Monday, January 16, 2012

Our Mini Vacation to Phuket - The Nitty Gritty

Here's a post on all the nitty gritty - costs and other details for our Phuket trip. 




Air Tickets
We bought air tickets from Jetstar Asia. Nothing fancy, just brought our own carry-on luggage. Flew out on early Wednesday morning and returned mid-afternoon on Saturday. Paid ~SGD$190 per person.

Land Transfer
Our hotel picked us up from the airport for THB800. Towards the end of our stay in Phuket, we arranged for a transfer to the airport for the same price. If you are arranging your own transportation, the fair price to pay is ~THB800-THB1000. Karon beach is about an hour from the Phuket International Airport. 

Hotel
We stayed at Karon Sea Sands Resort for 3 nights and paid ~THB16,500, daily breakfast included. The location of the hotel is superb, literally across the street from Karon Beach and 5 minutes walk in either direction to restaurants. Most importantly, there is a well-stocked pharmacy within 5 minutes walk (turn right when heading out of the hotel) where we picked up our daily supply of ice cold water.

Hotel pool is well maintained and of a decent length if you are planning swim workouts. Complimentary breakfast was standard. Never cared much for the hot foods, except for the omelette station, where I usually  started my day. We ordered room service twice this trip and after the initial language barrier, the service was great (took about 20-30 mins) and the food was superb. We ordered green curry chicken pizza, club sandwich (comes with excellent fries). We highly recommend the green curry chicken pizza which was uniquely Thai (*giggle*) and extremely delicious. 

Hotel room was big in size, clean and well-decorated. The king bed was firm but comfortable. TV had satellite and good reception, resulting in us spending hours in bed watching Law & Order re-runs from the 90s and sometimes 80s when we weren't outside. Bathroom was clean and up to par with western standard decor for bathrooms. Granite looking countertops, good water pressure and nice shiny fixtures. 

Visas

No visas needed for US and Singapore citizens. 

Money

We got some Thai Baht from the ATM at the airport. Yes, we know that ATMs at airports usually have some of the most atrocious bank fees, we were however, nervous that we might not be able to find ATMs at Karon Beach. Our fear was of course unfounded as we did see some ATMs in and around the Karon Beach area. 

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