Yacht charter from Patong, Kata and Karon beach: where do you board in Phuket, how long is the drive to Chalong, and what does the boat cost in 2026/27?

A yacht charter from Patong, Kata or Karon starts at Chalong Pier on the south-east coast of Phuket, Thailand, about half an hour by road from Patong and the nearest departure point of all to Kata and Karon. Horizon Cruises Phuket offers twenty-six boats berthed at Chalong for the 2026/27 season, from ฿23,900 for the whole boat on a four-hour morning half day on the Kiri Long-tail 40 with four guests in the rate and up to eight aboard, to ฿100,000 for a half day on Technema 89 Say Yes or Ferretti 80 Sofia with twelve guests in the rate. A full day from Chalong is eight hours and reaches Coral Island, Maiton, the Racha islands and Phi Phi; Phang Nga Bay is the one route that is shorter from Ao Po Grand Marina on the other side of the island, close to a full hour from Patong. No boat in the catalogue leaves from Patong, Kata or Karon beach itself, with one exception: two sailing catamarans at a pier at Kalim, just north of Patong, for trips along the west coast. Send the date and head count on WhatsApp or through the contacts page.

Key highlights

• Chalong Pier is about half an hour by car from Patong and the closest departure point to Kata, Karon, Nai Harn and Rawai; Ao Po Grand Marina is close to a full hour from Patong.
• Twenty-six boats in the catalogue are berthed at Chalong, from a long-tail for eight guests to Say Yes for thirty guests and Sofia for twenty-five, priced per boat and not per guest.
• Coral Island is about 9 km from Chalong and Phi Phi about 48 km; James Bond Island is about 53 km from Chalong but a third of that from Ao Po, which is why Phang Nga Bay is run from the east coast.
• Say Yes and Sofia include one transfer vehicle for up to ten guests on a full day; on the other boats the transfer depends on the boat and is stated on its page.
• Horizon Cruises Phuket holds 5.0 from 33 reviews on Google.

Is there a pier for private yachts on Patong, Kata or Karon beach?

Not for the boats most guests charter. The company departs from four points: Chalong Pier in the south, and Ao Po Grand Marina, Royal Phuket Marina and Boat Lagoon on the east and north-east coasts, where the sheltered water, the berths and the islands are. A boat sits where its berth is, and moving it round to a hotel beach costs running time and fuel that a standard day does not include, so as a rule the yacht does not collect you from Patong, Kata or Karon. The practical way round is a road transfer from your hotel to the pier where the boat lies, agreed at booking with the date and the route. The map of the four points is in where yachts depart from in Phuket.

The exception is a pair of Leopard sailing catamarans, Leopard 48 Summer V and its sister Summer S, based at a pier at Kalim on the west coast just north of Patong. They are the boats to explore the west-coast beaches rather than the islands: a half day of up to five hours to Kamala and Laem Sing, to Freedom Beach and Hidden Cliff, or south to Promthep Cape and Kata Noi, from ฿41,900 outside the peak with fifteen guests in the rate and up to thirty aboard, or a seven-hour day north to Surin and Bangtao. One large power catamaran based at Ao Po, Pisces 85, also lists boarding at Patong for an extra fee of ฿67,303 including VAT; at up to eighty-five guests from ฿250,000 for a full day it is an option for a big event rather than a family.

How long is the drive from the Patong area to each departure point in Phuket?

The figures below are the ones published on each departure point's page. Traffic on Phuket changes from day to day, so they are a guide, not a guarantee.

Driving times from the west-coast beaches to the four departure points Horizon Cruises Phuket uses

Departure point	From Patong	From Kata, Karon, Nai Harn, Rawai	Usual routes
Chalong Pier, south-east coast	about 30 minutes	the nearest departure point	Coral Island, Maiton, Racha Yai and Racha Noi, Phi Phi
Royal Phuket Marina, east coast	about 30 minutes across the island	travel time confirmed for your hotel at booking	Phang Nga Bay, Phi Phi; departure time depends on the tide
Boat Lagoon, east coast	about 30 minutes	travel time confirmed for your hotel at booking	Phang Nga Bay, Krabi side, Phi Phi; departure time depends on the tide
Ao Po Grand Marina, north-east coast	close to 1 hour	the longest drive of the four	Phang Nga Bay, James Bond Island, Koh Hong, Koh Yao, Krabi

For a guest in a Patong, Kata or Karon hotel the arithmetic is simple: Chalong costs you half an hour each way and an east-coast marina the same or twice that, so which pier to choose follows where the boat is going, not the drive.

Chalong for the islands, Ao Po for Phang Nga Bay: which pier for which trip

Chalong faces the string of islands off the south and east of Phuket, and that is the shortest run to all of them: Coral Island a short hop across the bay, Maiton the next island out, the Racha islands the usual full day in open water to the south, Phi Phi a longer but standard day. More boats go to sea from Chalong than from any other point on the island: sailing catamarans, power catamarans, speedboats, motor yachts and, at the top of the range, the two luxury yachts Say Yes and Sofia.

Phang Nga Bay breaks the pattern. James Bond Island is about twenty kilometres from Ao Po against 53 km from Chalong, roughly an hour of running each way, so the bay, the Hong caves and the Yao islands are measured from Ao Po. For a west-coast guest that means a longer drive in exchange for a shorter crossing: the hour spent on the road stays with the islands. The bay is sheltered and runs all year, including the low season when the swell is up on the south coast, and sixty-four boats in the catalogue publish a rate for it, from ฿33,900 for five hours to James Bond Island from Ao Po and from ฿42,900 for the eight-hour bay day on a yacht. Beluga 88, the third of our three yachts, is based at Ao Po and prices every full-day route the same, ฿214,000 in low season with twelve guests in the rate and up to twenty-two aboard, with one transfer vehicle for up to ten guests on every charter, so the drive from Patong is in the price. If the bay is the reason for the trip, the drive to Ao Po is worth it; if the reason is a beach, a snorkel and lunch at anchor, Chalong is the pier.

Boats available from Chalong Pier: price for the whole boat

The boats at Chalong run from a long-tail of forty feet to yachts of ninety, and the rates below are each boat's lowest published figure, per boat, with the number of guests the rate covers. Say Yes and Sofia publish high-season rates, November to April; the sailing catamarans and the long-tail publish one rate for the year outside the peak; Leopard 51 Aurora publishes low season, June to October. The information on each boat's page is the one that counts, with the full season table and the day capacity.

Boats berthed at Chalong Pier, starting rate for the whole boat with the guests in the rate, 2026/27

Boat	Type, length	Guests in the rate / by day	Format of the starting rate	From
Technema 89 Say Yes	Motor yacht, 89 ft	12 / 30	Half day, 4 h, high season	฿100,000
Ferretti 80 Sofia	Motor yacht, 80 ft	12 / 25	Half day, 4 h, high season	฿100,000
Leopard 51 Aurora	Power catamaran, 51 ft	12 / 25	Half day, 09:00 to 13:00, low season	฿48,900
AQVA 37	Speedboat, 37 ft	6 / 12	Seven-hour day, outside the peak	฿33,900
Nautitech 47 Senna	Sailing catamaran, 47 ft	15 / 30	Four-hour morning half day, outside the peak	฿28,900
Fountaine Pajot 40 Coco	Sailing catamaran, 40 ft	15 / 20	Four-hour morning half day, outside the peak	฿25,900
Fountaine Pajot 42 Tahaa	Sailing catamaran, 42 ft	15 / 20	Four-hour morning half day, outside the peak	฿25,900
Kiri Long-tail 40	Long-tail boat, 40 ft	4 / 8	Four-hour morning half day, outside the peak	฿23,900

A long-tail or a sailing catamaran carries a small group at a slow pace and is the cheapest way to rent a yacht in Phuket for a morning. For twenty to thirty guests the ideal yacht from Chalong is one of the big sailing catamarans, Senna or its sister Nautitech 47 Pepper at the same rate, which is where a birthday or a company outing from a Patong hotel usually lands. Cabins for a night on board are on the motor yachts above eighty feet and on Leopard 51 Aurora, which sleeps eight. Say Yes and Sofia bring a crew of five, four cabins, a Thai lunch on full days, water toys and the transfer vehicle; a Phuket yacht charter at that level is a boat with a crew rather than a boat with a captain. You find the rest of the list in the Chalong Pier guide linked from the table above.

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Where to explore from Chalong: popular islands, distances and what each day costs

A half day from Chalong is four hours, usually a morning, and reaches Coral Island or Maiton. A full day is seven to nine hours by boat and reaches Racha, Phi Phi, or both Coral Island and Maiton with a long lunch stop. Distances are straight lines; the route on the water is somewhat longer.

Routes from Chalong Pier, starting rate for the whole boat with the guests in the rate, 2026/27

Route	From Chalong	Crossing on a motor yacht	Format	From, whole boat	Example boat
Coral Island (Koh Hey)	about 9 km	20 to 25 minutes	Half day, 09:00 to 13:00	฿23,900	Kiri Long-tail 40, 4 in the rate, up to 8
Maiton, water stop, no landing	about 15 km	under an hour	Half day, 08:00 departure	฿25,900	Fountaine Pajot 40 Coco, 15 in the rate, up to 20
Coral Island and Maiton	9 and 15 km	short hops	Full day, 8 h, twelve boats	฿34,900	sailing and power catamarans, motor yachts up to 40 guests
Racha Yai with Banana Beach	about 26 km	40 to 55 minutes	Full day, 7 h	฿33,900	AQVA 37, 6 in the rate, up to 12, or Kiri Long-tail 40
Racha Yai and Racha Noi	26 and 37 km	about an hour to the first island	Full day, 8 to 9 h	฿51,900	Power catamaran, 8 in the rate; Say Yes 9 h from ฿165,000
Phi Phi and Bamboo Island	about 48 km	1.5 to 2 hours	Full day, 08:00 start	฿37,900	AQVA 37 with Maiton, 6 in the rate, up to 12
Coral Island with Promthep Cape, or Maiton	about 9 km	half an hour	Full day, 8 h, high season	฿140,000	Say Yes or Sofia, 12 in the rate

Half day: Coral Island or Maiton

Coral Island is the closest island of all, with two beaches: Long Beach with the resort and the watersports, and Banana Beach on the sheltered northern side, calm in the morning and perfect for children and beginners with its sunbeds and shallow reefs. There is no national park fee on this route. Maiton is run as a water stop: the island is private property and access has been suspended, so guests swim and snorkel around it from the boat and nobody goes ashore; dolphins in the strait are seen fairly often. Both islands together make the shortest full day out of Phuket, and in our experience since 2013 it is the day most customers start with.

Full day: Racha and Phi Phi

Racha Yai is the beach island, with the white sand of Siam Bay and snorkelling off the beach; Racha Noi, farther out and uninhabited, has almost no beach but clearer, deeper water, and guests go there to dive. Phi Phi is the best-known destination in the Andaman Sea and the one where the early start pays off most: the tour boats and ferries arrive between ten and eleven, and a private boat that leaves Chalong at eight is at Bamboo Island before them. Bamboo Island is inside a national park, so the park fee is paid separately per guest unless the yacht's page lists it in the rate. The Similan Islands are out of reach in one day from anywhere on Phuket; they are sold as a two-day trip with the night at a mooring buoy, in the dry season only.

Hotel transfer, taxi and what to bring to Chalong Pier

Transfer from Patong, Kata or Karon

Whether the drive is in the rate depends on the boat and is stated on its page. On Say Yes and Sofia a full day includes one return transfer vehicle for up to ten guests, and a second and a third car, ten guests each, are ฿3,000 per car; a half day on either yacht includes neither lunch nor transfer. The Chalong speedboats and the sailing catamaran Lagoon 450 St Anna do not include it; on Lagoon 42 it is quoted on request, and on a sunset charter it is not part of the rate on most boats. Otherwise a taxi to Chalong is the usual answer; public buses from the beach towns stop at the Chalong roundabout, the local transport hub, from which the pier is a two-minute walk. The general list of what every charter includes is on the what is included page.

Passports, registration and timing at the pier

Chalong is the one departure point where passengers are registered before sailing, through the provincial transport department's app or at the pier, since 2023. Bring the passport itself for every guest, adults and children; the captain handles the registration, so you hand the passports to the crew at the boat and do not queue. Be at the pier fifteen minutes before the departure time: the pier runs roughly 800 metres out into the bay, so the walk from the car park to the boat is longer than at a compact marina, and mornings here are busy. The One Stop Service office at the shore end works with yachts arriving from abroad and is not part of a normal charter. The captain sets the departure time and you receive it before the charter, together with a map pin for the boarding point.

A sunset cruise from Chalong for guests in Patong, Kata or Karon

The shortest format from Chalong is a sunset cruise: two hours on a private yacht in the early evening, from ฿28,900 for the whole boat on the Coco sailing catamaran with fifteen guests in the rate, with captain and crew, water, soft drinks and ice. Departure is about an hour and a half before sunset, which falls around 18:15 in December and roughly half an hour later in June. From Chalong the boat leaves beneath the Big Buddha on the hill above the bay, near Wat Chalong, and heads down the southern coast to where the sun drops into open sea; the crew positions the boat so you watch the sunset over the water and not behind the island. The two-hour format is priced per boat and per date, so the figure above is the boat's starting rate rather than a sunset rate, and it is not offered in the peak weeks around New Year. Alongside soon after dark, you are back in Patong for dinner.

Season 2026/27 in Phuket, Thailand, and when to book

High season on the Andaman Sea runs November to April: flat water, clear visibility for a snorkel, and the full choice of routes from Chalong. Low season runs May to October, with lower published rates on several boats and the captain choosing the sheltered side of an island when the south-west monsoon is running. The peak from 20 December to 20 January is quoted separately on most boats: Say Yes and Sofia add ฿40,000 to a full day in those weeks and do not run half days, and the two Kalim catamarans quote ฿49,900 in their peak, from mid-December to the end of January. The "from" figures in this article are each boat's lowest published rate outside the peak. Weekends, New Year, Chinese New Year and Songkran go first; for a date in the peak, book two to three months ahead.

How to book a yacht charter from Patong, Kata or Karon

Send the date, the number of guests and where you are staying directly on WhatsApp or through the contacts page, and say whether you want an island day, a sunset or a night on board. You get the boats that are free from Chalong on that date, or from Ao Po if the route is Phang Nga Bay, with one final figure in Thai baht in writing for each, before anything is paid; that written figure is the best price for your date, and the only thing paid on the day is the park fee where the route has one, per guest, at the figure confirmed with the quote. The deposit follows the boat's page: most boats take a deposit with the balance before departure, some are paid in full at booking, and late cancellation is non-refundable. Payment is by card, bank transfer, cash or USDT, in baht, dollars or roubles. The boarding point, the time and the transfer arrangement come with the confirmation.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I board a yacht if I am staying in Patong?

At Chalong Pier on the south-east coast, about half an hour by road from Patong, for Coral Island, Maiton, Racha and Phi Phi; at Ao Po Grand Marina, close to a full hour away, for Phang Nga Bay. Two sailing catamarans leave from a pier at Kalim just north of Patong for trips along the west coast from ฿41,900.

Which pier is closest to Kata and Karon?

Chalong Pier. From Kata, Karon, Nai Harn and Rawai it is the nearest of the four departure points Horizon Cruises Phuket uses, and twenty-six boats in the catalogue are berthed there.

How much does a yacht charter from Patong cost?

From ฿23,900 for the whole boat on a four-hour morning on the Kiri long-tail with four guests in the rate, from ฿25,900 on a sailing catamaran with fifteen in the rate, and from ฿100,000 for a half day on Technema 89 Say Yes or Ferretti 80 Sofia with twelve in the rate. The price is per boat, never per guest, and the final figure for your date comes in writing before payment.

Can the yacht pick us up from Patong, Kata or Karon beach?

As a rule, no: a boat sits where its berth is, and moving it to a hotel beach costs running time and fuel that a standard day does not include. The road transfer from your hotel to the pier is agreed at booking; Say Yes and Sofia include one vehicle for up to ten guests on a full day, and other boats state it on their page.

Do we need passports at Chalong Pier?

Yes, the document itself for every guest, adults and children. Passengers going to sea from Chalong are registered before departure, the captain does the registration with your passports at the boat, and you need to be at the pier fifteen minutes before the departure time.

Is a yacht charter from Patong worth it compared with crossing to Ao Po?

For Coral Island, Maiton, Racha and Phi Phi, Chalong is both the shorter drive from Patong and the shorter crossing. For Phang Nga Bay the drive to Ao Po is twice as long but the crossing to James Bond Island is about a third of the distance, so the extra half hour on the road buys back about an hour on the water each way.