Driving in Phuket: guides
What we end up explaining on WhatsApp every week, written down: getting from the airport, renting without a credit card, avoiding rental problems, the documents you need, car or scooter, monthly rentals, travelling with children, the high and the rainy season, parking, and where to drive once you have the keys.
Phuket Airport to your hotel: taxi or rental car
Phuket Airport is in the far north of the island, so almost every hotel is 30–75 minutes away. A taxi or Grab to Patong, Kata or Rawai usually costs more than a whole day of car rental, and you pay it again on the way back. If you were going to rent a car anyway, taking it at the airport turns the transfer into the first day of the rental.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Renting a car in Phuket without a credit card
You can rent a car in Phuket without a credit card. The international brands at the airport usually want a credit card in the main driver’s name for the deposit hold, but many local companies, including us, take a cash deposit instead: ฿3,000 for a sedan and ฿5,000 for the Toyota Fortuner, handed back in full when you return the car.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Renting a car in Phuket without overpaying
Most problems with car rentals in Phuket come from the same few things: a passport left as a deposit, an argument about scratches at the return, an insurance excess nobody mentioned, and fees added at the end. Checking eight points before you sign avoids nearly all of them — whichever company you rent from.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Driving licence and IDP for a rental car in Thailand
To drive a car in Thailand as a visitor you need your national driving licence plus an International Driving Permit (IDP), or a Thai driving licence. The IDP is a booklet that translates your licence; it is issued in your own country before the trip, usually in a day, and it is only valid together with the licence it belongs to. Without it a rental is still handed over by many agencies, but you are driving illegally, and that is the part that can cost you real money after an accident.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Car or scooter in Phuket?
A scooter is cheaper and quicker through traffic; a car is safer, dry in the rain and locks your luggage away. For one person on flat roads near the beach the scooter usually wins. For two or more people, for the hilly roads to Kata and Patong, for a family, or for anything longer than a week, a car costs a little more per day and removes most of the risk.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Monthly car rental in Phuket
From 30 days you pay a fixed monthly price instead of a daily rate — for our cars that is ฿18,000–38,000 a month, and the insurance, servicing and unlimited mileage are included. For anyone staying in Phuket for a season, a monthly rental costs less than a month of taxis and far less than buying a car and selling it again.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Phuket by car: a three-day route
Phuket is 50 km long, so nothing is more than an hour and a half away, but the roads are hilly and slow — plan by time, not by distance. This route splits the island into three days: the south, the west coast, and the north with the old town. It starts at Phuket Airport, where we usually hand over the car.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Day trips from Phuket by car
Phuket is joined to the mainland by the Sarasin Bridge in the north, and with a car the whole Andaman coast is within reach: Khao Lak is about an hour and a half away, the Phang Nga Bay viewpoints about the same, Khao Sok about three hours and Krabi around three. All the roads are paved, and our rentals have unlimited mileage anywhere in Thailand.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Where to park in Phuket
Parking in Phuket is free almost everywhere except central Patong and Phuket Old Town, where you use a paid car park. The rule that catches visitors out is the painted kerb: red and white means no parking at all, and in the tourist areas cars left there are clamped.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Driving in Phuket in the rainy season
The rainy season in Phuket runs roughly from May to October. It rarely rains all day: most days have a heavy downpour for an hour or two, often in the afternoon, and the rest is dry and warm. In a car that is a short pause with the wipers on; on a scooter it is the most dangerous hour of the day. Car rental is also cheaper and easier to book in these months.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Phuket with kids by car
With small children a car makes Phuket much easier: no waiting for taxis in the heat, the pushchair and beach bags stay in the boot, and the air conditioning is always there. Thai law requires small children to ride in a child seat, so book one together with the car — we fit it before the hand-over for ฿100 per day.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →
Renting a car in Phuket in high season
The high season in Phuket runs from about December to February, with the peak between Christmas and early January. Cars sell out first for those dates: if you are coming between 20 December and 10 January, book two to four weeks ahead. Our prices in that period are 15% higher; the rest of the high season is at the normal rate.
Updated 2026-09-18 · Read →