Andaman beaches, Bolt-cheap rides and seafood sold by the kilo.
beachfamilyfood☀ best: Dec – Mar
The Phuket guide
📘 The detailed premium Phuket guide — 38 pages
Night-market noodles, southern curries and fresh-off-the-boat seafood. Budgets, neighbourhoods, markets, stays, day plans and a Top 10 — every venue with a live Google Maps link. See inside →
This isn’t a blog post saved as a PDF — it’s a detailed, premium, 38-page A4 magazine — researched and checked in 2026, designed to be used. And every purchase comes as two files: the A4 edition for your laptop, tablet and printer, and a phone edition laid out tall and narrow so you never pinch or zoom — the same guide re-flowed into 98 phone-sized pages. Keep it on your phone or print it, open it at a street corner in Phuket and it answers the question you’re standing there with.
38A4 pages — cover to back
98phone pages — same guide, re-flowed
255+researched prices in €
230live, verified links
111jump straight to Google Maps
61hand-picked photos
Add it up: 546+ researched details — every price checked, every venue placed, every link live. More usable information than a week of blog-tab hopping, in one beautiful file.
Made for the phone in your pocket — as well as the A4 magazine you get a phone edition: one attraction per screen, nothing cut, every link still live. No pinching, no sideways scrolling.
Every venue is one tap from navigation — 111 Google Maps links mean you never type an address on holiday.
Real prices, not vibes — three honest daily budgets (€30 / €65 / €165) and prices on everything from a dorm bed to a splurge dinner.
Zero sponsorships — nobody paid to be in this guide. If it’s in, it’s in because it’s good.
Book everything from the page — stays open on Booking.com & Hostelworld, experiences on GetYourGuide, Trip.com & Klook, transport on official operator sites.
Plan-it-for-me included — ready day plans, a Top 10, a best-of snapshot, and neighbourhood “best for” labels that choose your base with you.
This page gives you the ranges. The guide gives you the places — every venue named, priced and linked.
SHOESTRING
€30/day
dorms, street plates, transit
COMFY
€65/day
private room, sit-down meals, a treat
FLASH
€165/day
nice hotel, good dinners, no maths
🧮 Trip maths€456 total
What Phuket costs, day to day
🛵 Getting around
Grab
Bolt
Uber — merged into Grab across SE Asia in 2018
Phuket Smart Bus (airport → beaches)one-way€2.6–€4.3
Local songthaew to Phuket Townper ride€0.9–€1.3
Shared airport minibusper seat€4.3–€6.1
Scooter rentalper day — Wear the helmet — checkpoints are real.€5.2–€7.8
🛏 Stays
Per night
Hostel dorm bed€6.9–€13
Guesthouse double, Kata / Old Town€22–€39
Airbnb 1-BR near the beach€30–€52
Beach resort double€78–€174
Monthly
Studio, Kathu / Chalong€304–€477
1-BR condo with pool€434–€781
🛒 Groceries & daily life
Big C Extra, Phuket Town — biggest hypermarket on the island
Makro, Thalang & Chalong — bulk — cheapest for self-caterers
Chillva & weekend markets — cheap eats + produce after 5pm
Water 1.5 L€0.4–€0.6
Milk 1 L€1.3–€1.6
Eggs ×10€1.5–€2
Bread loaf€1–€1.5
Rice 1 kg€1.1–€1.6
Chicken breast 1 kg€2.3–€3.2
Bananas 1 kg€0.8–€1.2
Local beer 0.5 L (shop)€1.4–€1.8
🍜 Eating out
Local shophouse meal, Phuket Town€1.7–€3
Night-market dinner€2.6–€4.3
Beach restaurant mainsper person€6.9–€13
Seafood dinner, by the kiloper person€17–€35
Beach club day (min. spend)per person€26–€52
🎡 Things to do — with kids
Andamanda water parkentry€22–€39
Aquaria Phuketentry€13–€19
Kids’ surf lesson, Kata1 h€30–€39
Old Town ice cream + mural hunt€1.7–€3.5
🌙 Things to do — grown-ups
Phi Phi islands day tripincl. lunch€24–€39
Big Buddha viewpointFree — dress modestly.free
Two-tank dive day€78–€104
Bangla Road night outper person€8.7–€26
🌤 Climate
Day °CSea °CRain
Best: Dec – Mar · Wet: May – Oct
Andaman side: glassy seas Dec–Mar; Sep is the wettest, waviest month.
✈️ Getting there
AirAsiaVietJetThai LionScoot
Bangkok€17–€39
Kuala Lumpur€39–€74
Singapore€43–€82
🏧 ATMs & money
Fees: The region's worst: a flat 220 ฿ (~$6) surcharge on every foreign-card withdrawal, at every bank. Soften it by withdrawing the max (20,000–30,000 ฿) in one go.
Limits: 20,000–30,000 ฿ per pull (Krungsri and CIMB sit at the generous end) — max it out to dilute that flat fee.
Best machines:Bangkok BankKasikornKrungsri
Thailand is an EXCHANGE country: bring crisp USD/EUR notes and change at SuperRich (the green/orange booths) or Vasu in Bangkok — rates beat any card path. Counter cash-advance inside a bank branch (passport needed) also dodges the 220 ฿.
🩺 Health & safety
Vaccines: Routine shots up to date, plus Hepatitis A and (for street-food adventurers) Typhoid. Rabies and Japanese encephalitis only for long rural stays — a travel clinic will tell you in five minutes.
Health: Dengue mosquitoes bite at dawn and dusk — repellent is the one habit that matters. Skip tap water (sealed bottles and purified ice are everywhere); busy stalls with turnover are the safe street food. Private hospitals are world-class and affordable — Bangkok is where the region flies for treatment.
Tap water: ❌ Don't drink the tap. Sealed bottled water is cheap and everywhere; ice in established places is factory-made and fine.
Safety: Violent crime against visitors is genuinely rare — the real risk wears two wheels: traffic. Helmet on every scooter, Grab at night, and you've handled 90 % of it. Classic scams (gem shops, 'closed temple' tuk-tuks) are annoyances, not dangers — a smile and a walk-on solves them.
Plant-based: Easy if you say it right: 'jay' (เจ) means fully plant-based and every market has a jay stall. Watch fish sauce and oyster sauce — ask 'mai sai nam pla'.
Gluten-free: Rice-based heaven: most noodles and rice dishes are naturally gluten-free; soy sauce (wheat) hides in stir-fries — ask for 'no soy sauce'.
Veg = 'gin jay' · no fish sauce = 'mai sai nam pla' · Bangkok's Chinatown runs a whole Jay festival every October.
🛂 Visa & entry
For most short tourist trips, citizens of the US, UK, EU/Schengen, Canada, Australia and New Zealand either enter visa-free or get a simple online authorisation (an eVisa or eTA) before flying. Typical visa-free stays run 30–90 days. Some countries want a visa arranged in advance, and a growing number ask you to fill an online arrival or eVisa form even when 'visa-free' — so always check the official portal for your exact nationality before you book.
Rules change — always verify with an official source for your nationality before you book.
💬 Traveller tips & reports
Bolt beats the taxi cartel — Airport pickup: follow signs to the ride-hail point and order a Bolt — typically half the fixed taxi-counter price. Same trick works leaving the beach strips.