Phuket Travel Forum

We are a family of 8 adults and 2 children (5yrs and 2,5yrs) travelling to Phuket 06 July 09. We will be at ClubMed Kata Beach.
We will be looking at hiring a vehicle to seat all of us for about 2 days of our 8 day stay, to get us all around together, be it shopping or just exploring.
What is the best option. Hiring 3 tuc-tucs or hiring a small bus ( 8 seater) with air-con.
Where can we hire this from, and at what approximate cost per day. Or do the hotels offer a service like this too.
Looking forward to responses.

Tuk-tuks would be more fun!!

Thanks for your reply Lynne - we do have to consider that one in our family group is 82 yrs old.

June - first off, the tuk-tuks on Phuket are not the three wheeled variety as found in Bangkok, they are small mini vans usaully opensided and there are many of them around. They do charge high prices by Thai standards. For comfort I would use taxis which are more comfortable (especially if it rains which is likely during July) and are air conditioned. They cost the same as tuk-tuks. You can arrange with the drivers to hire them for a trip or any number of hours. If you look at my Phuket pages you will see a bit more info about tuk-tuks on Phuket plus I have the contact details of the driver I use when I am there - he does have a minivan as well as a car so I am sure he could help you.

Regards

John

Thanks John, this will be our 3rd trip to Thailand, I know the open tuc tucs. We would prefer a mini-van which we can drive ourselves. Do they have the hiring facilities eg Avis, Hertz etc. I have not seen any of these companies there in the past, although I was not looking out for them at the time, as it has always just been my husband and I travelling.

Both Avis and Hertz have branches at the airport. Hertz also used to operate out of the Holiday Inn in Patong - not sure if they still do.

Regards

John

Thanks again John - I will check out the websites.

my suggestion is to hire a minivan than a tuk tuk. Tuk tuk is fun for short distance, but if you have young children and old people in your group, it's much more comfy. Any tour agents/hotels can make the arrangment for you. Shop around though for the best price.

Tuk-tuks can be fun for short distances, but for a whole day around the island they will be very uncomfortable. The seating is just benches, so small children cannot be easily held, and for anyone with a back problem they would be torture. In addition, they spew out a lot of fumes, and since they are open, the air inside the tuk-tuks is polluted.

I think you should get a mini-van. These are easily available. I don't know whether the international-brand car rental agencies have these, but a couple of the locally-owned agencies do have them, even with a driver if you wish. An agency I sometimes use for my clients has 9-seater vans with power steering for THB 2300/day without a driver. For THB 600 more, you can have a driver for 8 hours.

Quero - Thank you - I really would appreciate a contact number and name.

June, you should check with your hotel to see if they have a preferred rental agency that can get a van for you. Club Med is quite fussy about which service providers its guests use, and outside providers are not permitted to enter the property, which makes things complicated. In any case, you will need to do this ahead of time since agencies don't have as many of this type of vehicle as they do standard automobiles.

Quero - thank you again, will do that.

June, my friend Mai has a mini-van which seats up to 11. He charges 1,500 baht per day.

His email for bookings is; hknuch@hotmail.com

Tell Nuch (his wife who answers the emails) that you're a friend of mine.

Thanks Tina. Will do that!