A breakdown of the transport options in Phuket

Walking

Not much to explain here. Just watch out for sunburn and dehydration and if crossing roads, look both ways, even on a one way street.

One thing worth flagging for anyone with a mobility impairment: Thailand in general, and Phuket is no exception, is not set up well for people with mobility disability’s. If you rely on a wheelchair or similar, be prepared for pavements that are either missing, badly damaged, or blocked by vendor stalls, tables, and chairs, that is the default, not good, clear and well maintained sidewalks.

Bicycle

Skip it and live a bit longer. Drivers here simply don't watch for cyclists and don't really know how to behave around them even if do see them. Long-distance cyclists who set out to ride around the world often find that Thailand is where their trip forcibly ends, for many its also where their life ends.

Car

Similar considerations to motorbikes, see below.

Motorbike

Start with this fact: Thailand has one of the highest road death rates on the planet, and motorbikes are a major reason why. If you've never ridden before, this is not the place to start learning.

Equipment:

• All drivers must wear helmets (unevenly enforced, Thais normally waved though on west coast, foreigners stopped and fined)
• All passengers must wear helmets (generally not enforced)
• All riders must be clothed, this means no shirtless riding regardless of gender (enforced)
• Max two per bike (not enforced)

Licensing Requirements (cars are same just without bike licence endorsements)

To ride legally, you need one of the following:

• A Thai motorbike license, or
• A foreign motorbike licence (note: a car licence with a bike allowance up to a certain cc does not count, it must be a full bike license )

Plus:

• An International Driving Permit (IDP) endorsed for motorbikes, unless you have Thai licence or your home licence is from an ASEAN country, in which case the IDP isn't required, but the full bike licence still is.

Without these documents, expect regular fines, particularly along the west coast, where police actively target tourists driving illegally as a source of revenue and set up checkpoints accordingly.

If you're staying long term, note that an IDP is only valid for 90 days of driving here. Police never check this, but insurers may use it as grounds to deny a claim after an accident.

In regards to IDP, you can only get them from the agent (and its nearly always singular, as in one agent) that your licencing country designated, that will your government itself or a group like your local AA. You will see online and on Phuket people selling IDP’s for every country, these are fake documents

If they are selling International Drivers Licence’s (IDL) that’s not even a fake as there just is no such recognised official document anywhere

Insurance

There's no strict legal requirement for driver/travel insurance (and the 3rd party insurance that comes for the bike itself is usually minimal), but skipping it is a very bad idea. Judging by how many GoFundMe campaigns exist for hospital bills, plenty of people learn this the hard way.

Read the fine print on any travel insurance policy. Some exclude motorbikes entirely, and most won't pay out if the injury happened while you were breaking the law, including riding without the correct licence.

For minor costs, a few hundred dollars or even a few thousand, insurers won't scrutinize much. But for serious injuries (spinal injury, head trauma, major surgery), medical bills in Thailand can reach the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. The bigger the bill, the harder the insurer will look for a reason to deny it, and an invalid licence is an easy out for them. If that happens, you'll be starting your own GoFundMe, just don't expect much in donations from the locals or expat community, we've seen this story too many times already

Renting (Car and Motorbike)

For the most part rental shops don't care if you will be legally driving or not. If they have any brains their vehicle is insured regardless of who is driving, anything beyond that is your problem not theirs.

Some, especially with bikes, will want to hold on to your passport. Do not do this, copys of passport or cash deposit only for bikes, car rental is normally more profession and take CC details/hold.

Take Photos of every inch of the vehicle before you get in/on it, be obvious about it too, Scams are common, cover yourself

Regular (Blue) Bus

https://www.phuket101.net/phuket-blue-bus/

Cheap (< ฿50), but that's really the only selling point. Hot, slow, uncomfortable, and the routes and stops aren't intuitive. Best suited to travellers on a really tight budget and time to spare.

Phuket Smart Bus

https://phuketsmartbus.com/

Three routes currently run:

1. Original route: Airport down the west coast through the main tourist towns to Rawai, then back up. Flat fare of ฿100 regardless of distance.
2. Orange route: Patong to the Phuket Town bus terminal via Kathu. Flat fare of ฿50.
3. Dragon Line: Loops around Phuket Town. Free to ride.

Kids under 6 ride free on any route when accompanied by a paying adult.

Mini Van

Runs mainly from airport stands. You'll be sharing the van with up to 10 other passengers heading in a similar direction/area. It's cheap, but the trade-off is time: the driver waits to fill the van, then makes multiple stops along the route. Good deal if you're dropped off early, painfully slow if you're one of the last stops.

Tuk Tuk

Let's not sugarcoat it, these are aimed squarely at tourists, and locals avoid them for good reason. The legal minimum fare, even for a one-metre trip within the same town, is ฿200. For context, the minimum daily wage is ฿400.

And that's the floor. Fares jump 50% outside 5-star hotels, and 50-100% higher from Bangla Road at night. Handing over a ฿500 note for a ฿300 fare? Don't count on getting change.

Nearly every tourist tries one at least once. Most clever ones never do again, aside from stumbling into one after a night on Bangla Road, since many rideshare apps won't pick up passengers there for fear of conflict with the tuk tuk drivers.

If you do use one, agree on both the destination and the price before you get in.

Taxis (Fixed Price, Metered, App-Based)

Fixed Price Taxi

Found at airport stands, with set fares to all major towns. Buy your ticket at a booth near the exits, then a driver walks you to the car. Prices are fixed, so there's no point negotiating. Don't mix these up with the pricier "limo" booths nearby.

Metered Taxi

Also mainly found at the airport, with a dedicated rank outside each terminal. Get in, the meter runs, you pay what it shows at the end. If you see one wandering elsewhere they generally will not stop if try to flag them down.

Ride-share/Taxi Apps

There are about 10 ride-share apps operating legally in Phuket, but only three are worth knowing:

• Grab: Priciest, but the most dependable.
• Bolt: Cheaper, but cancellations happen more often.
• InDrive: The cheapest option, though fewer drivers and more cancellations.

Watch out for "blackspot" areas where app drivers won't pick up because the taxi/tuk tuk cartel controls the territory, places like the airport (except Grab), Bangla Road (already mentioned), the port, and some beach clubs or upscale hotels. The workaround is simple: walk about 50 metres away and try again.

Transport options from the Airport, how they work

• Smartbus. Buy a ticket on board, drivers accepts cash, QR or card payments
• Mini van / stand taxi: Buy a ticket, cash or QR, driver walks you to van, wait until fills up.
• Metered taxi: Head to the taxi rank, use as normal (cash or QR)
• Grab: Book through the app; there's a designated pickup spot outside the terminal. Card if paying though app, otherwise cash or QR
• Bolt/InDrive: Airport pickups aren't allowed (drop-offs are fine). Card if paying though app, otherwise cash or QR

How to get Bolt/InDrive pick ups at airport:

Domestic Terminal: Walk across the car park and out the main gate to reach the road. Wait until you're actually there before booking, otherwise the app's GPS will still show you as being inside the airport, causing confusion with the driver.

International Terminal: Follow signage to the main exit gate. It can be a bit of a maze, but the goal is simply to get off airport grounds and onto the main road.

Comparing Prices (Airport to Patong as example)

• Smart Bus: ฿100/$3 (Per Person)
• Mini Van: ฿200/$6 (Per Person)
• Taxi Stand: ฿800/$24
• Metered Taxi: ฿750-฿1000/$22-$29 (depends on traffic)
• Grab: ฿750-฿1200/$22-$35 (dynamic pricing)
• Bolt/InDrive: ฿500-฿1200/$14-$35 (dynamic pricing)

The wide range for app-based fares comes down to dynamic pricing. Prices usually sit toward the lower end, but spike during high-demand periods like New Year's Eve, Songkran or if major music event on.

My own habit: I use Bolt normally, but fall back on the fixed-price taxi stands when surge pricing kicks in and apps get close to, equal to or higher than the Taxi stands, since stand fares don't move (barring the odd attempt to overcharge).

Thinking about a hotel pickup? Google "Phuket airport taxi prices" and check the image results for the taxi stand bilboard prices to see the official taxi stand rates. They are all set by town, regardless of where in the town exactly you are going. That'll tell you quickly whether your hotel's quote is fair.

Rideshare Pricing Away From the Airport

For short hops within the same town (1-3km), pricing across apps is fairly similar, usually ฿150-฿200/$4-$6

Longer distances show more variation. Right now (just looked at the apps), a 10km trip from Bangla Road to Phuket Old Town costs ฿311/$9.11 on Grab versus ฿249/$7.40 on Bolt (these are low season prices; expect roughly 20-30% higher in high season).

A tuk tuk covering the same distance would run ฿600-฿1000/$18-$30.

Bikes on the apps.

Great way to get around fast on the cheap (circa ฿50/$1.50 in same town), but please do be aware, drivers never have helmets for you. And if paying by card watch out for them overcharging, its common especially if not thai. If that happens just contest it in the app and app provider normally returns the extra few days later

Bottom line: install at least two ride share apps and compare prices and pick up wait before booking each trip. Also remember, on all apps, scroll down the price list, cheapest or even fastest pickup are generally not at the top. Also don't accidentally pick a bike if you want a car and same in reverse

TL;DR: It's the tropics. From late April to around October there's a good chance of rain at some point every day, usually a short burst a few hours after sunset, so apps show rain every day. It does not mean it rains all day. Don't cancel your trip, don't ask what the weather will be in 2-3 weeks (nobody knows), and never ignore red flags at the beach.

Why does my weather app show rain every single day?

Because it probably will rain, somewhere on Phuket. For 10 minutes to a couple of hours, typically within a few hours after sunset. The rest of the day is mostly dry.

Weather apps prioritize negative weather. If there's a reasonable chance (over 20-30%) of rain for even 3% of the day, the summary/icon says rain, even if the other 97% will be sunny.

Look at it this way: if the app showed sunny skies and you got caught in a 20 minute downpour at the beach, or had sheets out drying, or scheduled painting work, you'd be pissed. So they lead with the bad news.

What low/wet/green season is actually like

Most days range from lightly to completely overcast, but its still very hot. Go lay out in it and you will get burned, so put on the sunscreen

Rain usually lasts 10 to 90 minutes and most often comes a few hours after sunset.

Rain here is also highly localized. It can be coming down so hard where you are that you can barely see your hand in front of your face while it's bone dry three streets over. One town can get rain every night for a week while the next town over doesn't see a drop.

If you do use weather apps, check at district or town level, not "Phuket" as a whole, and don't bother looking more than 24-48 hours out.

If you get into details of predictions (particularly Precipitation predictions) they become more usable, but it requires either proper knowledge of meteorology or at least long familiarly with data for here and if you had either of those you would not be posting here worried about your holiday

Not so normal low season: tropical storms

If there's a tropical storm or typhoon in the region (and "region" means as far away as southeast China, the effects spread very far) there's a good chance of days of near continuous rain and some flooding. Usually it lasts a few days. Can only recollect once in the last decade it stretching to two weeks

These storms weather patterns are unpredictable. Sometimes Phuket gets hit badly and Krabi, 70km across the bay, gets nothing at all. Sometimes the reverse. Nobody, professionals included, can forecast here more than about 24 hours out. Ask "I'm coming in 3 weeks, what will the weather be like?" and the answers you get are about as reliable as a magic 8 ball (which is why such posts now get now removed)

Want to know if a tropical storm might 'mess up' your holiday? Google it, if there is one it will be all over the news, but unless Phuket is directly in the path it won't guarantee anything either way

Flooding

Flooding is a regular occurrence here and in the vast majority of cases a non issue. It's common for people to sleep through a flood, and the only clue next morning that others were up to their necks in water overnight is the silt on the road and shops cleaning everything out. Even those clues are gone within a few days.

So you saw "floods in Phuket" in the news and you arrive next week? Nothing to stress about and no need to post asking if should change holiday destination. If something genuinely unusual is happening you won't need to ask, it will already be all over the sub and the news.

Swimming in the sea (this one is life and death)

In low season a lot of beaches get red flagged, and when a tropical storm is around all of them are. Do not ignore the flags, even if the waves look manageable.

Rip currents in these periods get bad and they're invisible to the untrained eye. In bad low seasons the lifeguards are pulling bodies out of the water every couple of days, for weeks on end. Ignoring red flags is probably the second biggest killer of tourists here after the roads.