Driving and Parking in Phuket - Advice Needed

Noticed this did not appear in the Phuket forums, let%26#39;s try this again:

Friends have been suggesting to us to rent a car and stay at a resort / villa facility and just drive ourselves everywhere. The hotel itself does not suggest this as they say parking in Patong is a problem. What%26#39;s the real deal? Do we stay outside of Patong and enjoy the resort or stay closer to Patong? How easy and safe is it for someone who knows how to drive (albeit on the other side of the road and car) to rent a car in Phuket and drive around and find parking, especially in Patong%26#39;s malls?

Driving and Parking in Phuket - Advice Needed

I%26#39;d strongly advise against driving yourself in Thailand if you have no experience here. Apart from the issue of driving on the left, if you are used to driving on the right, driving in Thailand is nothing like driving in a western country. Rules of the road are routinely ignored, the accident rate is high, there is no public ambulance system - if you are injured in an accident you%26#39;ll get tossed into the back of a volunteer rescue pickup truck. By all means hire and, but hire a driver too. As for parking, Patong, like many towns, has a big problem in that respect.

Driving and Parking in Phuket - Advice Needed

I agree with dragonc - you really do not want to take the risk - there does not appear to be any road rules at times, so many bikes that leap in and out of traffic, and really it would be nice to just kick back and relax and let someone else drive you!

Even some of the hotel websites suggest renting your own car. Sounds like we should NOT do that then? Any good recommendations for a local driver?

We always drive in Phuket but if your just intending to stay around Patong then really there is no need for a car. However if you want to get out and about parking is no problem at all. All the big shopping centres have huge car parks including Jungceylon in Patong.

It all depends on how often you would use the car, where you want to go etc as to whether it would be worth your while or just have a private driver for a day.

We love the freedom of having our own car and coming and going as we please, we have also never had a problem driving there.

Cathy

We would get the car if we could easily park in Patong. In Patong, we would walk the streets and probably the malls as well as we have children. So Jungceylon is a large mall with a dedicated good parking lot then?

Yes Meal, it has a huge carpark underneath the shopping centre. First 30 mins parking is free then if you have a receipt for 100baht or more the next 3 hours are free as well.

Cathy