Transport options in Patong are limited. There is no bus service that goes around patong, or links patong with kata/kamala, or links patong with the airport.

Transport is dominated by the ubiquitous `tuk tuk`. However there is an alternative, and I`ll show you how.

There are two reasons why you should avoid tuk tuks.

1. Your Health.

A significant number of tuk tuk drivers drink on the job. Combined with the fact that there is little or no protection in the vehicle for the passenger, accidents are more common and more injurious.

A significant number also try and charge more than the price you had agreed. This can lead to arguments, threats and violence.

2. Your Wealth

The tuk tuk cartel has taken advantage of their near monopoly to charge extortionate prices. A trip in a tuk tuk in patong would cost you FIVE times the amount for the same distance in pattaya.

However, there is an alternative, the private meter taxi.

Perhaps paying regard for their own health there are no private meter taxi stands in patong. So how do you use them?

The Cunning Plan.

1. When you exit the doors of phuket airport, take a deep breath and walk straight ahead through the throngs of touts trying to get you in the expensive limos. Walk for about 120 yards and you will come to a line of meter taxis.

Walk up and down the taxis and get the contact cards from the drivers. 4 or 5 should suffice. Get a taxi to your guesthouse.

2. You can use these contact phone numbers to get a taxi when you go to and fro to nightspots. You can ring the taxi from your guesthouse lobby, but it poses the problem of how to get back - are you forced to use a tuk tuk?

3. You could make an arrangement with the driver to pick you up somewhere at a certain time, but thats cramping. Heres a more elegant solution.

Bring your mobile phone and buy a local sim card (cost about £5). Top it up with a local pay as you go scratchcard, enter the taxi drivers numbers, and you`re in business, and can ring anytime you need wheels. The phone also doubles as a good way to keep in contact with any ladies you might meet.

It is also worth remembering that taxis provide excellent rates for all day hire.

Few comments to add.

Private ride

I've been paying 500 for a friend to pick us up/drop us of for all our trips.

He has one sweet ride, but with no license (as is the case with most in Patong). Lately he's leased his car out, so I'm taking the other options.

Another guesthouse has me booking through them for 500 as well. Airport pickup or drop-off is the same price.

Mini bus

The minibus, as most know, play a few tricks. They leave you waiting "until we have enough tickets sold to fill the bus" which is partially true. I've waited for 40-50 minutes (or more). Even if they've sold a bussload, they will sometimes make you wait an extra 10 minutes... just for sh*ts and g*ggles. They want you to get frustrated and take a taxi next time. Worked with me, I rarely take the mini-bus anymore.

They all have the pit stop 1/2 way to Patong as far as I know. 10-15 minutes while they switch busses, sell tours and we're back on the road.

Car Service

Pay at the counter and your ticket is queued. 550 to Patong, a bit more to Karon, etc. As long as there are cars there, this isn't a bad option (although overpriced, it's still OK value for more than 1 passenger) as it is a 45 minute drive, no stops.

WARNING: if delays or high volume days happen and all the taxis are full and gone, they will not tell you that there are no cars. They will continue to sell tickets even though it may be a long wait before the cars are able to drop passenges off and return for another trip. I've sat and watched when we were group #7 of at least 30 other groups. We waited over an hour. Imagine how long the others waited. We were just behind an international arrival & 2 TG flights during holiday season. I think this is a VERY UNCOMMON experience, but now I always ask if there are cars ready NOW, before I buy my ticket.

Hi,

People short on money or who do not want to bargain with any driver can take the airport bus from airport to Phuket town bus station or Central department store, then the local bus from bus station or Central to patong beach.

Around 100 baht for the whole trip.

Another option is to rent a car or motorbike in front of airport and keep it until you go back to airport.

(does anybody knows any phone number of the cars and motorbikes renting agencies in front of airport?)

Thanks.

Another option is to rent a car or motorbike in front of airport and keep it until you go back to airport.

I can't emphasize enough that people should NOT use the organized "limo" service run by the Phuket Business Cooperative (or whatever the cartel is called that controls the minibus and car service from the airport). This is the organization that has touts everywhere inside and outside the airport holding up "Taxi" signs and asking arriving passengers if they need a taxi.

There are other issues, apart from those with the minibuses mentioned previously (making passengers wait an unreasonable amount of time before departing, stopping at a travel agent to sell rooms/tours on the way, reckless driving, and sometimes consolidating passengers going to different parts of the island into one minubus, resulting in very long trips).

Last night, we arrived from Bangkok and needed a ride home to Patong. My wife and I debated whether we should take the PBC car service (at 550 baht), or go across the parking lot to get a meter taxi. There's no way we'll ever take the minibus again - we've been burned to many times. In any event, I was lazy and didn't feel like walking across the parking lot to the meter taxis, so we got a PBC car, for what will be our last time. There was no shortage of cars at that hour of the night, and our bags were loaded into one immediately. It turned out to be a very harrowing ride all the way to Patong. The driver was constantly weaving in and out of traffic, reaching 130 km/hr on the bypass road, and 120 elsewhere. About halfway home, my wife whispered to me that she was pretty sure the driver was drunk, as she could smell Thai whiskey on him. We arrived home in one piece, but after some of the most reckless driving I've ever experienced.

I would suggest that people pass on the PBC service and use the Meter Taxis outside instead. Do not buy a ticket from anyone either inside or outside the terminal, as this is for the PBC service. It's only a little inconvenient to get a Meter Taxi, as you have to walk about 70 meters across the parking lot, but it's well worth the extra walk.

My hope is that the PBC business will drop off, as the public becomes more aware of what an unsafe and unprofessional operation it is, and that they lose their airport concession as well, which could result in more ground transportation options for arriving passengers.

Few comments to add.

Private ride

I've been paying 500 for a friend to pick us up/drop us of for all our trips.

He has one sweet ride, but with no license (as is the case with most in Patong). Lately he's leased his car out, so I'm taking the other options.

Another guesthouse has me booking through them for 500 as well. Airport pickup or drop-off is the same price.

Mini bus

The minibus, as most know, play a few tricks. They leave you waiting "until we have enough tickets sold to fill the bus" which is partially true. I've waited for 40-50 minutes (or more). Even if they've sold a bussload, they will sometimes make you wait an extra 10 minutes... just for sh*ts and g*ggles. They want you to get frustrated and take a taxi next time. Worked with me, I rarely take the mini-bus anymore.

They all have the pit stop 1/2 way to Patong as far as I know. 10-15 minutes while they switch busses, sell tours and we're back on the road.

Car Service

Pay at the counter and your ticket is queued. 550 to Patong, a bit more to Karon, etc. As long as there are cars there, this isn't a bad option (although overpriced, it's still OK value for more than 1 passenger) as it is a 45 minute drive, no stops.

WARNING: if delays or high volume days happen and all the taxis are full and gone, they will not tell you that there are no cars. They will continue to sell tickets even though it may be a long wait before the cars are able to drop passenges off and return for another trip. I've sat and watched when we were group #7 of at least 30 other groups. We waited over an hour. Imagine how long the others waited. We were just behind an international arrival & 2 TG flights during holiday season. I think this is a VERY UNCOMMON experience, but now I always ask if there are cars ready NOW, before I buy my ticket.

Hi,

People short on money or who do not want to bargain with any driver can take the airport bus from airport to Phuket town bus station or Central department store, then the local bus from bus station or Central to patong beach.

Around 100 baht for the whole trip.

Another option is to rent a car or motorbike in front of airport and keep it until you go back to airport.

(does anybody knows any phone number of the cars and motorbikes renting agencies in front of airport?)

Thanks.

When I am in Phuket, I rent from Nine Car Rent, the office is about 2 minutes from airport. I had a great service and great car.

www.ninecarrent.com ; phone +6676328488 and +66817873109 (contact person : PEA).

Cheapest and easiest option is the meter taxi from the airport to Patong. About 400 baht depending on traffic.

Once in Patong, avoid Tuk Tuks like the plague. Use motorcycle taxis, and once you find a good one, get his number and use him for the remainder of your stay.

Used a Meter Taxi from the airport to Patong again this week.

You pay the meter + 100B. They quote you that it will be no more than 420B all included.

My ride was under the 420 quoted (meter +100+ tip)

Lesson, always go for the Meter Taxi.

Out of the Arrivals hall, turn to the right. They are there at the end of the sidewalk.

Hello, any place where to rent a motorcycle near the airport ? Thanks.

So how does making for the departures concourse and grabbing a taxi dropping someone of work in Phuket?>

and any updates ?

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I always did that at Don Muang on my 1st visits to BKK.

Saved the asirport tax, driver dun care.

180 Baht to Asoke..... LOL

Now I use bus, 32 Baht to Asoke.......35 into Victory Nonument.

Not tried it at Phuket, yet.

Must do next trip in NY.

BTW, when I came to Phuket in Feb, I did not pay any airtport fee in metered taxi.

Did that come in sometime this year? 320 Baht to Chalong, next trip in June it about 450Baht.