PHUKET

 
Offshore islands from the roof pool of The Bay hotel, Cape Panwa, a quiet area in the south-east of Phuket.

UPDATED SEPT 09

I’ve resisted doing a Phuket page until now because being such a big diverse island it needs a very frequent visitor or a local to do it justice - which local Jamie does in his Phuket Blog in the link list to the right.
However I’m constantly writing answers about Phuket on Thorntree and similar, and with JetStar flying direct from Australia into Phuket I have become a frequent visitor to the place, so I’ll put the information here to save some time in the future.


ARRIVING AT THE AIRPORT
Phuket airport is towards the northern (mainland) end of the island, some 32 km from Phuket town and 40+ from the big 3 beach areas of Patong, Karon and Kata.
There are a number of ways to get to your destination.

The Airport Bus - a full size coach, runs between 0630 and 2045, every 75 to 90 minutes for 85 baht down to Phuket town bus station, taking an hour. A timetable and interim stops can be seen here http://www.airportbusphuket.com/.
UPDATE FEB08 - I caught the 1730 airport bus out of Phuket town last week. It picked up heaps of schoolkids and other Thais along the way and stopped at just about every stop to the airport - as a result it took a bit over 90 minutes. Don't rely on the claimed hour if you are on a tight flight schedule.
Interestingly, I caught the same time bus last April, it didn't have any kids but a fair few Thai adults, and took abt 70m. Maybe the school system has changed its hours, although it did seem awfully late.
You can find it at the airport by exiting ARRIVALS turning left, walking past the scrum of people loading into the shuttle minivans and limos, veering left again and less than 50m on you will see a medium sized coach in a quiet area alongside the terminal.
Note for budget travellers heading to the beaches the shuttle minibuses are better - the Airport Bus finishes at Phuket town's bus station from which it is too long for an easy walk to where the beach songthaews leave alongside the fresh produce market, and the songthaews are crowded and take a long time to reach the beaches.

The Airport Shuttle Minibus Service is very popular because it will drop you at your accommodation. Tickets can be bought at the limo counter just inside the exit door at Arrivals. I've got Dec 08 prices further down page.
The minibuses first stop at a small travel agency outside Phuket town where they sell passengers accommodation or daytrips. If you have already arranged things, no problems. After about 15 minutes they load you into various vans and away you go to do the rounds of accommodation places in your area of destination.

Meter Taxis can be found outside the Arrivals exit, turn right, walk 150m. The beaches are around 400 to 500 baht and Phuket town maybe 300-350. Time taken to the beaches is 45 to 55 minutes depending on which beach, and can vary with traffic. Phuket town is say 35 minutes.
Note when I arrived at 2100 in August there were no cabs and the guy at the counter said he would radio - maybe a 40 minute wait. I don’t think there is this delay at busier times.
UPDATE AUGUST 09 - I used a cab on my latest visit. Arrived about 1700, was dealyed until virtually everyone on my flight had left the airport but there were still 4 cabs waiting. Girl at office told me the 100baht airport fee + meter would probably total about 280 to Kamala. Actual cost 240 in light traffic. That compares to 600 at the limo counter. Not sure if you would save such a big percentage over longer trips to the big 3 beaches or the south of the island.

The Limo Service is not that much dearer (UDATE ahem - read the last few lines above). The cars are not Caddys or Mercs - more like late model Camrys. Cost is reasonable - I went to Kata for 650 in August. Patong is maybe 550.That would make Phuket town around 450-500.
I’ll try to get an update on all these prices when I arrive in January.
UPDATE DEC 08 I went thru Phuket airport a few weeks ago and called in to the counter for some current prices:
Limos - Patong 650baht, Kata Karon Cape Panwa 750, Kamala 600, Surin 550, Phuket Town 500, Khao Lak 1500, Krabi (Ao Nang) 2500.
Minibus - Patong 150, Kata Karon 180, Phuket Town 100.
ph - 076 351347-9
This link should keep up to date limo prices from the airport - has a bigger range than mine above too - http://phuketdir.com/palbuco/index.htm

If you want a fine hotel close to the airport, the Naithonburi on Naithon Beach does the job. Only 10 minutes from Arrivals, you have a true midrange plus place with lovely pool, big spotless comfortable rooms with all the expected inclusions and a huge buffet brekka included in the price which in low season was a ridiculous 1450 baht including airport pickup and return in August09. The brekka is geared for early flights, starting at 0630. The nice low key beach is behind the trees in background. The hotel's restaurant prices not too bad with budget options along the main beach road out front. Very quiet at night here (CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGE).

Phuket is undergoing a frenzy of development - particularly in holiday condo style places, including time-share. In August09 the area immediately south of Naithon had half a dozen similar projects to this going. This shot is actually the area just south of Kamala Beach - interestingly only about 10% of these were finished and over 50% had no work being done on them. Looks like the World Financial Crisis bit hard here. And someone may have overestimated the buying capacity of the growing Thai middle class - there could be some good deals to clear these joints in the next few years. I've seen similar developments in the heights behind Kata and Karon, on Phuket's upper east coast, on nearby Ko Yao Noi and of course in places like Lanta and Samui.


ARRIVING BY FERRY
Most ferry ticket prices include free shuttle bus transport to your accommodation if it is at the popular beaches or Phuket town. Otherwise there are cabs and motorcycle taxis waiting.


ARRIVING BY BUS
Phuket town bus station is currently about 3 blocks from town central so it is an inexpensive cab, tuk-tuk (agree on the price first!) or motor cycle taxi (ditto) ride to most places of accommodation in town. If you are heading to the beaches, you could negotiate a trip right thru or get them to drop you at Thanong Ranong outside the Day Markets where the songthaew buses for the beaches and most other island destinations leave. The destinations are in English script on the front of the songthaews.
Note the market was being rebuilt in August, but I reckon it will just about be finished by now (Dec 07) ....Update Dec 08: Nope, structure is up but looks to have a lot of finishing details to do.
If you are heading for a ferry to Phi Phi, Lanta or Krabi, buy your ferry ticket at the travel agent in the bus station - tickets are cheaper than at the pier and should include free transport to the port about 5 km from town central.
Note too a NEW BUS STATION is being built on the outskirts of Phuket town. I’ll update when it opens. Update Dec 08: The old bus station is still operating, which is good and bad: good in that it is so close to town central, bad in that the facilities are pretty basic and grotty. Apparantly the new one will be several km out of town on one of the arterial roads - meaning more expensive to access by motorcycle taxi or tuk-tuk.


FROM THE AIRPORT TO PHI PHI, KRABI, KHAO LAK, LANTA.
I have a fair bit of info in the respective pages of each place.
Some people even head for Samui/Phangan/Tao from Phuket airport. Well, like the others, head out to the main road, or down to the bus station, and look in this case for a Surathani bus. UPDATE - look in the immediately following section for the new minibus service to Ko Lanta..


LEAVING PHUKET
Basically this is the reverse of the above with the following exceptions:
* I don’t know how the airport shuttle minivans or limos work in reverse. maybe you could use the phone number above.
* Hotels can supply a car to the airport. But there are always guys out front in the street who can be negotiated to do it for less. Busier places have meter taxis.
* There is now a Phuket to Lanta minivan service, running about 3 services a day rather than hourly as shown on the website - http://www.lantainfo.com/getting_ko_lanta_drive_phuket.htm
It won't come into the airport unless you pay double the ridiculously low 201 fare from Phuket town bus station. It drops off at Krabi town bus station too.
There are also Krabi - Phuket minivans. I don't know how they work in reverse - perhaps you could contact via the sublink on my Krabi page.
* If you are heading for a ferry, there are heaps of small travel agents and counters at the beaches and in Phuket town for tickets, plus your hotel’s travel desk - note price can vary markedly so it pays to shop around. And you will pay more at the pier. The price will include free pick up and transfer to the pier from the popular beaches and Phuket town.

Karon Beach - Phuket gets some knockers, but even the popular beaches are pretty nice (image CreativeCommons -yeowatzup)



SOME GENERAL INFORMATION ON PHUKET.
Phuket gets lots of bad press on travellers‘ sites, which it doesn’t deserve.
Sure, Patong is like Miami Beach or Surfers Paradise with an extra helping of sleaze, but Phuket is a big island with a wide range of beaches from party to laid back, has some great scenery and a big variety of other attractions. It is surrounded by a range of other attractive areas and so is one of the better islands as a base for daytrips.
Another plus is that Phuket is bursting with midrange and upper hotels meaning that competition in low season (April/May to early November) forces prices down to 30% of their high season levels - $us30 can buy a great midrange room with huge buffet breakfast. $us80 can get you the Ritz.
One other thing - the big 3 beaches of Patong, Karon and Kata may be commercialised with their western hotels, beach chairs and umbrellas, but they sure are pretty beaches. Makes the dump which is Pattaya beach look just that. And they still have their element of Thai character - there is a bunch of beachfront restaurants and a little bar at the southern headland of Kata Yai which has food and booze at similar prices to a lot of their counterparts on less commercial islands. And they sure are nice places to sit and watch the passing parade, not to mention the waves and surfers in low season when a bit of swell actually appears, not too common in Thailand.
Which reminds me, Phuket gets a fair few tourist drownings low season, so take care, swim in areas designated by the safe swimming flags. And perhaps read my Some Tips on Not Drowning page.
Don’t worry high season - the sea at all the western beaches tends to be flat as a board.

To its credit, Phuket has lifeguard towers on its more popular beaches. This one at Kamala is unmanned in this low season shot - the lifeguard had actually gone for a paddle on his rescue board to get a few waves. Just as easy to keep an eye on the 2 or 3 swimmers from in the water.


Phuket Map - Cape Panwa is the peninsula between Phuket Bay and Rawai at bottom right (image eKoChang.com)

THE BEACHES
Of the big 3 beach areas, I like KATA best. The twin beaches here are more compact and less crowded than PATONG and KARON and probably a bit more sheltered wet season.
In dry season KATA NOI, the more southern of the two seems to be the better - I particularly like the section down near the southern headland. I noticed quite a few people snorkelling along the rocks here in March.
However in wet season (I visited again in August) all the small food stalls etc in this area were closed down, wind blown flotsam had accumulated and the rest of the beach was semi deserted - KATA YAI seemed much more lively and attractive.
There is a big range of midrange and high end accommodation at both beaches. If you want beachfront I think it would be hard to beat Katathani on Noi in high season. On Yai, Kata Beach Resort has some very nice beach-front rooms. There are a bunch of other nice joints on the 4 high headlands of these beaches with great views.

Viewpoint behind Kata - Kata Noi in foreground, Kata Yai next, Karon behind and Patong at top (image THAILAND SOUTHERN.COM)
I stayed this August at a nice midrange place called Poolside which gets good reviews on Agoda and similar booking sites. It is located adjacent to the shopping precinct at the south end of Kata Yai only one block from best section of the beach, and had real nice aircon rooms, a good pool as the name kinda suggests, friendly staff and a great buffet breakfast for around $us30 a night low season. There is a good range of restaurants surrounding and those budget ones mentioned before against the southern headland are only 10 minutes walk away.
Early morning shot - part of of Poolside Hotel's pool area.

Budget wise, Happy Hut, the great little place I stayed at many years back is long gone, but over the years lots of good posts and reviews have come in on Fantasy Hill Bunglalow which is located on the northern headland of Kata Yai - Telephone: 076 33 0106
Kata Noi is a bit scarce of budget joints.
Jamie has a list of budget places on Kata Yai and nearby Karon (plus Phuket Town) here.

UDATE MARCH 08 - Jamie has just supplied news of more budget accommodation in a good location: "The Pineapple Guesthouse in Karon will have a backpackers dorm ready within the next couple of weeks, 150 - 200 Baht/night."


GETTING BETWEEN THE BEACHES.
It’s kinda crazy, but songthaews don’t really connect the popular west coast beaches. That’s not quite correct, because those starting at the waiting point at the south end of Kata Yai actually run across to central Karon before returning on the inner loop road and heading off to Phuket town.
But there are no songthaews between Kata Noi and Yai - no problems, you can walk across the headland in less than 10 minutes.
It takes not too much longer to walk over the headland between Kata Yai and Karon (but a hell of a lot longer to walk the beach - it is one loooong beach).
However the gap between Karon and Patong is a biggy - it takes about 10 minutes to drive this. Now there are tuk tuks which will happily provide this service, but the rates are a complete rip-off at 200+(one positive - they are clearly sign-posted at the tuk-tuk waiting stations) and I found it cheaper to bargain-down a car from one of those guys who hang around outside hotels to do this journey.

Alternatively, you could catch a songthaew into Phuket town and then out to the next beach - only about 40baht each trip - but Karon-Phuket town is about 50 minutes and Phuket town-Patong the best part of 40.

The gaps between the west coast beaches north of Patong are mostly equally non walkable.
Heaps of motorcycles are for hire cheaply, but make sure you have an international licence and are given a helmet - this is one place where the cops seem keen on checking these out.

On a Phuket visit last century I hired a bicycle - outside the beach towns and Phuket town the roads have a good run-off lane and are pretty safe - but the trips over the headlands between beaches and across to the other side of the island have major hills, the kind that keep on keeping-on just when you think you are at the summit - I ride daily in a very hilly town and still found Phuket a real good challenge.

On that bicycle-propelled trip I checked most of the west coast beaches They were real laid back north of Patong, but I believe the ones fairly close (KAMALA etc) are now fairly well developed whereas the ones closer to the airport (NAI THON, NAI YANG etc) are still very relaxed and a real contrast to the beaches south.

UPDATE MARCH 08 - Thorntree poster living stayed at Patong, was less than impressed and hired a car to check for nicer beaches. He/she was rather whelmed by Nai Yang:
"Naiyang Beach would be our choice for a place to holiday in Thailand if we were ever to come again. Big enough to have lots of local little restaurants and bars and longtails to take you snorkeling. A good swimming beach. Plenty of modest looking but comfy beach cabins. We had a great lunch on the beach there – some of the best Thai food of the trip and incredible coffee – which can be hard to come by here."
South end of Nai Yang, a reasonably long, curved, casuarina lined beach with a lot of undeveloped areas in the middle and north, fair enough because it is part of the national park. A handful of accommodation places from high end to flashpacker in the south. Nai Yang is a favourite with beach going locals so there are some good food stands and small restaurants. The airport is only 5 minutes away. Image - Panoramio: Kristof Cornelis

I also rode all around the hilly southern part of the island - some nice beach areas and good viewpoints. I understand it is still similar, although my checking of the accommodation websites before August showed there is now quite a good range of accommodation in places like NAI HARN and RAWAI
.
Another nice area which caught my eye back then was the hilly CAPE PANWA area in the south-east of the island, and so on a second visit this August, I went and stayed a few days at The Bay Hotel there. Hey, nice midrange place only 200 m from the Phuket Aquarium, in the $us35 range low season inc breakfast, fabulous rooftop pool with million dollar views of the offshore islands and the south end of Phuket (see picture top of this page), a good street-front budget restaurant, not bad shopping, a small minimart, regular 30 minute songthaews into Phuket town. And best of all, free access to most facilities and a free shuttle bus across to the nearby higher grade Cape Panwa Hotel which has a lovely beach on its own little bay (see the photo under the grinning Lek in the right-hand column), nicely sheltered from the wet season westerlies which tend to get a bit blustery say one day in four or five. The beach at The Bay is pretty ordinary.

A second ground level pool at The Bay Hotel, Cape Panwa

PHUKET TOWN.
A lot of people fly or bus into Phuket and then leave next day for Phi Phi, Lanta etc. Phuket town is the obvious overnighter - it is closer to the airport than the popular beaches, real close to the ferry piers and the bus-station and has a good range of accommodation of all standards.
It also has good shopping and eats for people intending to stay longer, and quite a few travellers make Phuket town their base and go out to the beaches or to other island attractions each day. However it is pretty quiet in the night-life/entertainment stakes for non-locals not in the know.

Actually, if I was on a flight which gave me part of an afternoon at the beaches on arrival, I would pick these instead of Phuket town. Have a swim, a beer/meal in a beachfront bar, walk the sand, grab some entertainment. The shuttle buses to the pier take an extra 15-20 minutes next morning, but what the hell.

Having said that, I have used Phuket Backpackers' on Thanon Ranong in town central right next to the day markets, as an overnight base twice in the past year. This place is spotless, quiet, has mixed-sex dorms for 250 baht which includes free internet, a free coffee, toast and jam brekka, and movies on the big screen. There are more expensive singles and doubles in a garden section out the back. They have a good travel desk, songthaews to the beaches leave from outside the markets, there is a neighbouring 7/11 and a whole bunch of cheap Muslim vegetarian restaurants just to the left. The markets are a blow-out and there is quite good general shopping in Th Ranong and a small street running perpendicular opposite the markets.
Town-center is quite compact. 10-15 minutes walk will get you to the existing bus station and the Ocean Department Store. There are heaps of tuk tuks, taxis and touts who want to show you the best places.
See travelfish.org for a good selection of other Phuket town accommodation.

Update Jan 09 - Matt and Suzzie sent me this info on Phuket:
We're big fans of Kamala Beach and off-season (July/August) we like the peace there.
The beach isn't very well looked after at that time of year in parts, but the town has a nice laid-back vibe. Benjamin Resort on Moo 3 (Beach Road) near the school has some great rooms overlooking the bay (especially rooms C1 and C2, B1 and B2), and if you tell them yer planning to stay more than a couple of days you can get them down to 500baht, including breakfast. They're well maintained, airy, and the balconies are perfect fer watching the sunset over the ocean.
Go down to the beach at this time and all the locals are out paddling and playing footie. Kamala has plenty of options with restaurants and bars, and off season you can have the pick of the bunch. The tuk-tuk mafia are bastards though, and there's no cheap way of getting around other than the songthaeow that goes round the houses.

Kamala Beach - low season August 09. A nice section of sand, clean water, even a few surfable body-waves this time of year. This is shot just north of Benjamin Resort at the end of a handful of similar of unpretentious accommodation places lining a short shopping street roughly parallel to the beach. There is a similar accommodation/restaurant street parallel to the beach up near those casuarinas in the middle of the beach. The popular midrange Kamala Beach Hotel and Resort is behind the palms just over the top of the umbrella on right. There are several other midrange and better resorts in the area, some back from the beach and others along the coast road just to the south where it winds up into higher country. Lots of condo development going on in this higher area too. This beach will never look built-out because a big Muslim cemetary takes up the northern section behind the trees. I got the impression that Kamala would be a quieter version of Kata in high season. Which would not be too bad at all.

UPDATE AUGUSTO9 - I decided to spend some time at Kamala and heeded Matt and Suzzie's advice about the Benjamin. This is the view directly west from one of the beachfront room's balcony - the view to the right is an elevated vegetation-filtered version of the previous shot. Note the rocks behind the lanterns in this pix - the sea is shallow this south end at lowest tide but fine and with no rocks in the middle and north ends.
Benjamin is a good value place. Not flash but big comfortable clean rooms with TV, frig - beachfront for 500 with brekka when we visited in low season. Note brekka is tea/coffee, toast and jam. Good little shopping street on the other side of the hotel with a fair selection of restaurants, clothing stores, a few bars and a 711. The area was quiet at night when I visited.

Matt and Suzzie again: Nai Thon Beach further north is beautiful, and cos it requires a bit of effort to get to it's virtually empty off season. You can hire a lounger in the shade fer 20baht and one of the hotels has a guy that will come over and take an order fer drinks if you want them. Beware though, the sea is way too rough at this time and will eat you alive if you get out of yer depth.

UPDATE AUG09 - Matt and Suzzie's description of Naithon sounded pretty good so I decided to spend a few nights there. This shot is in similar weather to theirs - one of those 10-15% of low season days where the wind gets up, making for pretty big and messy surf and not-so-nice beach conditions.
Hence even fewer people than normal low season. But a pretty nice beach. From what I've read, high season here is kinda nice - never too busy. 4 resorts across the road behind the casuarina trees, a number of restaurants. Some high end joints on the higher section of coastline just to the south. A bit more than 10 minutes from the airport but no aircraft noise.


DAYTRIPS
Phuket probably has a better selection of daytrips than any other Thai island. The big two are:

Phang Nga Bay - for the best seascape/landscape in Thailand, this is a must-not-miss. Quite a lot are advertised as James Bond Island Trips, and you do spend time on this tourist trap, but the pressure of longtails means about 15 minutes max which gives you heaps of time to cruise the hundreds of other great karst stack islands, the spectacular mangroves and have lunch on Ko Panyi, the sea-gypsy island which has a great buffet in its stilt restaurant area. For extra you can arrange to stay overninght on the island. Most trips involve a coach to Phang Na town and then a big longtail, but speedboat and kayaking tours are also available.
It doesn't get much more spectacular than Phang Nga Bay (image PHUKETPERFECTPROPERTIES)

Phi Phi Island - a free shuttle picks you up from your accommodation and takes you to the pier. The ferry trips tend to take in Maya Bay of The Beach fame, the birds' nest caves, often beach and snorkelling time on Bamboo island, luncheon at one of the restaurants or resorts on Phi Phi Don and some town/shopping time.
You can also do these trips by speedboat which give more time on the island - and there is a seaplane connection (see link on my Phi Phi page) where you probably have to organise your own longtail to visit the various attractions.

Other daytrips include:
- the popular Coral Island just off the south-east coast of Phi Phi (nice beach, fairly good snorkelling, gets crowded but apparently there is a pristine uncrowded beach a few minutes by track from the main one).
- a similar but longer distance one to Ko Racha about 20km further to the south-east.
- golfing, national park at Khao Lak
- national park at Khao Sok (this is getting to be a bit of a stretch distance wise - I reckon from the beaches you may be looking at 3 hours each way by coach).
- snorkelling and beach time at the marine national park at the Similan Islands (this is also a fair stretch time wise).
- lots of fishing and diving boat trips.
- cultural and nature attractions on the island and nearby mainland.

One off the radar daytrip is to jump on a songthaew outside the day market for Ban Rong, get the ferry across to attractive Ko Yao Noi, hire a motorcycle or tuk-tuk off one of the guys at the pier and do a tour of the island. Perfect if you want to see a rural, unspoiled Thai island. A Malaysian guy and his wife were doing this when I went across to stay on the island in March. See my Yao Noi page for more details.
Phuket Island Hopper - http://www.phuket-islandhopper.com/ does a daytrip that takes in a beach fringed small coral cay called Bamboo Island and then time on Ko Yao Yai.

DIVING
Phuket is one of the 3 big dive locations in Thailand. Local dive sites include reefs, wrecks and walls at Racha Yai, Racha Noi, the King Cruiser Wreck, Anemone Reef and Shark Point. There are plenty of more distant daytrips to places like Phi Phi and the Similans, plus overnighters and liveaboards to the same areas, the Surins and even into Burma. One well regarded outfit that does most of these locations is Sunrise Divers - http://www.sunrise-divers.com/


Hey, that is about my knowledge of Phuket. Once again, you can't beat Roger Phuket Blog for detail from a local expert.
This will allow you to find a heap of businesses around Phuket - hire cars, accommodation, shopping, daytrips, real estate and a lot more.


If you see mistakes or have extra info, please post it below. If you have questions, please post them in THE FORUM, accessed via the INDEX page. I don't get to check individual island pages all that often.

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