By
plane
Phuket International Airport is 35 km to the north of Patong.
"Limousine" taxis from the airport to Patong
are a steep 500 baht (45 minutes); meter-taxis 300+ baht (if coming
from the airport, from outside the car
park gates); shared minibuses limit the damage to 150 baht (but 180
baht in the Patong to airport direction,
presuming you book through an agency). Even cheaper (however also more
time consuming) option is to
take the comfortable a/c airport shuttle bus to Phuket Town (85 baht as
of May 2010, 1 hour), and switch
there to a local bus to Patong, see "By bus" section. Alternatively, if
you know the right road, you can get
off the bus after you pass the Big C shopping center on the right (the
airport bus goes to the left there, and
the road to Kathu and then Patong is to the right from the same
intersection), and try to catch a local bus
to Patong there, which also passes that intersection. Local buses to
Patong are clearly marked in English
and in Thai.
By bus
Regular buses connect to Phuket Town (25
baht, 30-45
minutes) every 30 minutes or so between 07:00 and
18:00. The route starts from the southern end of the beach, after which
the bus crawls through town (via
Bangla Road), stopping to pick up passengers, before finally heading
off across the hills, and going via
Kathu, then passing near Big C before entering the Phuket Town.
In Phuket Town, those buses are usually waiting for
passengers near the local market (1-1,5 km west from
the Phuket bus station), however, some huge (almost bus-sized)
songthaews marked "Phuket - Patong"
were seen near Phuket bus station too. If you're coming by public bus
from other areas in Thailand (like
Bangkok or Surat Thani), as well as if using the airport bus, you will
end up in this bus station. Local
motorbike taxi drivers can and will offer fares like 40 baht to the
market or 250 baht straight to Phuket - just
walk (there's a city map in the terminal), bargain hard, or just wait
for an arriving songthaew; even if he's not
going to Patong, he will drop you to the bus station for no more than
20 baht, or probably 10 if there's more
than 2-3 of you.
By
limousine
Limousine usually referrs to a larger
sedan, such as
Toyota Camry, with leather seats, etc. They cost
around 600-700 baht to go to Kata Beach. Considering the drive is about
an hour long, this is one of the
best options to get to Kata Beach.
Getting
around
Patong can (just about) be covered on
foot, but
there are plenty of taxis and motorbikes to get you around.
The cost of these is one of the main down sides to Patong as they are
unregulated and charge what they
please.
Phuket has two types of taxi - millions (or so it
seems) of small songthaew-style minivans (usually bright
red, occasionally bright yellow), and very few conventional sedan-style
taxis (yellow and red, with a
"TAXI-METER" sign on top).
The minivans have no meter, and their drivers are
notoriously mercenary, so always agree a price
beforehand and do bargain hard. Short hops typically cost B200 since
the one way system was invoked.
For longer distances the metered taxis are generally
a better bet. You can hail one by telephone on
076-232157.
Motorbike taxi rides within Patong start around 40
baht.
