Phuket Mining Museum

Before tourism there was tin, and this museum in Kathu explains where the island's first fortunes came from. Set in an airy Sino-colonial villa, the galleries w…Before tourism there was tin, and this museum in Kathu explains where the island's first fortunes came from. Set in an airy Sino-colonial villa, the galleries walk through the ore, the dredges, the migrant labour from southern China and the merchant families the boom created, which is the backstory to every restored mansion in the old capital.

It sits inland between the west coast and the town, an easy add-on to a day crossing the island, and crowds stay thin compared with the coast.