How to Get From Kata to Phuket Town (Quickest & Cheapest)
There are two ways you can travel the 21km from Kata Beach to Phuket Town:
The best way to travel from Kata Beach to Phuket Town is by bus. The journey takes 40 minutes and costs 40 baht. Alternatively, you can take a taxi. It’s more expensive and not much quicker, but you’ll have added flexibility and air-conditioning.
Of course, if you’ve hired a moped, you can also drive between Kata and Phuket Town. There’s plenty of street parking available in both locations.
Bus
⏱️ Time: 40 minutes
💵 Cost: 40 baht
The bus from Kata to Phuket Town leaves from the main road ‘4028’ near Makro. There is no designated bus stop. Instead, when you see a bus with a sign saying ‘Phuket Town,’ you will need to stick your hand out to indicate that you want the bus to stop.
This means you can stand anywhere along this road if you’re facing the right direction. That said, try to avoid major traffic junctions and lights.
Just to make things a little bit more fun, there’s no timetable or schedule. Instead, the buses turn up whenever. Leaving Kata at 10:30am to go to Phuket, I waited 40 minutes for a bus but coming back from Phuket Town; I waited just 10 minutes.
When the bus pulls up, go ahead and get in the back. The bus driver will collect your money as the first person gets off or before arriving. The bus journey to Phuket Town takes about 40 minutes. Once you arrive, you will be dropped off at the Downtown Market.
There are many taxi and tuk-tuk drivers at Phuket Downtown Market. This can be convenient but also overwhelming, so if this is your first time in Phuket Town, you might want to walk 100m to get your bearings.
When you’re ready to return to Kata, return to the Downtown Market. Here, you’ll find several local buses, and you’ll want to find the one with Kata and Karon written on the side.
Going back, if you sit on the left-hand side of the bus, you’ll know when you’ve arrived in Kata as you’ll see the sign. Once you see the sign, hit the ‘Stop’ bell at the top of the bus on either side. If the driver hasn’t taken your payment by this point, you’ll need to get off the bus, walk to the front, and pay.
Taxi
⏱️ Time: 40 minutes
💵 Cost: 580 baht
You can also take a taxi from Kata to Phuket using Grab (Asia’s version of Uber). The journey takes the same amount of time. Bus, you won’t have to wait for a bus to arrive.
A Grab taxi can pick you up and drop you off anywhere in Kata or Phuket Town. Journeys typically cost around 580 baht will but vary depending on demand and driver availability.
Thank you. What great, detailed info. It’ll help me with my journey tomorrow. Thank you for taking the time to post. Jo.
Our pleasure Joanne. It came from us finding little / no information when we were trying to plan our journey so I’m glad it’s helped someone 🙂
Amazely helpful!
Thank you guys with a family of 5 a bus for us is the best and most affordable way to to all of Phuket your kind made it super easy great work
I’m so glad to hear that Jeff.
This is an excellent post, very helpful. The images and explanations are perfect. Thank you very much.
Thank you for the information, it saved my life! For those who don’t want to walk too long to get to the main road 4028 for taking the bus to the Phuket Town, can get on the bus along the Kata Road (4030) which is nearer to the beach(the side which is closer to the beach will be the correct direction), though the drawback is that you will be on the bus longer since the bus will drive along the whole Kata Beach and Karon before turning to the 4028 main road (and the driver drives much slower along this part of the route as I guess he wants to make sure he picks up everyone who wants to get on the bus), but I enjoyed that quite a lot as it gives you a chance to look and feel the surrounding. The bus terminus is near to the Beyond Resort Kata (there are couple elephant statue facing Kata Roas so for sure you won’t miss it) which is located on the south end of the Kata Beach, that is where I got on the bus.