We moved to Phuket in 2018. Now we're writing the guide we wish we'd had.

How we got here

In 2018, we packed our bags and moved to Rawai with what felt like a solid plan. We'd done the research. We understood the basics about Thailand. How hard could it be?

Turns out, very hard.

The first month was chaos. Immigration rules didn't match what we'd read online. Finding housing that wasn't either a luxury resort or a party-scene condo took weeks. Our Thai was terrible. We'd walk into Bangkok Hospital Phuket with a simple question and leave more confused than when we arrived. Opening a KBank account required documents we'd never heard of, and the bank didn't understand why that mattered to us.

But here's what happened: we learned. We made mistakes, figured things out, asked other expats, and slowly, Phuket stopped feeling like chaos and started feeling like home.

Six years later, we've built a life here. We've watched the visa landscape shift three times. We've helped friends find housing in every neighborhood. We know which hospitals actually speak English. We understand banking, schools, the cost of living, getting a driving license, everything.

More importantly: we've realized how many expats are where we were — overwhelmed, unsure, reading generic Thailand advice that doesn't apply to Phuket, feeling alone in their confusion.

Why Phuket Expat Guide exists

There are thousands of Thailand travel blogs. There are relocation sites that cover the entire country in surface-level detail. But there's nothing written specifically for people like us — people moving to Phuket, staying long-term, and needing honest, detailed, Phuket-specific information.

Phuket isn't generic Thailand. It's a 30,000+ expat community with its own culture, challenges, and opportunities. The visa process is the same, sure, but the neighborhoods are completely different from Bangkok. Healthcare options matter differently here. Cost of living varies wildly by area. The job market is specific to tourism and remote work. Schools, banking, social life — all different from other Thai cities.

So we decided: we'd build the resource we needed six years ago. Not a travel guide. Not generic advice. A real guide, written by people who live here, covering everything a relocating expat actually needs to know.

We promised ourselves three things: be honest. Be specific to Phuket. Never recommend anything we haven't actually used.

How we build trust

We only recommend what we've actually used. No affiliate links to services we haven't tried. No commissions warping our advice. When we recommend Bangkok Hospital Phuket, it's because we've been there. When we suggest a housing agent, it's someone we've worked with. When we write about banking, we've opened that account ourselves.

We're specific to Phuket. You won't find generic "Thailand advice" here. Every guide covers Phuket specifically — our neighborhoods, our hospitals, our immigration officers, our banks, our schools, our communities. When visa rules change in Phuket, we update immediately.

We update constantly. Thailand's visa landscape shifts. Property prices change. New hospitals open. New schools accept students. We live here full-time, so we notice these changes and update our guides to reflect reality.

We're honest about trade-offs. Housing in Bang Tao is expensive but quieter. Patong is fun but noisy. Phuket Town is cheap but culturally jarring. We don't pretend every area is perfect — we describe the real pros and cons so you can make the choice that's right for you.