Soi Taied Phuket: The Ultimate Guide

Soi Taied Phuket— or as I like to call it — Fitness Street—is the #1 fitness destination in the world for anyone wanting to embrace their fitness goals while meeting awesome people from all around the world in Phuket Thailand.

And assuming that someone you know has told you about this place, it’s quite difficult explaining this place to anyone that has never been here before.

I’ve also recently produced Season 2 of Fitness Street — a “day in the life” video series of Fitness Street where you’ll get a great insight to the training life here! Feel free to start binge watching it.

I’ve also produced a 3-minute highlight reel of Soi Taied Phuket. Check out the video below.

In this article, I’m going to give you everything you need to know to plan a fitness vacation of a lifetime.

Whether you are at the top of your UFC game, a CrossFit athlete, someone starting a fitness journey, or you are in the middle of a life transition, this place has everything you need.

I’ll also be using Soi Taied Phuket and Fitness Street interchangeably. They are one in the same thing.

Okay, let’s get started…

Where is Soi Taied Phuket (aka “Fitness Street”)?

Soi Taied Phuket, or Fitness Street, is about a 40- minute taxi ride from Phuket International airport. Click here to jump to the exact map location.

Upon arriving into Phuket International Airport, the taxi driver won’t know where “Fitness Street” is! You’ll need to tell the driver to take you to Soi Taied in Chalong which is on the same street as Tiger Muay Thai and Unit 27.

If you tell the driver: “same street as Tiger Muay Thai” then they’ll know! Every driver on the island of Phuket will know where to find Tiger Muay Thai.

The cost of a taxi from Phuket International Airport to Soi Taied is approximately 1,000 Baht or, if you take the mini-bus, it’s around 200–300 Baht. And the prices are non-negotiable.

I’ve haggled my way through Asia over the years but Phuket is one place where prices are placarded in most places and it’s very difficult to haggle!

Unfortunately, the taxi prices are disproportionately expensive thus you’ll quickly learn that hiring a scooter is the cheapest method of self-transportation.

What’s Soi Taied Phuket all about?

Soi Taied Phuket is home to more indoor and outdoor fitness training gyms, nutrition supplement stores, healthy-eating bars and restaurants, then anywhere else I’ve seen in the world — most of which are located along one single street.

This is a street filled with training centres for different styles of martial arts (Muay Thai, MMA, BJJ, K1,) gyms, CrossFit, beach training, supplement stores, and eateries that have food menus specifically designed for weight loss goals or macro tracking.

To give you an example of healthy eating menus, Cocoville have a “raw fitness menu” (pictured below) which lists the healthiest food you can imagine! From egg-white omelettes to protein oatmeal pancakes — with peanut butter on the side — all of the gym-goers regular indulgences can be found on this menu.

And most of the healthy eating restaurants and eateries on and around Soi Taied Phuket have menus that look like the raw fitness menu.

You’ll also stumble into small bamboo protein shacks on Fitness street (pictured below.) You’ll pay 60–100 Baht (a few dollars!) for a 24-gram protein shake with your choice of any of the fruits displayed on the bench in front of you.

The protein shake bar that you see pictured below — named Oops — is directly beside Unit 27 — the strength and conditioning CrossFit training centre.

A few people have asked the question of “is it safe to drink protein shakes off the street” and “is the water they use to make the shake okay?”. Short answer. Yes! You’ll see people drinking shakes from them all the time.

Let’s take a look at one fitness camp on Soi Taied Phuket…

Unit 27: Total Conditioning

As you venture down Fitness street you’ll most definitely walk past the famous Unit 27. A weight loss and conditioning fitness camp designed to empower you through your fitness transformation journey whilst meeting amazing like-minded people along the way.

You’ll often see dozens of trainees emerging from the training floor and into the punishing Thai heat — often running, jogging, or dragging tyres up the nearby hill on Fitness street.

Robyn and I decided to buy the 6-class package — valid for 30 days — which cost us 2,580 Baht. If you don’t want to commit to anything and just want to get a taste of the Unit 27 experience — I highly recommend the 6-class drop-in package.

The package we purchased also gives you access to their ice bath and sauna, both of which you can access after you finish a Unit 27 class.

Once you book your accommodation on Fitness street — my favourite place to stay is Cocoville — then step into Unit 27 and organise your training package. You’ll download their app into your phone and book the classes of your choice via the app. It’s very easy!

If you are interested in what Unit 27’s Kalorie Killa and Drill Sergeant classes are like, feel free to check out the three videos I filmed (featuring Robyn) here, here, and here. I’ve time-stamped the videos to jump you straight into the class!

If you’d like to watch a highlight reel of Unit 27, click on the video below.

Based on my experience and with a background in competitive bodybuilding, you definitely do not need to be shredded to train at Unit 27. All fitness levels are welcome at this fitness camp.

Unit 27 is definitely a one-stop-shop fitness camp for anyone wanting to lose weight, prepare for a CrossFit competition, build muscle or dramatically improve cardiovascular performance levels.

Unit 27 also operate their own gym — Primal Fitness— which is a short walk from Unit 27 consisting of everything you’d expect in a typical gym.

This gym is extremely clean and well-equipped and they allow for drop-in access if you feel the need to lift heavy things and put them down again 🙂

They also have a protein shake cafe, bio-impedance room, sauna, ice bath, and a nearby healthy eating restaurant known as Trooper Eats.

Alternatively, after class you can walk 3 minutes down Soi Taied Phuket to Trooper Eats — formally known as Muscle Bar — for a wide range of smoothie bowls, protein and superfood smoothies, and protein pancakes.

Trooper Eats is the perfect balance to the torture you’ll likely experience training at Unit 27.

On the few occasions we visited Trooper Eats, Robyn and I would try something different from the menu. I couldn’t resist but to try the protein pancake stack (see below). I highly recommend this option!

If you’ve never been to Fitness street before then I’d suggest — in addition to booking a training package with Unit 27 — to try other drop-in classes with other camps in the area.

There are around a dozen Muay Thai fitness camps, some within walking distance from Unit 27, that you must try! You don’t need any prior Muay Thai experience and they’ll provide the same cardiovascular conditioning you’ll experience from Unit 27.

Summary of Fitness Camps

Here’s a quick summary list of most of the fitness camps that you should add to your itinerary. I’ve linked videos to each camp so you can click to learn more about them;

You could always try a drop-in class at Tiger Muay Thai — located on Fitness street and about a 5 minute walk from Unit 27.

I’ll spend a few minutes to share our Tiger Muay Thai experience.

Tiger Muay Thai

Tiger Muay Thai is one of the largest mixed martial arts and Muay Thai training gyms in the world. They cater to all levels and offer a variety of training classes; from the infamous Muay Thai, BJJ, and MMA classes to their strength and conditioning classes.

Tiger Muay Thai offer excellent training facilities for prominent UFC competitors such as Valentina Shevchenko and Petr Yan. All the way down to the absolute beginner that has never done Muay Thai before or have any requisite boxing experience.

In 2018, I had taken my girlfriend to Fitness street for the first time where she experienced her first Muay Thai class at Tiger Muay Thai. She absolutely loved it for the cardiovascular conditioning and the opportunity to learn a new skill.

If you are interested in spending most of your time doing the CrossFit or strength & conditioning classes at Tiger Muay Thai — check out this video to see what they are all about.

If you are interested in trying CrossFit classes at other gyms on Fitness street — like Unit 27 — then check out this video, this one, and this one!

If you are new to Fitness street and to Tiger Muay Thai and want a good “introduction” to the camp — and meet a lot of new people — then checking out the Beginner Muay Thai classes is a good idea. As mentioned, most of my earlier videos were filmed in the Beginner area, like this video.

If you are still not convinced, check out the short video below of the Beginner Muay Thai class at Tiger Muay Thai. It will set a realistic expectation of what to expect in your first Muay Thai class.

Despite not being affiliated with Tiger Muay Thai, I have received hundreds of questions about the camp! Everything relating to accommodation, “where to eat,” the trainers, laundry, currency exchange, etc.

This is one of the major reasons why I have filmed over 151 videos on Fitness street! It’s my best attempt to answer all of your questions.

Tiger Muay Thai Beachside

Tiger Muay Thai Beachside is a more recent fitness camp that opened on the 1st of February 2019 and is technically not located on Fitness street.

More accurately, it’s a 10-minute scooter ride from the famous Fitness street and located near Chalong bay not a beach! The nomenclature is very misleading — especially their website promoting this camp near pristine turquoise waters when in fact, you cannot swim in the water due to contamination and dumped rubbish.

Now that I’ve cleared that up, we actually had a great time at Tiger Muay Thai Beachside. It was relatively quiet with a low occupancy rate (around 30%) and very small class sizes.

On the 27th of October 2019, Robyn and I checked into and paid for 1 week worth of accommodation in a shipping container located on-campus at Tiger Muay Thai Beachside — better known as the Hivetel.

If you look closely, the ingenious design of re-purposed shipping containers — stacked side-to-side and on top of each other — gives the well intentioned “bee hive” theme the designers aimed to achieve.

We paid $332 AUD for 1 week to stay at Hivetel. I’ve filmed several videos here (see below) covering off everything you need to know about the accommodation and training at Tiger Muay Thai Beachside.

Check out the following videos;

The biggest disadvantage is that this camp is 10-minutes off the beaten path from Fitness street — which is filled with many healthy eating restaurants and bars — and where most of the “action” is taking place.

For me, I enjoyed the peace and quiet I experienced between classes at this fitness camp. There is a swimming pool water fountain which was mostly without people. The classes were small which made them feel like a private class (sort of). And whenever I felt like immersing myself in the energy of Fitness street, I either jumped on a scooter or rented a bicycle from the front reception. No big deal.

In terms of training, they run a very similar training schedule at Tiger Muay Thai Beachside compared to the main campus on Fitness street. In fact, they often use the same trainers interchangeably between the two camps.

There is one big training floor at Tiger Muay Thai Beachside which is a 2.5 minute walk from Hivetel (I timed it!). Below, my girlfriend did a private beginner Muay Thai class and if you look closely, you can see the size of the training floor. It’s quite big!

Every morning, Robyn and I would wake up and have a light protein-rich breakfast downstairs at the restaurant located on the ground floor at Hivetel.

To be honest, it is not my preferred routine as I like to get my training out of the way first then have breakfast afterward. Due to the morning class clashing with the closing time of the kitchen, you’d almost always miss breakfast if you started your day with training first. Again, not a big deal.

If you’d like to see what a private Muay Thai class looks like at Tiger Muay Thai Beachside — check out this video.

Dragon Muay Thai

One of my favourite Muay Thai camps that you should visit on Fitness street is Dragon Muay Thai. This camp is one of the original camps and, although it’s smaller than other camps, the trainers are excellent and have always taken care of us.

Dragon Muay Thai offer a complete training camp package where they have their own purpose-built accommodation and merchandise that you can buy. They run group and private classes with the option to do drop-in classes — which I highly recommend trying.

Below, Robyn is being coached on the fundamentals of Muay Thai with Kru Charn. If you’d like to watch Robyn’s private class, click here to check it out.

Every time I return to Fitness street, I always make an effort to drop into Dragon Muay Thai and pay 700 Baht for singular private classes with Kru Charn. He’s just a really fun trainer that breaks down the Muay Thai techniques into the fundamental building blocks.

I’ve filmed many videos at this gym that will answer all of your questions relating to this fitness camp, including a short accommodation tour (watch the walking tour video)

Check these videos out;