seanthepilot

Do you know about Phi Phi Island?

It's a beautiful place. But it fits a specific demographic. Mostly under 30's (way under) who are there to drink and party all night, with trance music, lots of booze, and the typical fire shows and beach fires through the night.

Mornings are quiet and tropical, with many restaurants ready to sell you fruit & muesli, coffee, etc. You can hire a longtail boat at a cheap price for 1/2 day or full day tours. If you do your tour in the morning, you will see the sight before the tours from Phuket and Krabi arrive. Most of the partiers will still be sleeping too.

IMO, there is only 1 must do, a walk up to the top lookout up on the mountain. Otherwise, the beaches are nice, snorkeling off of a boat is great. The water clear and warm.

There are rooms in every price range in the 'town.' Electric is double or triple price for the owner, so cheap rooms are fan only. If you choose a bungalow by the beach, you might find that the partying noise is more noticeable.
A Holiday Inn in an isolated part of the island if you think the resort feel is more for you.

Plenty of restaurants. It's a muslim area, so very little pork on the menus.
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lesiza

Hi everyone! Me and my girl are planning to go this December 2014,

We want to go phi phi island and elephant trekking.

Is there any other activities around the area?

I would really appreciate if you can also give me a price too.

nldogbert

All,

Just an update after my trip. I did book my trip to Phang Nga/James Bond island the day before. Booked actually rather late as my arrival into Phuket from Phi Phi was late. However I still managed to (in my opinion) a good price. All inclusive, including the kayak (or rather small boat tour - as you will be brought around some of the limestone islands on a rubber dingy with an assigned rower - it is totally different from the kayak experience at Halong Bay) for about 1250 baht pp.
For those interested got this at the local convenient store just to the right of the DT as you leave the property.

For those interested in Phi Phi, yes I would say it is mainly especially at night targeted for a specific demographic group (be it by age or alcoholic tolerance/search ). Alcohol is cheap by the buckets (literally!) - but becareful these are using locally Thai made vodka, whiskey, etc.
If you are looking for diving tours, price is basically more or less the same from the different diving providers, I only asked at one, but while walking and seeing the prices on display, they were all the same. I guess it just comes down to your feeling when discussing with them. All from what I noticed leaves more or less the same time (around 7.30 am) and visits more or less the same sites.
For the first time after visiting Thailand so many times, I felt that Phi Phi was sort of a whole totally different place/culture. Even though a mainly muslim community (ironic looking at the amount of alcohol available), I did expect still some thai friendliness, but this was the main element I missed. Also the whole island was invaded by Chinese tourists.
Phuket - another place I would definitely not want to go again, expensive (one of the most expensive even compared to BKK), missing the warmness of the Thai friendliness and too many tourist.

Hope this information helps.

Cheers!

arlflyer

Rambling post alert.

This is a repost from the Arcadia thread where I posted this a couple weeks ago before discovering this thread. My apologies if this violates something; I'm not trying to spam up and just want some advice...this seems to be the better thread...

Very much torn between the Hilton Arcadia and the Doubletree Surin. Currently have an Hhonors redemption standing at DT Surin, but am getting second thoughts. Can someone make up my mind for me?

Traveling as a couple, highest of the high season (Dec 27 through New Year's). Arriving in, and departing from, HKT by air. We made this plan because we only have 9 days total on the ground in Thailand so it was Bangkok + one other place and we didn't want to spend all our time trekking to some remote spot wherever. HKT was easy in (from BKK) and easy out (to KUL). It was logistically simple. Flights are bought; that part can't change.

We understand that this is a major international tourist destination and expect it to be more like Daytona or the Jersey Shore than Bora Bora or the Maldives. We do, however, like to get off the beaten path if there is any path in fact still unbeaten in this area. We'd like to optimize the experience, avoid needless hassle, and enjoy ourselves to the greatest extent possible (duh...).

Our options are between these two properties because I have a lot of Hhonors points and every other property that anyone even mentions is pricing out at over $600 USD/night during the period we will be there. Compared to 80,000 or 160,000 Hhonors points this is not even a discussion.

Likes:
-Open, usable beach space
-Local food to the extent possible
-Clean accomodations
-Good breakfasts
-Accessibility to activities

Dislikes:
-Screaming kids
-Trash (actual trash I mean; quite used to trashy people)
-Hawkers/touts

In general, the Arcadia seems like a higher-end property that just more or less has its stuff together. The DT seems like it can be hit or miss. But, people also seem to make the same complaints about both properties (old rooms, loud patrons, screaming kids). And the discussion of Surin versus Karon beach seems to make them sound pretty comparable as well (half the people say they're beautiful, the other half say they're garbage dumps overflowing with raw sewage, who to believe ).

Surin is closer to the airport but Arcadia seems to be closer to everything else - nightlife if so inclined, departure points for trips to islands etc., and nice beaches on the SE quadrant of the island. But is the distance difference trivial in the grand scheme? We plan to take one or two day trips.

I've currently a booking at the DT at 80,000 points for 5 nights. At that rate, over the peak holidays, it would have to be an absolute trash dump to not be a steal, right? But if the Arcadia is worth the extra, I'd be willing to pay it consider we're going around the world to get there.

Also, just in general, can someone do me a favor and say something, anything, positive about Phuket in 2014? Doing my usual "research" for this trip has gotten me kind of depressed. After reading months and months and pages of all over the internet, just endless complaints of "this whole place is a trash dump, everyone is trying to rip you off, violence, sewage, scams, obnoxious fellow tourists, etc. etc." nothing but negative about the whole island it's just kinda got me down and wondering "what have I done"? I'm no stranger to developing countries and I'm not expecting to be treated like royalty, but I also don't want to have to spend my vacation just trying to keep us alive...can somebody give me a pep talk please?

Thanks in advance!

seanthepilot

Phuket is still a great place to come and vacation. The food is good and it's relatively safe.

You know you're at the busiest time of year. What will that mean to you? Busier beaches, restaurants, hotel pools, and terrible traffic jams.
The rip off taxis and jet ski scammers are all still there, but that doesn't mean you can't avoid dealing with them and have a great holiday.

As for the differences between Surin and Karon, they are very different.

Surin has a small bay, which means it could be very crowded during your visit. Karon beach is appx 4km, so even while it's busier and has more people, the beach has a lot more space.

Otherwise, Surin is much more condensed. Going anywhere but the beach in Karon means a greater amount of travel/walking just because the grounds are so vast, it takes 15 minutes of walking to get to the next block and off the property.

Surin has a little bit of nightlife (or so I've heard), and so does Karon. Any real late partying would require a taxi to/from Patong either way.

If I was to choose, I would stay at Surin, unless the small & crowded beach will put you off. The points that you've booked is just such a great value.
The Hilton is a great hotel. I've loved all my stays there, EXCEPT during Xmas/NYE week as the lounge was too crowded to enjoy. The beach is LONG, but so are the walks in and out to get a bite to eat off property.

No matter which hotel you choose, come and enjoy.
Remember to be careful about the rough/dangerous rip tides at both of those beaches (even with strong swimmers, during the rough seasons).

arlflyer

Thanks a bunch for the input! If you don't mind continuing the discussion...

Any simple rules of thumb for food? We'd like to get off the tourist track. Surely the locals who run all the shops, etc. must eat somewhere. We don't mind if we're charged the tourist rate, as long as the quality is the same. Any way to spot the real deal from the chaff?

This was my takeaway as well. What are your thoughts on Bang Tao? The DT is right at the north end of Surin and it looks to be a very easy walk to Bang Tao, which appears quite large and by some accounts is less crowded. Some people online have presented it as an optional alternative to Surin. We don't mind doing quite a bit of walking - on city trips we often do 10+ miles/day.

This doesn't sound enjoyable. While we're going to a tourist destination, we still like to feel like we're somewhere different. So getting off the resort grounds and seeing what there is to see is definitely a focus.

This is fine. I think we'll probably want to stay as far away from that as possible. Low-key nightlife is more our speed.

Sounds like we are in agreement then.

How are they during peak season? My understanding was that it was quite bad during the summer but calmer around the holidays. Having lived for 20 years on the Atlantic coast of Florida, I'm definitely used to rip tides...and know not to go anywhere near them.


A couple more things for anyone who might be reading:

Thoughts on what day destinations might be worth seeing? We'd probably plan to do a day trip or two, or maybe one somewhere off the island and another somewhere on the island. I know this has been beaten to death but so much information is old, and things seem to change so rapidly, that contemporary accounts are always appreciated.


Are the local buses workable as a means of transit? My understanding is that the routing is a bit odd if you're trying to get to any specific destination, but we might also be interested in just riding around. We often find local buses to be a great, cheap sightseeing method.

Thanks a ton!

estnet

There aren't any public "local" buses on Phuket afaik only the taxi and tuk-tuk mafia, This is one of the major reasons I don't go there anymore.

SK AAR

Yes, except for the airport-Phuket Town bus and the busses between Phuket Town and Karon/Patong (there is no bus between Kata/Karon/Patong/Kamala/Surin) there is no public infrastructure. You need to rent a car or motor bike to get around unless you would want to pay the heavily inflated taxi or tuk-tuk prices - 200 Bath for short trip in Patong

seanthepilot

The local buses are a SLOW but comfortable way to travel IF you are into it. To the beach destinations, the BLUE (non-airconditioned) ones go from Phuket Town. Each bus goes to ONE area (ie Patong, Kata/Karon, Nai Harn, etc). I think the fare is 20 THB for 1 segment. The less busy routes use a SongTeaw, the busier ones a bus or an oversized bus sized SongTeaw. The Pink ones run along various routes within Phuket town.

arlflyer

Thanks, this is exactly what I was referring to. My understanding is that from any beach destination one can take these and go to Phuket Town, but nowhere else; if you want to go to another beach, even the next one over, you have to connect in Phuket Town. So basically like flying American Airlines .

If we're staying at a beach location and want to check out Phuket Town, this doesn't seem to be an unreasonable way to do it, no?

Tchiowa

Apparently this week it means rain, rain, rain and more rain. My wife and sister in law and my niece all thought this would be a good week to visit Phuket. Talked to them on the phone last night and it seems they've been stuck in their hotel all day.

Serves them right for taking a vacation when I have to work.

estnet

But why would u want to check out Phuket Town?

goodeats21

I haven't spent any time in Phuket, though will probably get down there as some point.

I have heard of the "taxi mafia" problems and found it interesting that there was some recent action taken:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/most-rece...taxi-crackdown

This being Thailand, no idea if this is a momentary blip (probable) or a wholesale change (maybe?). With the current military leadership, there does seem to be an attempt to address some tourist-facing issues...

seanthepilot

This week it rained on Saturday, all day yesterday (Wednesday), and maybe a bit more here and there. Hence, it has been overcast and thankfully much cooler.

This week rain. Next week, maybe sun. It's like that here.

If you want Sun, Sun, and Sun, and nothing else... come in January and Febuary.

arlflyer

I don't know. Presumed there was some reason why people lived there. Maybe there really is nothing of value whatsoever?