Myself and two friends are heading to phuket for 11 days from October 2nd and likely looking to stay somewhere like kamala or karon (ideally within a taxi distance of patong but maybe not staying right in the craziness). For me the 11 days are at the end of a 4 month trip, and they are just flying out from the UK for the 11 days, so we’re going to likely have very different budgets for the time there. They are looking at getting a quite nice little villa on booking. com or airbnb whereas I’d be quite happy just finding a cheap guest house close to them and meeting up in the morning. When I travelled se Asia a couple of times 6/10 years ago I’d never book accomodation ahead of arriving, just sort it out when I got there and always seemed to find somewhere half decent for very cheap and not too much messing around (from my admittedly very bad memory). I’ve never been to Phuket previously though, and not even to the continent for 6+ years.
My question is two fold;
1 – in places like Kamala or Karon (or another beach close to Patong) would you likely get a much better deal arranging and paying in person than booking ahead using the booking sites?
2 – is there an abundance of cheap guest houses in these areas that will likely have availability on the day of at the start of October close to where they are staying? Or is it probably not worth the risk and worth booking ahead?
Any advice greatly appreciated 🙂
