Renting a Car in Phuket in April

Songkran and the road

Thai New Year falls in the middle of April, and on Phuket it is literal: people come out to the roadside with water and throw it at everyone passing, cars very much included and scooters especially. For a driver that means two things — a wet windscreen at unpredictable moments, and pedestrians standing much closer to the traffic than usual.

How to drive through it

Keep the windows up, keep the speed down, and accept that you will be soaked if you get out. Streets in the busy areas are partly closed and the diversions are improvised rather than signposted, so a familiar route may simply not exist that day. Chalk paste on the windscreen is common and smears badly, so make sure the washer bottle is full before the festival starts.

The more serious point is that this is the most dangerous week of the year on Thai roads, and the reason is not water. It is a long public holiday with a great deal of drinking and a lot of people travelling. Drive defensively, avoid the roads late at night, and treat every scooter as unpredictable, because during Songkran a fair number of them are.

What it means for the car

April heat is the top of the year's range, and everything that applied in March is amplified. The air conditioning runs almost continuously, the engine works harder on the climbs, and tyre pressures rise as the day goes on. A simple check before a long drive — pressures cold in the morning, coolant level, washer fluid — takes five minutes and prevents most of what goes wrong.

Parking in the sun becomes genuinely punishing. A dashboard in April can get hot enough to distort a phone left on it, and the steering wheel is unusable for the first minutes. Shade is not a comfort here; it is the difference between getting in and standing outside waiting for the cabin to become survivable.

The evening storms are short but heavy, and the first minutes of rain after weeks of dry weather are the slipperiest conditions of the year. Oil and dust lift off the tarmac and sit on the surface, and painted lines and metal covers become properly treacherous. Slow down for the first quarter of an hour of any April downpour.

Parking in April

Low season makes parking easy almost everywhere, except on the festival days, when parts of the street network are closed and cars stand where traffic normally moves. That is a short, predictable disruption and it is worth planning around rather than being surprised by.

The rest of the month, take shade over convenience every time. A covered car park at a shopping centre is worth a longer walk in April, and a shaded bay in a hotel car park is worth asking for at check-in rather than hoping for.

Watch where the water gathers, too. The evening storms are heavy enough to flood a dip within minutes, and a car parked in the lowest corner of a car park is the one standing in water at the end of it. It drains quickly, but not before it has reached the sills.

• Check whether your hotel exit is on a closed street, or the car stays parked
• Keep the washer bottle full; chalk paste on the glass smears badly
• Park in shade or a covered garage, because April is the hottest month
• Carry your documents during the festival days, when there are more checkpoints than usual

Where to drive in April

Outside the festival days April is excellent for longer trips: the roads are clear, there are few tourists, and the rain is still occasional. Mainland routes towards Phang Nga and Khao Lak run faster than they do in high season, because the bridge and the road north are not carrying holiday traffic.

On the island itself, this is the month to do the things that are unpleasant when it is crowded. The viewpoints have space to park, the southern beaches are quiet on a weekday, and the old town can be driven through without the evening crawl. Start early, because by mid-afternoon the heat makes anything outdoors hard work.

The one thing to plan around is water. April is the driest end of the year and some of the waterfalls are down to a trickle, so a trip built around them will disappoint. Save those for later in the year and spend April on the coast and the mainland instead.

Renting in April

Low season means the best choice of cars and more flexible terms on dates. If you want a specific class or a longer rental, April is the easiest month of the year to arrange it, because there is no competition for automatics the way there is at the peak.

The exception is the festival week itself, when demand rises sharply and a lot of vehicles are already out. Book that period earlier than you would book the rest of the month, and confirm the collection point, because the usual one may be behind a road closure.

Delivery and collection work normally through April, with the same caveat about the festival days. Tell us your dates and where you are staying on WhatsApp, or Telegram if you prefer, and we will flag anything about your specific street or hotel that the festival is likely to affect.