How to get from Phuket Airport to Patong

Patong is the leg most people fly in for, and it is far enough that the choice actually matters. A pre-booked car is the reliable answer: the price is set before you leave home, the driver is waiting past customs, and it works at any hour. The Smart Bus is the cheap answer and a perfectly good one in daylight. The one thing to avoid is arriving with no plan after the bus has stopped, because that is when you buy transport from whoever is standing closest.

Which one to pick

Most arrivals, and any landing after the bus has stopped. Pre-booked car: fixed price, driver waiting, and it works at any hour — which after the last bus is the difference between a choice and no choice, and the counters know it.

Family with children and checked bags. Pre-booked car, and say how many child seats you need when you book. Seats are not something you can arrange at a counter at midnight.

One or two people traveling light, in daylight. The bus. It goes where you are going, it takes your suitcase, and the walk at the far end is short.

Sports luggage, boards, a pram, or four adults. Pre-booked car, priced per vehicle. A shared van’s seat price is the trap here — put four of them next to one car fare before deciding which is the cheap option.

The pre-booked car

You give a flight number, an address and a landing time; a driver meets you in arrivals and the fare does not move afterwards. On this route that matters more than on the short hops near the airport: it is long enough that a price agreed at the door has room to drift, and busy enough that the person quoting it is not short of customers.

Give the real flight number even for a domestic connection. It is what lets the operator see a delay and wait, and it is the difference between a driver who reschedules and a driver who leaves.

Taxi from the airport

Taxis are available whenever you land, and nothing has to be arranged in advance. What trips people up is that “taxi” at this airport is several products sold from several counters, and the metered one is not the one you meet first. If you plan to take a taxi, read how the airport taxi counters actually work before you get to the hall — it is a two-minute read that decides which price you pay.

The Smart Bus

The bus runs from the airport down the west coast, through the beach towns, with Patong on the line. It takes luggage, it accepts cards as well as cash, and it drops you on the main road rather than at your hotel door.

Two things to know before you count on it. It departs from the domestic terminal, so an international arrival has a walk across the frontage first. And it stops for the night: on paper it is the cheapest way to Patong, in practice it is only available to a flight that lands early enough.

Grab and Bolt

Both apps cover the airport, with a marked pickup point rather than a curbside scramble. Set the ride up on airport wi-fi — the immigration queue is a better place for it than the sidewalk outside. At night fewer drivers are working, and an app showing no cars is not a plan.

What to watch out for

The hill. The road into Patong climbs and then drops through a series of tight bends. It is slow, it is where the traffic collects, and if anyone in the car is prone to motion sickness, this is the stretch they will remember.

Late afternoon. The same road carries everybody coming back from the beach. An arrival that looks quick on the map can double in the wrong window.

“Per person” quotes. Shared vans advertise a seat price. A private car advertises a car price. Compare like with like before deciding one is cheaper.

No plan after the last bus. This is the single situation on this route where you will pay the most for the least, and it is entirely avoidable from home.

Where next

Kamala is the next bay north and a shorter, calmer run; Karon sits over the hill to the south. Still deciding where to stay? The area guide is the faster way to choose, and every destination on the island is compared on the transfers hub.