The journey to Phuket is very easy.
Just take the aircraft, hop on a bus, take the car or maybe the ship. Arrivals are from all over the world and a lot from China which is currently (2015) the fastest growing markets, until 2014 it was Russia.
Other major destinations in the region are Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bali and more. Airport Code is HKT and the location is at longitude 98° 18' 45" and latitude 08° 06' 38" plus 82 feet above sea level, actually it's just ordering the north west Andaman seafront. Downtown is 32 km to the south and the north end of the island is just 15 minutes with the car. Leaving the spot in the ocean is via the Sarasin Bridge into Phang Nga Province. The highway leads further to Khao Lak and arriving Bangkok after almost 1000 km.
How to Travel to Phuket has a simple answer.
Either via the airport, bus, car, motorbike, or with the ship. Because the
country has a good road network and several International airports it is
easy to arrive without major problems, many tourist come via the
southern border per bus.
Actually most visitors to Thailand come China per aircr. Second is from Malaysia via road travel, although they usually stay around the border area quite a lot find their way up to the north within a 500 km radius which includes the island, #howtotraveltophuket.
Road network is quite good but the surface becomes more rotten every year, they do only very limited maintenance and improvements.
The best connections are by Air Asia, they also mostly offer the cheapest fare, another low cost carrier to Singapore is Tiger Airways, they have an extensive network from Singapore including Australia, Philippines etc.
Airport arrival
There are two major problems, first, when more than one aircraft is arriving within a time frame of about 30 minutes long waiting at immigration will be the result, there is no problem with custom. The second is, the transportation away from is in a mess and you fall pray of some "mafia style" taxi and limousine groups which use all kind of dirty tricks to pull your money.
Since certain influential people manage since years to block any attempt for public transportation and the airport bus to town is a yoke. The only possibility is a taxi where many driver refuse to switch on the meter and overcharge the pax.
The same is with minibus and limousine service, they tell the people to wait until their van is full and at the same time delay it and try to move the people to the much higher priced limousines. They monopolize this and the ones who arrive have no other choice since the airport is around 30 km off town, 35 km to Patong etc.. In 2013 a combined force of ambassadors from different countries including the EU made a officially protest against this practice and also on other problems with tuk-tuk, jet ski scam and more.
In 2014 a combined force of police and military tried to crack that nut, they where a bit successful but after "the dust settled" they whole was even more expensive. Even after the killed the Mafia Boss who was the major of a Patong precinct nothing happen, just another one took over.
When using the airport bus it is not sure when the trip starts.
After you pay for it the vehicle they will wait until its filled up, that can take more than an hour. Now they circle the airport about 3 times and try to get additional passengers to fill the aisle. After they leave the place but they wont just drive to town at the main road instead they move to the nearby beaches and try to get some more local people until it is really scrammed full. That means the trip can take up to around 3 hour and is very uncomfortable because the buses are quite rotten. It becomes a real problem after around 6-7 pm when they stop at all.
Compared to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore it is a real mess to exploit the arriving tourist. There is another shameful practice, when you don't have already a hotel, the taxi guy will try to move you to a hotel where they give him a commission. They will overcharge you every day you stay there and pass this amount to the guy.
The same is when you book at the airport counter they don't take a one time fee, they get a commission for every day you stay, this is on top of the normal room rate. So, if there is such a situation only stay one night and check in again the next day for the normal rate, just negotiate it. This is the same at KL international but not at Singapore, there they work correct.
This results in the suggestions, always book a resort etc. before arriving. If you want it the cheap way check for apartments in down town, Patong or elsewhere, there are plenty and they start for about $ 150,- / month with air condition but in this places don't expect a problem free zone. The worst usually is the noise, the people here are very noisy and don't care about other.
Departure from the island.
Since traffic congestion on the island is rising rapidly mainly because a totally wrong traffic light handling at the main intersections just as in Bangkok you might have a problem to reach the final distance on the island, so start early enough means at least 3 hours. When you travel in the country it's worth to take the bus since there are connections to everywhere and prices are low although road travel takes it' time. Here is the "Phuket Bus Terminal" in downtown.
There are some border posts for Myanmar.
the closest in the south is Ranong - Kawthaung which is mainly used for the "visa run", that means when you visa expires exit and come back, they will give you another 2 week to stay. The problem is on the Myanmar side because they also give you a visa but the city limits mark the end of your trip.
This is a exotic island in the Andaman Sea.
where already hundreds of years ago Portuguese, English, Arab and Indian trader came with their sailing ships and had a cultural and business center when traveling from their countries to the east. Chinese came a bit later with the tin boom, today it's tourism and more.
The road option is usually when coming from Malaysia or Singapore, don't forget to buy a car or motor bike insurance at the border. For this you need a translation of the vehicle paper into the respective language. The insurance office at the border at Danok Sadao is open from 8 am to 6 pm, the border crossing is open from 5 am to 11 pm (Thai time).
Currently (2015) Danok has the hottest nightlife. Already passed Hat Yai, it's incredible what in such a small border town can happen when some entrepreneur do something, read more.
Such things only can happen in Thailand where the hunt for money tops anything. Many people come over from south of the border and others get stuck in the night when they don't know that the boundary is closed from 11 pm - 5 am "Thai time".
Nightlife is ever busy and beer, whisky etc. always flowing but they are quite lazy since the bars and clubs are only open from around 9 pm to 2 am and restaurants etc. close at 11 pm. Compared to Singapore or Hong Kong thats a joke, read more.
Oho so many pretty ladies and they are ready to play naughty games.
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