If you're thinking of a holiday in Phuket, or visiting Phuket as part of a longer trip, you will surely be looking for information on hotels, things to do, places to eat, the culture, festivals and so on. Every tourist wants something different. Some people are very happy to be immersed in Patong with all the shops and touts and fast food and bars. Some people want a quite resort with a less crowded beach. Some want the ultimate honeymoon getaway. Some tourists book tours, others explore on their own. This blog is open to anyone, but will certainly interest the more independent traveler/tourist. I tend to look at places a bit more off the main route and don't mention Patong much, or the normal tours (elephant rides, speedboat snorkel trips, Fantasea show, snake shows etc..). Hey, the idea of the blog was to show another side to Phuket rather than just the same old things you can find on any website.
BUT of course, this leaves a hole. This blog can't cover everything, so where to look if you want to know about Patong? Tours? Get a hotel recommendation from someone who stayed there recently? Well, you can try other blogs about Phuket (see some of the links on the left side of this page), but again, like this one, they are written by people living here. I think if you are coming as a tourist it's good to get a tourists point of view. Where to start?
I joined
TripAdvisor some time ago and it has a very busy Phuket forum. New questions being asked hourly, and there always seems to be someone with an answer, be it a recent visitor or a regular visitor to Phuket or maybe one of the "Destination Experts" for Phuket. I recently got given that title, so now tend to look at the forum more often and help with questions, but it's often already been answered, as there are so many people using the forum!
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TripAdvisor Phuket Forum•
TripAdvisor Phuket Hotel ReviewsSo, that's a good place to start, but it was through the TripAdvisor forum that I found several Phuket experts, regular visitors to Phuket rather than residents, and they have very good information to share. Have a look at these websites:
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Cathy and Gary's Phuket Pages•
Bob and Janette's Travel Pages•
Tina's Phuket Pages on VirtualTouristThe VirtualTourist website also has hotel reviews and a forum - I should take a closer look sometime. I see that Cathy and Gary also contribute a fair amount to that site. There's just not enough time to surf the whole web!
Also on the TripAdvisor forum I found Richard (using the nickname kiwilad37) offering to send people his Phuket Tips sheet. I contacted Richard by email. He's been to Phuket many times over the last 15 years and started making a tip sheet for friends or family. Lots of information, but it's not online. You can contact Richard by email (
rfdunedin@ymail.com) and ask for a copy. Actually, rather more than a "sheet" - it's a 25 page pdf file, like a mini guidebook!
On the subject of guidebooks... now normally I would say a guidebook is likely to be out of date, maybe good for general information, but there is nothing like getting information right from the horses mouth. However, there are a couple of good Phuket guides, both updated in the last year. I have reviewed them on this blog. If you are coming to Phuket and must carry something on paper, these are worthwhile:
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Travelfish Phuket Guide•
Lonely Planet Phuket Encounter GuideIf anyone knows of any recommended websites in a similar vein to those above, please do add a comment below. I believe you can learn a lot from reading the experiences of other visitors and getting "insider tips". Having the right information can make a visit to Phuket much more rewarding. I hope this blog helps a little! :)
Entrance Fee : MYR3.00
Many booths at the main hall including the Major Travel Agency. It was not really crowded, and it's easy for us to move around. (Unlike the PC Fair). If you want to collect the Bag & the Mineral water, you need to goto the second hall which is not far away from the main hall.
I noticed there were many Bank promoting their Credit Card at the fair, and makes me feel like a "Credit Card Fair" rather than Travel Fair. Sometime, really feel annoying about the sale person approach! Beside that, Time Sharing Company also had the heavy promotion. Another area we need to avoid it.
After all, the travel package promoted at the fair was not really attractive! It's just like they promote it from the newspaper. Some booth not even wanna entertain you when approaching the booth....like A'Farmosa. Surprisingly, I didn't see any booth from Airline, except Firefly.
Again, no attractive package to offer...
We were trying to search for the Best package to Sabah, but...disappointed. There was just a normal package available, that you can get it anytime along the year.
