Minivans from Hat Yai to Samui

[lemonjelly]

Anybody know of the best n fastest and cost thereof?

cheers

[Mole]

At the Hat Yai bust terminal, there will be a booth where you can buy ticket for big buses which will take the route Phattalung-Suratthani-Samui. There's one bus around 8 in the morning and one around noon. The one departing noon will arrive Samui with the last ferry at 8:30 PM.

The buses will apparently pick up people along the way and also stop by bus terminals in towns, that's why it takes very long time.

There's also minivans which will take you directly to Samui. Depending on the amount of passengers, they may either take the Phattalung-Nakornsri Thammarat-Samui (which is more time consuming) or if you're lucky, they'll take the faster Songkhla-Nakornsri Thammarat-Samui, which will take only 3-4 hours (not including ferry). There's also only 2 departures, one around 8 and the other around noon.

It's been a while I took this, so I don't remember prices.

Alternatively, you can take the minivan to Nakornsri Thammarat, which I believe there is one every hour, then from Nakornsri Thammarat bus terminal, there should be lots of vans going to Donsak pier.

[BONGOMAN]

I think you can take the train / bus / ferry try this www.seat61.com

[notmyself]

Could always take the bus to Surat.

[lemonjelly]

Thanks for the help, i read on the net that there's a bus that leaves hat yai 21:30 direct to samui, arrives early in the morning i guess, anybody know of it?

[Mole]

Yes, there's that night bus too. It'll arrive in time for the first ferry to Samui departing at 6:00 and arriving 7:30.

I decided to take the morning minivan directly back to Samui though. Departed Hat Yai bus terminal 8:00 and arrived in Samui 14:30.

[lemonjelly]

Thanks Mole, the night bus sounds good. [emoji108]

[robsamui]

Hi.

There are 2 minivans operated by Phantip Travel (note - not big buses) running out of the Had Yai terminus, the first is at 8:00 am, and the next at 10:30 am. The cost of these is 450 baht (may have gone up recently) and will return you to Samui at the Seatran pier at Nathon. (Phantip have stopped running their VIP coaches now, and only operate minivanson this run.)

There is a VIP coach operated by "Hadyai Thai Malay 2011" which runs up from the border at Sungai Kolok and arrives at Had Yai, leaving for Samui at 11.30 am - same price, I think, 450 baht. This comes back to Samui via the Raja Ferry at Lipa Noi.

They also operate a late VIP bus at 9:30 pm . I've not used this one myself and have been told that it crawls to the departure port of Donsak in time to get the first Raja ferrry at 6:00 am - 8 hours!

BUT - take care with the 11.30 bus. It's notoriously unreliable and much of the time simply doesn't run. You can buy the ticket from bus station ticket window - but it's only open in the morning for a few hours and if the bus isn't running, it isn't open at all. (One time I played smart and bought the ticket the day before - only to find no bus and no ticket lady for a refund.)

The Phantip minivans are reliable - if you can stand being toothpasted into a tube that is designed for 5-ft high people with 24-inch legs for 6 hours. Plus they come in a Nathon where there is a wider choice of songthiews.

R

Edited April 26, 2015 by robsamui

[robsamui]

Yes, there's that night bus too. It'll arrive in time for the first ferry to Samui departing at 6:00 and arriving 7:30.

I decided to take the morning minivan directly back to Samui though. Departed Hat Yai bus terminal 8:00 and arrived in Samui 14:30.

err . . the 8:00 minivan gets the 2:00 ferry and arrives at Samui at 3:30 . . . ;-)

Even it it doesn't stop for lunch it can't make it to the 1:00 pm ferry . . .

R

[robsamui]

I think you can take the train / bus / ferry try this www.seat61.com

I've gone into this sometime in the past.

The problem was to co-ordinate everything. The Butterworth-Bangkok train goes to Surat Thani, which is over 1 hour away from Donsak. The earliest you can get to Surat from Had Yai is 4:46 pm. That means you've got to find somewhere to stay overnight - and then still spend another hour or more traveling to get to the ferry the next day.

Didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me . . . unless there is now a company running a combined ticket which whisks you away from the arriving train in Surat and races to catch the last ferry out of Donsak . . .

R

Edited April 26, 2015 by robsamui

[Beng]

Phantip big bus departs from Hat Yai bus terninal at 08:00, goes up the coast through Nakorn Sri Thammarat and to Donsak for the 15:00 ferry. Price used to be 400 Baht. Did this trip for more than 15 years. Comfy seats. good aircon. Never involved in any accident, very thoughtful drivers.

[robsamui]

Phantip big bus departs from Hat Yai bus terninal at 08:00, goes up the coast through Nakorn Sri Thammarat and to Donsak for the 15:00 ferry. Price used to be 400 Baht. Did this trip for more than 15 years. Comfy seats. good aircon. Never involved in any accident, very thoughtful driHave you done this recently?

Have you done this recently?

As I said, Phantip have stopped the big bus.

Like yourself I did this trip with them for years.

But not any more!

[Beng]

Phantip big bus departs from Hat Yai bus terninal at 08:00, goes up the coast through Nakorn Sri Thammarat and to Donsak for the 15:00 ferry. Price used to be 400 Baht. Did this trip for more than 15 years. Comfy seats. good aircon. Never involved in any accident, very thoughtful driHave you done this recently?

Have you done this recently?

As I said, Phantip have stopped the big bus.

Like yourself I did this trip with them for years.

But not any more!

Sorry, I didn't know. Why did they stop ?

[Rooo]

Phantip big bus departs from Hat Yai bus terninal at 08:00, goes up the coast through Nakorn Sri Thammarat and to Donsak for the 15:00 ferry. Price used to be 400 Baht. Did this trip for more than 15 years. Comfy seats. good aircon. Never involved in any accident, very thoughtful driHave you done this recently?

Have you done this recently?

As I said, Phantip have stopped the big bus.

Like yourself I did this trip with them for years.

But not any more!

Sorry, I didn't know. Why did they stop ?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/820206-minivans-from-hat-yai-to-samui/#entry9344910

[robsamui]

Phantip big bus departs from Hat Yai bus terninal at 08:00, goes up the coast through Nakorn Sri Thammarat and to Donsak for the 15:00 ferry. Price used to be 400 Baht. Did this trip for more than 15 years. Comfy seats. good aircon. Never involved in any accident, very thoughtful driHave you done this recently?

Have you done this recently?

As I said, Phantip have stopped the big bus.

Like yourself I did this trip with them for years.

But not any more!

Sorry, I didn't know. Why did they stop ?

Simple - lack of customers

I've been doing the run every 3 months for 18 years, Way back then, they used to set off with a full bus. In the last 4 or 5 years though, there were rarely more than 15 or so passengers, although it picked people up along the way. I can only suppose it made more sense to use a bus which only held 12 to begin with.

They stopped using the big buses somewhere between 3 and 4 years back.

Incidentally, the big Samui-Hatyai-Sungor-Kolok VIP bus seems also almost empty when it leaves Samui - makes me wonder how long they'll keep running it.

R

[Mole]

The lady behind the counter at Hadyai bus terminal told me sometimes when there's not enough people on the first 08:00 minivan round, they'll cancel that and put everybody on the next one at 10:30 instead.

I was trying to buy the ticket the day before, but was told to buy in the morning because they couldn't guarantee me if the minivan to Samui would run or not, if there wasn't enough people to fill it.

I came the next morning, and luckily there were enough people. Well, initially only half full from Hadyai, but the driver notified that instead of taking the shorter scenic eastern route beach highway, he'll have to drive through Phattalung to pick up more people on the way.

Edited May 6, 2015 by Mole

[Beng]

Panthip big bus was a good service, although a little slow. Seems like nothing improves on Samui just getting worse.