Phuket Travel Guide: Scams, Transport and Water in 2026

Phuket in 2026 is busier than it has ever been and earning less per head than it wants to. More than 5.41 million passengers arrived through Phuket International Airport in 2025, ahead of 5.29 million in 2024 and above the pre-pandemic peaks of 5.36 million in 2018 and 5.29 million in 2019, but the Bangkok Post's summary of the year was that record arrivals failed to lift revenue. The reason is the mix. Chinese arrivals to Phuket fell more than 40 per cent in 2025, and nationally China sent 4.47 million visitors against 10.9 million in 2019, with Malaysia narrowly taking the top source market. Long-haul arrivals into Thailand from Europe, the UK, the US and Australia hit an all-time high of 10.8 million, up 10.6 per cent, and Russian numbers have surged. Thailand took nearly 33 million international visitors in total. A visitor feels this as an island that is full, and as operators working harder for the same money.

The jet ski scam is the thing to know before anything else. The mechanism is consistent: you rent on the beach, you return the machine, an operator identifies damage that was there before you or does not exist, and a group forms around you demanding a settlement in cash. Reported demands include 15,000 baht for water in the engine. It is aggressive, it is designed to run against your clock rather than your reason, and Thai police have raided Phuket jet ski operators, which confirms the pattern rather than closing it. The safe answer is not to rent. If you insist, film the entire machine on video before you take it out, get the operator in the frame, and never leave a passport as security.

Transport is the second cost centre. The island's taxi and tuk tuk trade has operated for years as a cartel with fares far above metered rates, and tuk tuks in Phuket are conspicuously more expensive than in any other Thai destination for the same distance. Grab works on the island, metered taxis exist, and both are cheaper than the rank outside the terminal or the driver waiting by the hotel lobby. If you do use a non-metered vehicle, settle the number before your bags go in.

Water is the slow-burn issue. Phuket's principal reservoirs, Bang Wad, Klong Kata and Bang Neow Dum, have been running below capacity, dry-season inflows do not cover demand, and consumption is climbing by an estimated 11 per cent a year. During shortages hotels have been supplied by tanker truck, and the Bangkok Post has reported that the long-term plan to fix the island's tap water is going nowhere. This will not typically ruin a trip, but in the dry months it is worth asking a hotel directly how they are supplied before booking a long stay.

On where to stay, Patong is the concentrated version of everything above: the beach vendors, the jet skis, the transport pricing, the noise. It is also where most of the first-time visitors are. The northern beaches, the east coast around the marinas, and Phuket Old Town are all a different holiday, and the Old Town in particular has Sino-Portuguese architecture and a food scene at Thai prices rather than resort prices. Eating a single street back from any beach road is the largest and easiest saving on the island.

On timing, high season runs roughly November to April with the calmest sea and the highest prices, and the May to October monsoon brings lower rates, greener landscape and a genuinely dangerous swell on the west coast beaches. The red flags on Patong, Karon and Kata during monsoon are not decorative; drownings happen every year when they are ignored. Rented scooters are the other real physical risk, and a licence, a helmet and travel insurance that actually covers motorbikes are all worth checking before you take one.