Phuket 2017 – Itinerary v2

Just a few days before we scoot off to Phuket for a short 8 day stay, and our itinerary is pretty much settled – though apart from the first couple of days that sees bookings, the rest of the itinerary remains pretty easy to change, depending on prevailing weather and such.

The major changes since the last itinerary iteration 6 weeks ago are:

John Grays Canoeing ‘Hong by Starlight‘. There is a smattering of bad Tripadvisor reviews of the tour experience centered specifically on it sometimes being crowded (we accept that it comes with a popular tour) and also that you get ferried around and don’t actually canoe that much on your own (but we’re fine with that too). I reckon it’s just hard to please everyone. The operator gets overwhelmingly positive comments otherwise.

Phuket Elephant Sanctuary. Dollar to hour, this has to be one of the most expensive tours we’ve ever done, anywhere. The nearly uniformly positive Tripadvisor reviews do point to this being a singularly unique experience with animals we see elsewhere very often but never in a setting where they really are in their natural element – short of of course doing an African Safari at some point of our lives!

Day Tour with Chai Drivers. This got dropped. I talked to the operator trying to arrange for airport transfers – from the web site, he provides this – but had such a difficult experience communicating with him that I gave up on him altogether. I’d been politely explaining that I was looking at airport transfers at the moment, and he kept wanting to sell me his 6 hour day tour package instead!

Dropping of the Day Tour with the local driver freed up a substantial amount of time, so that we can now spend an entire day in Phuket’s Party Capital – Patong. LOL.