Kamala Beach which is 9km and 10 minutes away from Patong Beach.
