Phuket to Khao Sok

The airport is the awkward start. It's on the north of the island, already on the way to Khao Sok, but no bus to Khao Sok comes to the terminal. The airport bus goes south to Phuket Town, and Bus Terminal 2 is about 30 km back the way you came, so the bus from there turns a two-and-a-half-hour drive into most of a day.

So from the airport I'd take a car or a van seat. A car booked ahead meets you in arrivals and costs about ฿2,600–3,100 for the whole car, two and a half hours to the village. Alone or as a couple on a budget, a shared van seat is the middle ground, from about ฿650 on 12Go, though you'll wait for the van to fill or for other flights.

There is a cheaper way. The buses north pass a stop on Highway 402 a few kilometers from the terminal, which 12Go calls Phuket Airport Intersection, and sells seats from there from about ฿420. You need a taxi to the stop first, and some patience if the bus is full, so it suits a backpacker with a light bag and a free afternoon, not a family off a long flight.

The bus to Khao Sok leaves from Phuket Bus Terminal 2, on the north side of Phuket Town. It's the bus to Surat Thani, which passes Khao Sok on Route 401. 12Go lists five departures, at 06:00, 07:30, 08:30, 11:00 and 13:40, for ฿370 with its fee, and you can buy a ticket at the terminal counter for less. Tell the driver or the conductor you're getting off at Khao Sok.

It takes about four hours, with a stop of about 20 minutes in Takua Pa. From Patong, Kata or the Old Town, add a taxi or a Grab to the terminal and leave early, because the roads off the island get slow in the afternoon.

The bus stops on Route 401 where the village road turns off, not in the village itself. Khao Sok village is a single road of guesthouses, restaurants and tour desks running about 2 km from the main road up to the park headquarters, so your hotel could be a short walk or a long one with a bag.

Many hotels will collect you from the stop if you message them with your bus time, and some wait there with a sign. Otherwise there are taxis and tuk-tuks at the junction for about ฿50–80 a person. Shared vans skip this step and drop at your hotel.

Ten-seat shared vans collect from hotels across Phuket between about 07:00 and 15:30 and drop at hotels in Khao Sok village, for ฿900–1,100. The ride takes two and a half hours from the north of the island and up to five from the south once the pickups are done. A van at 14:30 from Rassada pier suits anyone coming straight off the morning boat from Phi Phi.

A private car is the easy option with children or luggage, and with three or four people it costs little more a head than the van. Book it through your hotel, a Khao Sok guesthouse or 12Go, and agree whether the fare includes the drop at your hotel up the village road.

If you're heading for a raft house on Cheow Lan Lake, you don't need to stop in the village. Ratchaprapha pier is about 65 km beyond it, and about two and a half hours from Phuket by a different road. Most raft packages include the transfer from Phuket hotels, so check before you book a car.

The boats to the rafts don't run after dark, so aim to reach the pier by early afternoon. Coming by bus, I'd spend the first night in the village and go out to the lake the next morning. My floating bungalows guide covers the rafts and the packages.

The buses run the other way from the same stop on Route 401, at about 08:20, 09:20, 11:20, 12:20, 14:20 and 16:00, from ฿370 on 12Go, and take about four hours to Phuket Bus Terminal 2. Shared vans leave Khao Sok at about 07:00, 13:00 and 17:20 for Phuket, for ฿600–1,550, and one 13:00 van connects with a speedboat to Koh Yao.

For a flight, take a car. It's about 145 km and two and a half hours to the airport, and the airport wants you there two hours before departure, so leave Khao Sok four and a half to five hours before your flight. The buses end at Phuket Bus Terminal 2, not the airport.

Day tours from Phuket visit Cheow Lan Lake, with the boat ride past the karst islands, a swim and lunch on a raft. It's a long day, about five hours of driving in all, and you see the lake but not the trails, the river or the dawn mist. If you can spare it, give Khao Sok two nights, one in the village and one on the lake.

December to April is the best time to go. This is one of the wettest corners of Thailand, September is the wettest month, and in heavy rain it's worth checking the road before you set off.