Driving in Kamala, Phuket: One Road and a Pass

Navigation in one line

Kamala is the simplest district on Phuket to drive in, because there is almost nothing to decide. One road runs parallel to the beach through the whole village. North it continues towards Surin and Bang Tao; south it climbs over the pass to Patong. Everything you want is on that road or a hundred metres off it.

That simplicity is worth more than it sounds. Visitors who find Patong stressful and Kata claustrophobic tend to relax immediately here: two lanes, sensible speeds, no one-way puzzles and a single decision to make when you set off, which is left or right.

The turnings you do take matter more than usual. The lanes down to the beach are short and narrow with limited turning space at the end, and the lanes up the hillside are steep. Neither is difficult; both reward looking before committing.

The pass to Patong

The hill road between Kamala and Patong is the one piece of proper driving in the district, and it is the road that gets talked about most. It climbs, bends and drops with a viewpoint near the top and scooters everywhere.

An ordinary car handles it without drama. What it asks for is technique rather than power. Going up, let the gearbox hold a lower gear and stay steady rather than accelerating into bends. Coming down, select L or the minus position and let the engine slow the car. Riding the brakes the whole way is how people arrive at the bottom with a soft pedal.

Be aware of two things. Overloaded pickups and tour vans move slowly on the climb, and there are places where overtaking looks possible and is not. And rented scooters are ridden by people trying that pass for the first time, sometimes badly, usually in the middle of the lane. Leave room.

After rain the surface holds water on the inside of bends. Slow before the corner, not in it, and avoid braking hard mid-bend on a wet descent.

Beach parking and hillside driveways

Along the beach road there are pull-ins and small parking areas, most of them free and most of them shaded by trees. In quieter months you will always find something. In the busiest weeks the spaces nearest the sand fill by mid-morning and the answer is to park a little further along and walk.

The hillside is a different problem. Villas here sit above the road on steep private driveways, some of them short, sharp and awkward to reverse out of. If you are staying up the hill, send us the location when you book and we will bring something that fits the driveway rather than something that fits the brochure.

Do not park on the bends of the pass road, including at the viewpoint if the pull-in is full. It is a blind road and a parked car on the carriageway there is genuinely dangerous.

• Park in the tree shade rather than close to the sand
• Send your villa location if you are on the hillside, before delivery
• Never stop on the bends of the Patong pass, viewpoint included
• Reverse into steep driveways so you drive out forwards

How far you can range from here

Kamala's position on the middle of the west coast is its strength. Surin and Bang Tao with their restaurants and shopping are a short coastal drive north. Patong, with everything Patong has, is over the pass and back again in an evening.

Going further, the airport run avoids town centres entirely, which is why families with early flights like this side of the island. The northern beaches and Thalang are an easy morning, and the old town is a straightforward run across the middle of the island.

The south, Kata, Karon and Nai Harn, is a longer outing and best treated as a full day rather than an afternoon. The coast road down there is slower than the map suggests, and the return in the dark over two passes is the part people underestimate.