Phuket Travel Guide

Climate

Phuket is hot and humid throughout the year. The high season is generally considered to be from November to May, but usually December and January is the most busiest times.. During the summer monsoon season, mornings and afternoons are still sunny and clear, but it tends to rain in the evenings and water clarity goes down. Locals consider May to October the “cool” season, and the weather is quite tolerable, but will still be considered hot and humid for most travelers.

Getting to Phuket

Obviously you can get to Phuket by plane as there is an airport, but below are some other ways if you are the adventurous type

Car- Phuket is directly connected to the mainland by the Thao Thepkasattri Bridge. From Bangkok, take Highway 4 through Nakhon Pathom, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, thence through Ranong province’s Kra Buri and Kapoe districts, Phang-nga province’s Takua Pa and Thai Muang districts and onto Phuket island. The total distance is 862km. If you do choose to drive, please drive safetly.

Train- There are no direct train services to Phuket. Travellers by train must get off at Phun Phin railway station in Surat Thani and continue for another 5 hours by regular bus to Phuket. Should only be done if you know your way around Thailand pretty well.

Bus- Buses to mainland destinations including Bangkok, Chumphon, Hat Yai, Krabi, Phang Nga, Ranong, Satun, Sungai Kolok and Surat Thani use the BKS terminal off Thanon Phang Nga in Phuket Town.

The most reliable buses from Bangkok are the public BKS buses from the Southern Bus Terminal to Phuket. The journey takes 13 hours. There are also 2 private bus companies, Phuket Travel Tour and Phuket Central Tour. Khao San Road operations have a bad reputation for theft, often turn out to include a “surprise” transfer to a minibus at Surat Thani, and are best avoided.

From Phuket bus terminal to your final destination, you can take a motorcycle taxi, tuk-tuk, meter-taxi, or bus. A motorcycle taxi into Phuket Town will be about 10-20 baht; to most beaches 100-200 baht (negotiable).

A local bus to one of the main beaches will cost around 15-30 baht. It’s not unusual for the tuk-tuk drivers at the bus terminal to tell arriving travellers that the local bus service has finished, even though it hasn’t. If you are of the hiking/backpacking type, the local bus station, which will take you to Patong Beach is about twenty minutes away. When exiting the bus terminal, make a right onto Phang-Nga Rd. Continue down Phang-Nga until it terminates at Yaowarat Rd., then turn left. Within a few steps you will see a roundabout. Once at the roundabout, keep right. By keeping right, you will find Ranong Rd. Within 100 to 200 meters you will find the local bus stop.

Before exiting the Phuket bus terminal, grab a free Phuket map from the information window. While supplies may always not be on hand, the map is a great way to get your bearing before jumping-off.

Transport from the Phuket Airport

To get from the airport to your destination, there are a few options:

Bus-
Minibus services (basically door-to-door share taxis) charge 150-250 baht per seat. Any travel agent can arrange a ride for the way back to the airport, but if you want one from the airport, you’ll usually need to charter the whole thing for over 1000 baht.

Airport shuttle bus service (6:30-20:30, every 30 minutes) to Phuket Town bus station costs 82 baht; local buses run from there to all the major beaches until around 18:00.

Taxi- Phuket have a world wide reputation of ripping off tourists from the airport to there hotel resorts, at the moment their is no really good way to avoid it, you can either walk out of the airport gates and find a metered taxi or surrender to the overcharged price and share a taxi with someone.

In some cases, the taxi fare has been more expensive then a domestic flight from Bangkokto Phuket for some tourist.

Map of Phuket

source: http://www.visit-thailand.info/information/map-of-phuket.htm