What is the best way to get around in Phuket?

Well it depends a bit on what your priorities are!

Available options include

1. tuk tuk
2. walk
3. local bus
4. motorbike taxi
5. rental motorbike
6. rental car (jeep mainly)

On a cost basis, walking is the cheapest, obviously, but only practical if you only intend to go a kilometer or two (keeping in mind the tropical heat)

Tuk-tuk is a very common mode of transport, and there are certainly hundreds of them operating in all major areas, particularly Patong. Generally they are going to look to charge you a minimum of 100 Baht, to take you anywhere around town, and this will increase if you want to get to a outer end of Patong, and at night, particularly out. We found a minimum of 150 Baht to our hotel at the southern end of town, and could not get one for under 200 baht from Bangla rd area after 10pm (even though it was only 5 or 6 minutes, and 2 or 3 km. This makes for quite expensive transport, unless you are in a group of 4 or more.

Motorbike taxis are going to be about 1/2 the price of tuk tuk, and most trips will be about 50 bht. but you need to ride with your heart in your mouth, and it can be nerve racking!

Vehicle rental is a good option, with motorbike by far the most popular. A decent scooter, about 125cc, to carry two comfortably is going to cost about 250 baht in Patong per day, and maybe 200 in the other centres. You can use these to whip around town, an to explore the coast. The biggest concern with riding your own scooter, is safety. Many tourist motorbike accidents are reported daily, and the renters will want either your passport or a significant deposit to cover any damages you make if/when you fall off!

If riding a scooter make sure

1. you are confident enough, having ridden before
2. don’t drink alcohol
3. wear a helmet (it is law the driver must, but not any passengers)
4. drive and steer predictably
5. don’t ride fast (nothing is far away anyhow)

If you take all of these MUSTS into consideration, I believe Hiring a scooter to get around Patong, is the best way to go!

We stayed at the Mermaid Boutique Inn for two nights, on march 4-5, 2009

The Mermaid Boutique Inn is located at 6/4 Siriret Rd, Patong Beach

Location - a little too far from town to be ideal

Price we paid- 1200 Baht per night ($51.00 AUD) - booked through wotif

General - This hotel is only 12 rooms, and is located in a reasonably new (2 yr old) building close to the busy road between Patong and Karon beaches. It is owned by the same people that own the Phuket Palace hotel, and is at opposite side of that hotels grounds. The big advantage therefore, is that as a guest of the Mermaid Boutique Inn, we got to use the facilities of the Phuket Palace. The major one of these was the swimming pool, that was far above what would normally come with at cheaper hotel. There is a sign at reception saying guests need to pay 200 Baht to use the pool, but we were never charged, In addition, we were also able to use the restaurant of the Phuket Palace, which we did for our complimentary breakfast (although I didn’t think we had paid for breakfast!).

90 

The Inn only ever had a maximum of two staff on at any time, and they were very friendly and helpful. The rooms were clean, of a decent size, and with a small balcony. The bathroom was small but functional.

On the downside, walls of the rooms seem paper thin, and both the outside street noise, and the noise from other guests was annoying. Considering the street is the main thoroughfare between Phuket’s two busiest beaches, the road is busy almost all day and night.

Overall opinion - good value, would stay there again

I have never seen such a shambolic airport terminal in my life! The departures area, which has about 50 – 60 different book-in windows (almost all Air Asia), is chaotic, to say the least.
It is impossible to find the window you need to book in for your flight, as there is so many that look the same. The destination flashed occasionally across an electronic sign, but not that it is able to be seen from far away. In addition, there is queue’s from all windows, as all are actively boarding flights. The queue’s are uncontrolled and branch out in all different directions, adding to the confusion.
Once through to the boarding gates it is not so bad, and then proceeding to the aircraft is OK. You do have to walk across the tarmac though.One noticeable thing about the LCCT terminal is that the security seems extremely lax. Luggage screening seem almost voluntary, security into boarding lounge, and out to tarmac is almost non-existent, and once on the tarmac, you could probably wander anywhere you wanted!
There are renovations underway, so hopefully, this terminal will improve soon!

Getting off the Air Asia flight from Perth 40 min early, and seeing the LCCT terminal waiting facilities at KL, we decided, at about 11.30pm, that we needed to find a hotel, as we didn’t need to be back at LCCT terminal until about 6am, for a 7.05 flight to Phuket.

I had tossed up whether to book the Concorde Inn many times days before, but had decided to leave it until we got to KL, just to see how we felt. I had noticed an add in the in-flight magazine of Air Asia, for Tune Hotels, and it said they had a new hotel at the LCCT. We looked around for this, but, alas, it did not exist yet!

Having never flown with Air Asia before, and given they have only been operating their flights from out of Australia for about a year or so, I was very apprehensive as to how it would be.

My impressions were as follows
1. Ticketing at Perth Airport – no better or worse than Qantas, Garuda etc
2. First entering the plane – impressed – very clean, clearly quite a new plane, with nice leather (vinyl) seats, and polite staff
3. Takeoff – on time and very smooth!
4. Service – good if you had pre-booked, but not particularly interested if you hadn’t
5. In-flight services – back of seat personal screens excellent, fair selection of movies etc
6. Flight and landing– couldn’t fault it, very smooth, arrived 40 min early on a 5 hr flight, good landing
7. Other passengers – noisy, rowdy, bawdy, riffraff – maybe a side effect of cheap air travel?

Overall – excellent plane and excellently handled. Only disappointment has the cabin staff service. Considering the Low Cost nature of the Carrier, I would have expected more food and drink runs, more promoting their services. Instead we had to ask for entertainment pack, had to ask twice for comfort pack, asked for beer and was told they ran out (only an hour or so after takeoff?)

Would I use Air Asia Again – Yes

In getting ready for this 3 months of travelling, we have had to have a good think about what is going to be the most suitable way for us to get our gear around. We figured we had three options in luggage -

• Suitcases
• Backpacks
• Duffel bags

We know we wont need to take a massive amount of gear, so a smaller unit each should be fine. We also took into consideration our age, and what we envisioned ourselves doing, and were we thought we would be going with our luggage.

We have a couple of trusty smaller suitcases, with retractable handles and wheels, that have worked well for us before, but always found them a bit weird when pulling them down a long road or lane in search of hotels.

 We travelled Vietnam a couple of years back, and took duffel bags, thinking with a lot of bus travel, they would be very convenient. In reality they were not, particularly considering Vietnam hotels (the 2*s we stayed in anyhow), generally didn’t have lifts, and they were awkward to carry.

Never really travelled with backpacks, but they look “right” when walking, and when throwing luggage around, such as getting on ferries, bus’s etc.

 After careful consideration……………………..we are going to stick with the suitcases. Something on wheels is going to be best for us, even if we look a bit over luggage’d when in a backpacker type situation. We will swallow our pride, and plug on!