Short answer. A week in Phuket is seven hotel nights, seven days of food and getting about, two airport transfers and, for most people, one boat day. Priced with the September 2026 revision of the index, a mid-range couple in Patong starts from a four-star room at $42 a night, a daily basket of $39 per person, an airport taxi at $24 each way and a Phi Phi day at $63 per person. The same couple in Kata pays $74 a night and $38 a day; in Bang Tao $81 a night and $41 a day. Multiply, add, and you have the week — or let the calculator further down do it for your area, dates and party. Every number on this page is a median with a sample size behind it, measured in one month and re-measured on the 1st and 15th; nothing is estimated.
What “a week” is made of
The index does not price “a holiday”; it prices four things that a holiday is made of, each in its own series with its own definition. The week is the sum.
- The room. Hotel medians per night, by area and star class, for a travel date 30 days ahead, two adults, a refundable rate. The median is the middle of the sample, not the cheapest room in town and not the average pulled up by one resort.
- The day. A fixed basket per person per day with accommodation excluded, at three levels. Street: three market or street-food meals, water and a scooter at the weekly day-rate. Mid: café breakfast, a local-restaurant lunch, a mid-range dinner, a coffee, the scooter and one paid extra such as a sunbed pair or an entry ticket. Fine: three restaurant meals, a coffee, two ride-hailing trips, an hour’s oil massage and one activity or beach-club spend.
- The transfer. Airport to your area, one way, daytime, per car — taxi counter, ride-hailing app or a pre-booked minivan.
- The boat day. A standard join-in full-day trip per adult, the island’s most common one being Phi Phi by speedboat with lunch.
Two things the index deliberately leaves out: flights, because they depend entirely on where you start (the country hubs cover routes and seasons), and the shopping, nightlife and impulse spending that varies more between two people than between two areas.
The three areas
Patong, Kata and Bang Tao were chosen because between them they cover the three ways people do a week here. Patong is the busiest resort town, 32 km from the airport, with more rooms than anywhere else and the widest spread of prices. Kata is the family beach in the south, 42 km out, two bays and a walkable strip. Bang Tao is the long beach in the north-west, 18 km from the airport, with the Laguna resorts, Boat Avenue and the villa market. The other twelve areas are priced in the index and described in the area guide.
Level one: street-food and a scooter
This is the week of guesthouse or three-star rooms, market dinners, a rented scooter and one splurge on a boat.
| Component | Patong | Kata | Bang Tao |
|---|---|---|---|
| Three-star hotel, per night | $16 | $36 | $52 |
| Range (25th–75th pct.) | $11–25 | $28–42 | $29–75 |
| Sample, n | 22 | 24 | 8 |
| Street basket, per person per day | $18 | $18 | $18 |
| Airport, one way, cheapest | Smart Bus $3 per person | Smart Bus $3 per person | minivan $45 per car |
The room is where this level differs most between areas. Patong’s three-star median of $16 reflects the sheer number of properties competing in the sois behind the beach road; Kata at $36 and Bang Tao at $52 have fewer budget rooms and price them accordingly. The daily basket barely moves: a plate of pad krapao costs the same in a Bang Tao food court as in Patong’s Banzaan market, and the scooter day-rate is island-wide. The transfer is the one place a budget traveller can save real money in Patong and Kata: the Phuket Smart Bus runs from the airport down the west coast for a flat fare that the index records as $3 per person. Bang Tao is not on the beach-road bus route (the nearest stop is on the main road in Cherngtalay), so a pre-booked minivan or a ride-hailing car is the practical choice there.
For seven nights at this level, the room is seven times the nightly median, the days are seven times the basket per person, and the boat — if you take one — is the $39 Coral Island trip or the $63 Phi Phi day.
Level two: four-star and a mid-range day
The most common week: a four-star resort or a good boutique hotel, restaurant lunches, dinners with a view, a taxi from the airport, and a full-day tour.
| Component | Patong | Kata | Bang Tao |
|---|---|---|---|
| Four-star hotel, per night | $42 | $74 | $81 |
| Range (25th–75th pct.) | $25–74 | $47–138 | $53–178 |
| Sample, n | 10 | 21 | 22 |
| Mid basket, per person per day | $39 | $38 | $41 |
| Airport taxi, per car, one way | $24 | $29 | $18 ($12–30, n = 8) |
| Ride-hailing, per car, one way | $23 | $27 | $8–24 |
Here the areas separate. The four-star medians — $42 in Patong, $74 in Kata, $81 in Bang Tao — are the numbers most readers came for, and the ranges beneath them matter as much: a wide range means the area has both bargains and flagships in the class, a narrow one means the market is uniform. The mid basket is again close between the three ($39, $38, $41), with Bang Tao a little dearer because its restaurants cluster around Boat Avenue and Laguna rather than in a town.
The transfer line shows the index’s honesty rule at work. Where fewer than five independent sources priced a segment, the median is withheld and only the observed range is shown: Bang Tao’s airport taxi is one such case in the September 2026 revision, with a range of $12–30 from n = 8 sources. The transfer guide explains every option and every trap.
The tour: Phi Phi at $63 per adult is the standard, the elephant sanctuary half-day at $88 the second most booked, the Big Buddha and Old Town half-day at $26 the cheapest way to see the island’s two landmarks in one go. The Similan Islands day at $76 is priced for the open season only (mid-October to mid-May); in the wet season it does not exist.
Level three: five-star and a restaurant day
Resort with a beachfront, dinners in the destination restaurants, a private van at the airport, a daily massage and a beach club.
| Component | Patong | Kata | Bang Tao |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five-star hotel, per night | $70 | no published figure yet (n < 5) | $128 |
| Range (25th–75th pct.) | $48–159 | no published figure yet (n < 5) | $83–182 |
| Sample, n | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| Fine basket, per person per day | $84 | $85 | $99 |
| Private minivan, per vehicle, one way | $44 | $47 | $45 |
Two caveats on this level. First, “five-star” in the September 2026 revision is the class with the smallest samples in several areas, and where the sample is under five the index shows no median at all — Kata is such a case (n = 4), because its luxury stock is a handful of properties on the headlands rather than a market. Second, the five-star median is a low-season measurement in the first revision; the flagship resorts in Bang Tao and on the northern beaches raise rates more steeply than any other class when the calm-sea months arrive. The island-wide five-star median, across all fifteen areas, is $141 ($71–219, n = 87), which is the better reference for a reader choosing between areas that have thin samples of their own.
The fine basket — $84 in Patong, $85 in Kata, $99 in Bang Tao — is per person, and it is where couples underestimate: two people at this level spend on a day what one four-star room costs a night.
The calculator
The calculator below is the same formula as the trip-cost tool: one room per two travellers, the daily basket per person, two airport taxi rides (zero where the area has no taxi median yet, and it says so) and one day tour per traveller when the stay is four nights or longer, using the median of the day tours. Change the area, nights, travellers and class; the figure is re-computed from the latest medians and dated.
Estimate a Phuket trip
Pick an area, nights, travellers and budget class — the estimate uses the index medians for that area.
Estimated total
$1,007
| Stay · Rooms 1 | $294 |
| Food and days out | $546 |
| Airport transfers | $48 |
| One day tour per traveller | $119 |
Default parameters, rendered at build time so it works without JavaScript: Patong, 7 nights, 2 travellers, Mid-range. Medians as of September 2026
Estimates use medians from the index; your booking will differ by dates, property and season.
Seasonality, honestly
Every guide about Phuket says the low season is cheaper. It is — but this index will not put a percentage on it until it has measured both seasons. The first observation of the index is September 2026, in the wet season (May to October in the hotel-rate calendar the index uses; the climate seasons are slightly different and are explained in the best-time guide). Every price point carries a season tag — high, low, shoulder or all — so that when the 1 November revision lands, the high-season medians can be set beside these low-season ones, area by area and class by class, and the difference reported as a measurement rather than a rule of thumb. The hotel series page will show the history as a sparkline from the second point onwards.
What can be said today is structural. Hotel rates move with the season; the daily basket almost does not, because street food, scooter rental and massages are priced for residents and repeat visitors as much as for tourists; airport transfers are fixed tariffs or app quotes that do not follow the hotel calendar; day tours drop a little in the wet season and some (Similan) stop entirely. So the cheapest week of the year is cheaper mostly because of the room. The climate numbers for that trade-off — 309 mm of rain in a normal September against 21 mm in February, a rough sea against a calm one — are in the monsoon guide.
Currency, cash and the exchange rate
The index is in US dollars because it is read from ten countries; the island runs on Thai baht. The rate used to convert every observation is written into the data — for this revision, 32.98 THB per USD (ECB, 3 September 2026). Prices in baht are the ones you will actually see on menus and taxi boards, and the conversion is a reference, not a promise about what your card will charge.
Two practical notes that are not in any basket. Thai ATMs charge a fixed 220 THB per withdrawal on foreign cards (September 2026), so a week on cash means two or three large withdrawals, not daily small ones. And the daily baskets assume you pay local prices; the “tourist menu” with pictures and the tuk-tuk fare quoted from a laminated card can double a day without changing anything the index measures.
A worked example, in words
A couple, mid-range, seven nights in Kata, arriving on a daytime flight. The room is seven nights at the four-star median of $74. The days are seven times two people at the mid basket of $38 each. The airport taxi is $29 each way, twice. One Phi Phi day is $63 each, plus the national-park fee paid on the boat. Everything else — the flight, the visa (none needed for 30 days for most readers, as the visa guide explains), insurance, and whatever the shops and bars take — sits outside the sum. Change Kata to Patong and the room falls to $42 a night while the days stay at $39; change it to Bang Tao and the room rises to $81 and the days to $41. That is the whole difference between the three areas for a week; the rest is which beach you want to wake up on.
Staying longer than a week changes the arithmetic, not just the total: from about a month, a villa or a serviced apartment costs less per night than most four-star rooms, and the monthly villa guide and the cost-of-living guide take over from here.
FAQ
How much does a week in Phuket cost for two people?
Add seven hotel nights to seven days of spending for two and two airport transfers. With the September 2026 medians a mid-range week in Patong is built from $42 a night for a four-star room, $39 a day per person for food and getting about, and $24 each way for the airport taxi; the calculator in this guide sums it for any area, nights and party size.
Is Patong the cheapest area for a week?
For hotels it usually is: the four-star median in Patong is $42 against $74 in Kata and $81 in Bang Tao in the September 2026 revision. Daily spending is close everywhere at the same level; the difference between areas is the room, not the meals.
How much should I budget per day for food and transport in Phuket?
The index prices a fixed basket per person per day, accommodation excluded: street-food level $18, mid-range $39, and restaurant-and-massage level $84 in Patong (September 2026). Kata and Bang Tao are within a few dollars at each level.
How much is a Phi Phi day trip?
The island-wide median for a standard full-day speedboat trip to Phi Phi with lunch is $63 per adult ($43–91 between the 25th and 75th percentiles, n = 6, September 2026). National-park fees are paid on top.
Is Phuket cheaper in the low season?
Hotel rates fall between May and October, but the index cannot yet say by how much: its first observation is September 2026, in the low season, and every point carries a season tag so that the high-season revision from November onwards can be compared honestly. Until then the guide shows the current medians and says which season they were measured in.
What does the calculator include and leave out?
It sums hotel nights (one room per two travellers), the daily basket per person, two airport taxi rides and one day tour per traveller when the stay is four nights or longer, all from the latest medians. It leaves out flights, visas, travel insurance, shopping and the difference between a booked-in-advance rate and a walk-in one.