Phuket Airport Bus Taxi Hotels Transportation to Patong Car Rentals

the departure and arrival area, after they went to Nai Yang Beach direction, when I asked them why they don't drive to Phuket Town they started to smile as usually and took a left turn at the next junction to head for the Phuket International Airport to down town highway.

After you arrive maybe via cheap flights to Phuket by Air Asia or Tiger Airways take a minibus, it take some time until they are full but at least there is no funny business around. There are only a handful of taxis on the island, its limited to make sure the tuk tuk operators don't have competition, you will never find a taxi in Phuket, only outside the arrival hall are about 3-4 taxis waiting, with this taxi's it's about Baht 400,- for a ride between the airport and Phuket Town. The minibus service counter  at the arrival hall offers shared transportation to almost every location on the island, among them

to Patong and if there are some passengers even to Khao Lak. If a longer ride is needed e.g. from Phuket to Phang Nga, Takua Pa etc. it needs to take the bus from the terminal at Phuket Town.

Low cost air travel started to make inroads into the Thailand bus travel market, although a airline ticket to various destinations in Thailand is still about 3 to 4 times more expensive as a bus ticket, the absolute value don't indicate such a big difference anymore. For instance the airline ticket for Phuket to Bangkok is always around Baht 2200,-, one way, the bus ticket is either Baht 640,- in the 32 seated bus or Baht 940,- in the 24 seated bus. On the other hand, air travel is around 3 hours from entering the airport until leaving the airport and bus travel is 12 hours.

Cheap flights to Phuket
 

Aside of flights to Phuket and domestic air travel a excellent option to travel in Thailand is to take a Thailand bus. This probably the best option anyway to travel around, the buses are cheap, comfortable and leave almost hourly to every destination. As you can see at the

picture on right side Thailand buses are colorful and modern, almost all of them follow the construction pattern they started in Germany some decades ago. The same is for minibuses, they are faster than the normal buses but also more expensive. Aside of the before mentioned transfer there is no dedicated airport shuttle. There are no dedicated Phuket airport hotels since there are plenty of hotels near by easily reachable with the car or taxi within a radius of about 15 minutes drive, since this area also has no traffic congestion, its pure rural there is no problem to get in and out from hotels near Phuket airport.

The airport is the second most busy Thailand airport after Bangkok airport. There are only 5 Thailand airports where international flights can land, this is Phuket international airport,  Bangkok airport, Krabi Airport, Hat Yai Airport and Chiang Mai airport. There is always a cheap flight to Phuket available somewhere. With Air Asia a cheap flights to Phuket are available from many destinations in Thailand and on international routes. If you travel to Phuket from or to Singapore probably the best choice is Tiger Airways since most of the time they are on time and ticket fares are low, they also fly to Krabi and Hat Yai out of Singapore Changi.  

After your Phuket flight arrives the best is probably to take a minibus to almost any

destination on Phuket Island, it's between Baht 100,- for a ride to Phuket Town and upwards depending where to go, such as Patong Beach, Rawai Beach, Phuket City, Chalong Beach, Kata Beach, Karon Beach, Nai Harn Beach, Bangtao Beach, Laguna Phuket, Cape Panwa or other Phuket beach areas etc. If you use this minibus service it usually takes about 10 - 15 minutes to wait. The counter for the minibus service is just before you leave the arrival hall, don't worry you cant miss, there are always some employees screaming taxi. There are no dedicated airport hotels but in the vicinity are plenty of Phuket hotels and Phuket Beach resorts. If someone wants to stay at the airport region the best is to take one of the hotels near at Nai Yang Beach, that's the second closest beach next to the airport. The closest hotel - beach resort is pictured below. There are counters at the arrival hall for Phuket hotel and Phuket Beach Resort information, if you book a Phuket hotel

of you. Airport Hotels got a new member, its the Dewa Phuket Resort only a few minutes drive distance

from Phuket International Airport.

There are several Phuket international airport car rental company counter in the arrival hall, those are usually the international car rental companies like avis, hertz etc. but they all are relatively expensive. For Phuket Airport Car Rental, check here, they are located in Phuket Town and will pick you up at and bring you back to the airport. They have excellent new cars, are very friendly and know what they are doing. A family business for many years, they also have a excellent reputation and very important, their prices are around half what the big international guys are charging, for the same service. All cars are fully insure via a "first class insurance", they also rent small motorbikes for around Baht 150,- per day.

In times of cheap flights to Phuket, as we have, congestion in front of the immigration counter at arrival is inevitable. From time to time the airport gets an upgrade but the worst is probably at arrival when 2 aircraft come in within a few minutes timeframe, usual wait in front of immigration can be up to one hour, there is no problem with going through custom, people are very friendly and tolerant.

If you are hungry use this airport restaurant pictured here, it is upstairs, the food is excellent and not expensive. Avoid the fast food counter opposite to the check in counter, their food is lousy, the employees totally ignorant and funny, just the items what you want to order is not available today, this is a "Chester Grill" outlet but when asking for a chicken leg, they usually answer, today not available. Inside the domestic departure area is also a fast food restaurant from Burger King, their food is also quite good, at least they serve real hamburger, about 10 mm thick. Not this flat junk like you get at Macdonald's downtown where the hamburger is 3 mm thick, actually looks like a small size tortilla between some bread. Everything is very similar to Bangkok's new airport and Bangkok's old airport. The real problem is that the whole organization is wrongly as long to handle 1 passenger as their Singapore Changi Airport counterpart, since basically they are just doing the same as the Singaporeans it must be a organization problem since the Thai immigration officers need about 4 times as long as the Singaporean immigration officer.

Actually even at the new Yangon or Rangoon airport in Myanmar it

 
Phuket Transportation, this is from Karon beach but its the same from Patong and other beaches.