Driving Times
 

I am looking at renting a car to drive between phuket, krabi and khao lak. can anyone give me an idea (ballpark number)of the times for:
phuket airport --> krabi (au nang)
krabi --> khao lak
khao lak --> phuket airport

thanks so much, i cant find this stuff anywhere.
-k

Phuket airport to southern Khao Lak (Merlin Resort) is just under an hour with no traffic or delay or stops driving fast.

Sorry I don't know the other drive times. It'

Thanks for the reply. i would be staying at the Le Meridian Khao Lak (I am assuming it's not that much further).

Anyone know about Krabi?

Le Meridien is another 20 minutes or so north.

Phuket Airport to Ao Nang allow about 3 hours taking it easy, after you cross the bridge look out after a few km for the sign for Phang Nga / Surat Thani and take the right, it's then straight through past Phang Nga until you take a right, from that point single road, lots of bends, take it easy, the signs after that direct you towards Surat Thani until you come to a point where it's left to Surat and straight on towards Krabi.
Heading back towards Khao Lak best is to take route back same way until the road splits left to Phuket and right for direction Ranong. Plenty of fuel and service places, PTT ( Blue dashed red on white signs ) best for washrooms etc.

Note: Although rental companies will not ask for it; the law is you also need and International Driving License / Permit in addition to your normal license, if you tell us where you are from someone from your home country will be able to guide you as where to get one if you don't know.

JamesA,
This is great info. I am from the US and I actually have an international license (via AAA) from when I was in europe last year. Driving on Crete was a riot, literally.

One more thing, I have heard varying opinions as to whether road signs (directional) are in english. can you comment?

Direction signs are in Thai and English, however, you get a lot of 'gaps' between signs, you won't see anything such as 'East, South' or other such general direction, I don't do it by signs anymore but by knowing the route, on that particular route you get a lot of 'T junctions' if that makes sense to you, I can't remember how many rights but I think it's just one 'left'.

When you pick up the car at the airport ( Budget are about the best and even if a few bucks more than others they have great service ) ask the friendly staff to write in Thai on a piece of paper where you are going, name of hotel, street and clearly put Ao Nang Krabi, if you get confused pull into a filing station and ask any car/truck driver ( don't ask attendents as they may well not know ), any car/van/truck driver will point you in direction if you show them that piece of paper.
Do the trip in daylight as after dark on those winding roads gets a bit wild with trucks and buses and signs very difficult to catch.
I 'have to' give this advice though, do considor if you truly want to drive yourself, getting a car with a driver ( aka taxi ) won't cost you probably any more than your own rental, once you get to Ao Nang you will find you won't need the car and it will be easier using local transport to get around, the car could be sitting for days being unused costing you money, same applies going up to Khao Lak and back to airport. You need to appreciate that you should take extreme care, so do think about whether you really need the rental.
Perhaps get a car+driver from Phuket Airport to get you down to Ao nang, that will give you a chance to see how driving works, then if you feel you can handle it then when you are ready to head to Khao lak just pick up a rental from there.

JamesA,
Sounds like more good tips, any clue on how much a car+driver from phuket airport to Ao Nang (Sheraton Krabi Beach) would cost?

I guess around B 2,000 - 2,500. Considor that a small sedan rental would cost around B 1,300-1,600 plus insurance and fuel so it's about the same.
There are also mini-vans which do the trip but it's luck if their schedules tue-in with your flight arrival, they are probably around the B 500 per person range.
I would go with car+driver. You 'can' book in advance but I would relax and just sort when you get there.