Drive From Singapore To Phuket

[zeyar]

Bros,

Thinking of driving from Sg thru Malaysia to Phuket. Never entered by road before, and have few questions. Please advice..

What is the best season to have good road trip to avoid monsoon weather.

Is it safe to drive a normal small foreign car into the southern provinces? what precautions to be noted for personal safety?

safe way to stay in Phuket? and the distance from hat yai to phuket and time take to drive.

Thanks alot..

[thaihedgehog]

Bros,

Thinking of driving from Sg thru Malaysia to Phuket. Never entered by road before, and have few questions. Please advice..

What is the best season to have good road trip to avoid monsoon weather.

Is it safe to drive a normal small foreign car into the southern provinces? what precautions to be noted for personal safety?

safe way to stay in Phuket? and the distance from hat yai to phuket and time take to drive.

Thanks alot..

Have a look here!! I would stay away from Yala etc.. not worth the risk. cross at either Sadao (near Hat Yai) or the border crossing Perlis (near Langkawi) make sure you fill your tank up with cheap Malaysia petrol before entering Thailand, it will save you a bit of money.

border crossing

[Amir]

I would choose the west coast along the malaca strait and then adaman sea.

You can stop at Pinang for a night but if you are looking for a quiet place avoid that.

The best boarder is Sadao were you can stop at the no-mans-land and by alckohol and cigarets pretty cheap (if you drink and smoke). The highway in Malaysia is pretty good. Don't forget to park the car after you entered the Thai border, get out and present yourself at the immigration to get your stamp on your passport. It is an open gate and if there are many people you don't even realize that you passed the border...

Before going to Phuket i would stop in Hat Yai and enjoy a good night at Swan pub, followed by the Post Laser and then the Brown Sugar...

The road from Hat Yai to Phuket is pretty nice, especially the part from Patthalung to Trang through the mountains.

[zeyar]

thank u guys so much.. by the way how long does it take to drive from border to phuket in relaxed pace?? coz i want to prepare to drive in day time leaving malaysia in morning.

[Amir]

thank u guys so much.. by the way how long does it take to drive from border to phuket in relaxed pace?? coz i want to prepare to drive in day time leaving malaysia in morning.

Count 1hour from Sadao to Hat Yai, then, depending on how fast you drive and if you know the short cuts, it will take from Hat Yai to Phuket between 5 and 8 hours.

[wilko]

Interesting - What about the other way - I hear tinted windows are not allowed - what about insurance?

[zeyar]

Interesting - What about the other way - I hear tinted windows are not allowed - what about insurance?

I'm not sure about the insurance, but i think thai auto insurance should have covered within singapore as well, similar to our insurances which cover whole malaysia, singapore and 50km in thailand from border. There is no insurance booths in Singapore checkpoint. All you have to pay is S$20 daily road tax charges if you come in at some specific hour, using autopass card which you can purchase on the spot.

Tinted windows are allowed in singapore, but must meet below specs. but of coz u are ok till get caught.

front windscreen and windows > 75% of light passed through

Rear windscreen and windows > 25% of light passed through

in malaysia all must be > 50% of light passed through, but usually anything is ok on the highway. NSH itself is its own terrotary, means u won't be booked for tinted windows. In Malaysia, if u r not visiting KL, try to use the highways avoiding KL city ctr, so u can save about 1hr to pass through in city traffic. speed limit in malaysia is 110kmh, but avg speed ppl travel is around 120-130 mostly and is still safe from fines. from thai border to singapore border NSH is about 800km. Afterall, both malaysia NSH and anywhere in singapore is a safe place to travel.

Singapore is a country size of a city, and speed limit is <90kmh, and have to follow all rules.

Edited December 14, 2007 by zeyar

[asiaworld]

Hey zeyar .. seeing you may not know the stuff, SG insurance doesn't cover thailand! You'll need to park in thai border & after you stamp ur passp. walk over to the booths few meters inside the thai territory to buy thai ins..(cheap like few hundred baht) than walk back to customs (with ur car ownership papers which you'll need) & get customs temporary import form (free) & give it back, when you leave Thai..

Wilko yes M'sia & S'pore won't allow too tinted cars..Also you'll need to buy insurances for both .. S'pore on a thai car are real pain in the butt, from moron S'pore customs ! No probs, but they'll waste almost an hour of your time & you'll need to buy Autopass & insurance 50$ sing for 2 weeks.. they are sloooooow & they;ll xxplain u everthing ..

Trouble is, they DON"T honor Malaysian insurance, & even if you al'dy have autopass & come there for umpteen time, they still waste your time & force you to buy another 50 $ insurance ..

Wilko.. stop asking silly questions, it's not more jungle out there, than in Thailand, just sit in ur car & drive somewhere once & for all to releive ur curiosity ... Btw. Cambodia got the best carwashes in the world !! Because its so darn dirty

it's always high ramp & they wash car from every angle including engine highly reccomended (all for less than a 100 baht!)

[zeyar]

Thanks alot.

[Marksamui]

Just thought that I would update you all on my recent trip driving from Singapore to Hat Yai and back again.

We made the journey between xmas and new year, mainly because the flights were expensive and we wanted to take a lot of things back. Anyway with a loaded car we set off from Singapore at 6 o'clock in the morning and got to the causeway checkpoint in 15 mins.

Crossing from Singapore to Malaysia is pretty easy. Singapore customs took 2 minutes to check the passport and green cards and you pay a small amount on the auto card and done. Drive up to the Malaysia booth and they give you the immigration forms (I recommend trying to get hold of these before to save time filling them in). Quick check and stamp and then you pay. If you don't have a Malaysia top up card you purchase it here and it comes with 10 ringgit loaded.

Once you are in Malaysia the fun starts because you have no idea where you are going and the sign posts are awful. If you have a Sat Nav it will come in very handy. But anyhow eventually you will find the E2 road which goes to KL. You need to top up the auto pass card as you go through a few toll booths at the start and then nothing until KL where it costs nearly 40 ringgit. I recommend putting at least 150 ringgit on as soon as possible and that should see you through to Thailand with some spare for when you start to come back. Top up at a petrol station on the E2, but top up early to avoid getting stuck.

The E2 to KL is a great road. Fast and not much traffic for us. Once you get to KL follow the signs for the E1 (better if you have a sat nav) but it is not too bad and the E1 takes you all the way to the Sadao boarder. This boarder is a bit more of a pain. Leave Malaysia is not too hard but at Thailand you need to pull over and get out to get your passport stamped in. Again save time by having the immigration forms complete. Then you take your stamped passport and car log book to the customs booth and they issue you with an import license for the car. You get this stamped and signed at another window and you are done. I did not have to pay for anything and they said I was finished. It is a bit annoying and takes sometime but just smile and go with it.

Insurance wise my Singapore policy covers me for Singapore, Malaysia and 80km inside Thailand which just about goes to Hat Yai. Anything further than that you would need to purchase something.

It was a 12 hour trip in both directions including all the stops etc. but the Malaysia highway is really a very good road and the drive is not too tiring at all. It is worth doing if you have a lot of stuff to take. You open the boot a couple of times for customs but that was it.

Petrol wise try and fill up in Malaysia all the time. You can only purchase E7 as a foreign car and at some pumps you need to prepay for the fuel.

[sunnyhor]

I made it to Chiang Mai and back home to Singapore now and here's the report.......... http://roadtriptothailand.blogspot.com/2011/07/driving-from-singapore-to-thailand.html