Bang Tao to Phuket Old Town by Car

Which road and how long it feels

Leaving Bang Tao, you have two ways onto the main road. The main artery runs from the sea up to the 4030 highway, wide and marked. The inland way turns off the main highway towards the sea through Cherngtalay, with wide lanes, traffic lights and nothing steep. Either way, you then head south on flat ground.

How long it feels

We have not timed Bang Tao to the Old Town, so there is no number here. The road is not the slow part. North of town runs the fastest road on the island, straight and flat, linking the town with the airport and the northern beaches. The time goes on the approach to town at peak hours, and then on parking, where a quarter of an hour is a fair allowance.

On divided roads near town you meet U-turns instead of right turns: drive past the side road, turn back at the gap and come in from the left. Our page on Phuket Airport to the Old Town describes the same kind of approach into town from the north. From further south on the coast, Kamala to Phuket Old Town by car adds a pass to the same trip.

What that means for the car

The road asks little: flat, wide, lit on the main stretches. Any automatic will do, and an economy car is plenty for two people heading into town for the day.

The quarter at the end is where size counts. In the Old Town the smallest car wins. A crossover needs care around its width, and a minivan should stay out of the narrow lanes altogether. Arcade columns sit right by the carriageway and take mirrors, and the kerbs are high and sharp enough that every turn belongs on the asphalt.

A family in a larger car is fine too, as long as the car stays at a perimeter car park. After a downpour some streets hold water that hides both the kerb and the drain grating, one more reason to walk the last few minutes.

If you are staying in Bang Tao or Laguna and want a car for trips like this, we deliver to your hotel, villa or residence at any hour: automatic, first-class commercial insurance, a refundable deposit, the total for your dates fixed in chat. Send the dates on WhatsApp or through the booking form; the pages on car rental in Bang Tao and car rental in Laguna describe both areas.

Parking around the Old Town, step by step

Inside the quarter the streets are narrow, a large part of them one way, and the direction changes street by street rather than block by block. Miss one turn and navigation sends you on a loop of roughly ten minutes, so the plan is not to enter the maze at all.

Decide on the car park before you leave Bang Tao. There are multi-storey and supervised car parks at the shopping centres and around the historic zone, and from any of them the old streets are a few minutes' walk. If you do park on the street, the kerb tells you the rule: black and white allows parking in permitted hours, red and white is a ban.

• Choose the car park before you set off — circling in the centre costs ten minutes a loop
• Stay out of the one-way lanes — directions alternate and cars line both kerbs
• Fill up on the way — there are no petrol stations inside the quarter
• Photograph the spot with the street name — you will walk back through similar lanes
• Come on a weekday morning if you can — it is the calmest window

Weekends and the Sunday walking street

At weekends part of the central street closes, directions change and barriers appear, so the route your navigation remembers from a weekday may not exist on Saturday.

On Sunday evening the walking street closes several central streets, and the parking around it fills long before it starts. Park a few streets out and walk in; trying to get close is the slow option. Our page on Phuket Old Town by car covers the quarter itself, and car rental in Phuket Town describes the rest of the town from behind the wheel.

The way back to Bang Tao

Leave the quarter on foot the way you came, collect the car at the perimeter and join the main road without threading through the old streets. From there it is the same flat run north.

Near Bang Tao the drive changes character. The main roads are wide and lit; the lanes between the residences are neither. Slow down once you turn off, and set the navigation to your hotel or residence name rather than to Laguna as a whole. The gated quarters have barriers and security posts, and navigation understands them imperfectly.

Boat Avenue in the evening

On market evenings at Boat Avenue the car parks fill and the road outside slows to a crawl. If your hotel lies past it, come back before the market gets going or accept the slow last stretch. Elsewhere in Bang Tao parking is free and roomy almost everywhere, shopping centres included, and Boat Avenue and Porto de Phuket are within walking distance of each other.

Bang Tao itself is flat and long, with a 6 km beach people drive along rather than walk, so the car earns its keep at home too. For other districts, start from car rental in Phuket.

Renting a car for this drive

What a car costs for this trip depends on the class and on how long you keep it: see the price per day in Phuket, and the search gives the total for your dates. We deliver the car to your hotel or villa at any hour, and a refundable deposit is taken at handover, its size depending on the model. First-class commercial insurance is included, and every car we deliver is an automatic, since manual cars are rare in Phuket. Booking, payment and return are explained in how renting a car with Kolesio works. Starting from Bang Tao? See car rental in Bang Tao.

Also useful before you book: can you rent without a deposit?.