Once again Im hoping that the good people here can give me advice on travelling from Suratthani to Phuket , preferably as close as possible to Chalong Circle . Ive done extensive searches on the net but nothing conclusive as how to get from Suratthani train station to the bus terminal or schedules and prices.

What other modes of transport failing the above would you recommend?

Steve

what do you want to know...the cost from the surat thani train station to the surat thani bus station?  or the cost from the train station to the bus terminal in phuket?

whatever you want to do...it wouldn't be more than B100-200 baht all total I would presume.  Surat Thani is about 150 miles from Phuket...so a bus ride would be less than 2 hours.  

As to most trips related to trains and busses...you just show up...buy your ticket and wait...at least for busses, connections to major destinations are frequent so the wait is never that long...maybe a hour or two at the most.

The trip is about 287km and probably takes 4-5 hours by bus or share taxi (taxi faster than bus).  Should cost about 200 baht.

Thanks for the advice, my only question left is

how do I get from surat thani train station to the surat thani bus station? Are thet very far from one another?

Train station is 14km outside of the city so you would have to take a bus if during day/evening or taxi if late/early.  Share taxi is the fastest method of transport in South Thailand and if you can pay extra/charter (more room) it is quite comfortable.

how do I get from surat thani train station to the surat thani bus station? Are thet very far from one another?

The biggest problem is to get from Phuket Train Station to Phuket Bus Station, but the Tuk Tuk drivers normally knows.

2 baht.  

Aaaah excellent, so we will catch a bus from surat thani train station to the bus station, and from there onto Phuket !!

Just something Im curious about is why isnt there trains from Bangkok to Phuket?

Steve,

Phuket Train Station: It's one of the local Farang practial jokes with Tuk-Tuk's in Phuket Town, hehe.

Train station = "Satani Rot Fai". Phuket does NOT have a "Satani Rot Fai" = train connection.

Solly, bus or car/taxi is your only alternative here. BKK airways have a (expensive!) connection as well.

Just something Im curious about is why isnt there trains from Bangkok to Phuket?

They need tracks to run on.  There is no rail line to Phuket AFAIK as this has only become a popular destination within the last decade or two and is on the other side of a mountian range from the Southern Railway Line.  This is not the railway age (they run at a loss) so new lines are few and far between.

Buses from Bangkok Airport into Town....Gone Bust???

Landed at International Terms.on Sat night,through Immigration in 5 minutes after good flight from P.Penh and find that the Airport Bus to Ekamai has gone erse over TIT.The best bus service in the kingdom for the time being is no more.I checked around but no one will say anything -loss of face etc but finally found a wee guy who admitted it.The situation is for what its worth is that the Contract has expired (yeah-Yeah)they are waiting for a new one.By this time there is/was a load of passengers,mostly backpackers asking whats the score and I end up telling them to forget and go and get ripped off as before by the Vultures-sorry nice taxi drivers...Cmon TOT lets have some info.

Good thing was that I got the Thai mini bus to Pattaya at 7 pm and arrived there at exactly 8-45pm.and the fare was 200 Baht.---good value.

Airport Bus services...back again?

Spotted  a couple of the Airport buses downtown the other day so must assume that TAT has taken notice of our complaints and re started this invaluable service.Well done and it shows that they are listening. (to us)