Booking transport in Phuket

You might have noticed my blog posts are usually quite long. Good news for those who are not fans of long poems, this one is rather short (I promise).

Before going to Thailand we read somewhere that the best way to get around the country is to hire a motorbike however we had more bags than we actually needed as we travelled directly from Bangladesh so we were left with only one option.

If you have not booked your car online before coming to Thailand (like us), you can do so in the airport after landing however you will most likely end up paying more (also like us). You may have heard it hundred times by now but booking in advance is how normal people save money and I wish we had listened. Rental companies in the airport will try their best to sell you whatever they can but they will also try to benefit from your pocket and they are not very friendly when it comes to negotiating. Rentals at the airport offered us a "deal" of £220 for 5 days which wasn’t that great deal and we did find it expensive. Also, you always need to ask about insurance as the prices they give don't include it and they will try to upsell a premium insurance to you. Kafh is one persistent person so an hour into negotiations we got our car for £170 – not the cheapest option but comfort always costs more! If you were to rent a motorbike you would be looking at prices in the region of £ 12-20 a day. Taxi from airport to the hotel (which was less than 50 km away) would have set us back by £70 one way so getting our own car we not only saved money but also got freedom to explore the area in our own pace.

Needless to say public transport is not as comfortable as car , but in case it’s how you plan getting around, you can get a tuktuk, a motorbike (they are everywhere and you have to be careful as locals couldn't give a damn about pedestrians or other cars) taxi or a bus, but who knows how long you will need to wait for it to arrive (considering their relaxed way of life, this could be a very long wait). To be honest, what do we know about public transport when the only public transport we took when in Thailand was tuktuk between hotel lobby and the car park :))) Our advice is - get a car and cruise in your own comfort at your own pace!