Hi Guys,
Since I have been given the task of organising the family holiday & will be asking you all sorts of questions, so I apologise in advance.

My hubby thought about hiring a car & driving ourselves around for a day. I am not sure if this is practical as we have 2 young children (3 & 7). Not sure if they have child safety seats.

Does anyone have any advice on this. Also what requirements does one need? Just show your AUS drivers license? Where would it be best to hire a car from? We will be at the Holiday Inn Patong.

Thanks
Nati

You will need to obtain an International Driving Licence before you leave Oz.

The cheaper independent car hire palces will not likely have child seats. Maybe possibel with bigger outfits like Budget and Hertz and you will have to arrange seats fitted in advance. You will find web sites for both if you google with keywords 'hertz thailand' or 'budget thailand'

For sure one of the majors will have a desk at Holiday Inn, think (??) it's Budget for Holiday Inn and Hertz at Patong Merlin (not far from Holiday Inn.

Best of luck.

Thanks Alex,

I will do a search for them on google.

Thanks once again

Cheers Nati

My husband and I certainly think it is worth while hiring a car. We hire one for the whole time we are there. It gives the opportunity to explore areas that you may not do otherwise. We use Via cars. They are not late models but they are reliable. Last time we had a medium sized Toyota. It had seat belts in the back. You do need to say you want seatbelts. Via cars are very reasonably priced. You can visit the website through Phuket.com.

We considered hiring a car but after seeing the traffic and the road rules (or lack of them) I would never do it. I want to relax on my holiday and not have to worry about where I am going or who I just hit. You can hire a driver for 1000 baht per day $30 OZ which is just great value. We had a guy called Ya Ya who spoke excellent english (his wife lived in Melbourne for many years). He can be contacted on 01 8935922. He will take you anywhere and is very informative about the region. An example was that he took my wife from Patong to a day spa in Phuket Town, waited 4 hours for her, got her a discount, took her to Central shopping centre to pick up a handbag that she wanted and then returned her to the hotel, all for 400 baht.

i my experiencve car hire is plentiful (unless you are trying to hire in peak season, in which case book ahead) and cheap compared to getting taxis all the time. In Phuket they drive on the 'English' system so really easy for Brits to drive around! After a day of driving around, its really easy to pick up where everything is on the island. BTW I only own a UK passport and I was allowed a car so an Intl driving license is not a necessity if you cant organise in time.

Sure you can rent a car with no licence at all. But have an accident or get stopped at a police check point and you'll find that an international driving licence is required.