Before you start

A valid home-country licence, plus an International Driving Permit obtained before you leave — including the motorcycle category if you intend to ride
A long-stay visa or extension before the Department of Land Transport will convert your licence
A residence certificate from Phuket Immigration or your embassy, dated within 30 days
A Thai medical certificate, also dated within 30 days

Step-by-step

1
Get an International Driving Permit before you leave, with the right categories
An IDP is issued in your home country and cannot be obtained in Thailand. Crucially, it lists categories — a car IDP does not cover a motorcycle. If you intend to ride here, you need the motorcycle entitlement on your home licence and on the IDP, and most travel and health insurers will refuse a claim if you were riding without it. This one document decides whether an accident is an inconvenience or a financial catastrophe.
In personWho: You, before departureDays, at homeModest in your home country
2
Work out your local transport before you choose where to live
Songthaews run fixed routes between Phuket Town and the beaches on their own timetable, not on demand. Metered taxis are uncommon and fares are negotiated. Grab operates but coverage and driver availability differ sharply between the town, the west coast and the quieter south and east. If you would rather not ride, this constrains where you can realistically live — check ride availability from a candidate address at the hours you would actually travel.
Mobile appWho: YouTest before signing a leaseVaries; negotiated fares are the norm off the ride-hailing apps
3
Convert your licence at the Department of Land Transport
Bring your passport with visa pages, a residence certificate from Phuket Immigration or your embassy dated within 30 days, a Thai medical certificate also within 30 days, your home licence and IDP, and photographs. Holding a valid foreign licence normally exempts you from the practical road test, but you still sit the aptitude checks — colour, depth perception, reaction time, peripheral vision — and a theory exam. The first licence is short-dated and renews to a longer one afterwards.
In personWho: YouUsually one day at the office, plus lead time for the certificatesModest government fee plus the medical certificate
4
Insure properly, and read what the policy excludes
Compulsory motor insurance in Thailand is minimal cover; voluntary insurance is what actually protects you. If you ride, confirm that both your motor policy and your health policy cover motorcycle use, and at what engine capacity — many travel and expatriate health policies exclude motorcycles outright, or exclude riders without a valid motorcycle licence, or cap engine size. Get the answer in writing before your first ride, not after.
OnlineWho: YouBefore you rideVoluntary motor cover is inexpensive relative to the exposure
5
Buy a helmet that is not the one the rental shop gives you
Rental helmets are frequently token. A proper full-face helmet costs a small fraction of a single hospital day and is the difference between a road rash story and a head injury. Thai law requires helmets and it is enforced, but enforcement is not the reason to wear one. Add gloves and shoes — the classic Phuket injury is a low-speed slide in shorts and flip-flops that removes a great deal of skin.
In personWho: YouDay oneSmall, relative to the alternative

Documents you’ll need

Passport with visa and entry stamp
Valid home-country licence with the correct categories, plus IDP
Residence certificate from Phuket Immigration or your embassy, within 30 days
Thai medical certificate, within 30 days
Photographs for the Department of Land Transport

Things most newcomers don’t know

The motorcycle entitlement on your IDP is the single most consequential piece of paper you will carry here.

A car IDP does not cover a motorbike, and most travel and expatriate health policies exclude motorcycle claims where the rider lacked the correct licence — some exclude motorcycles regardless. Phuket's rental shops do not check. So the moment you ride without the entitlement you have, in practice, cancelled your own health insurance for the most likely way you will be injured on this island. Sort the categories before you leave home; you cannot obtain an IDP in Thailand.

Source: IDP category structure; standard insurance policy exclusions

Your residence certificate depends on your landlord having filed the TM30, so the licence process starts with your lease.

The Department of Land Transport requires a residence certificate, which Immigration will only issue when your address is properly on file — and your address gets on file through the TM30 that your landlord is legally required to submit. If they never filed it, you will be sent away to fix that before you can get the certificate, before you can convert the licence. It is a chain, and the weak link is almost always a Phuket landlord who has never bothered.

Source: Thai Immigration TM30 requirement; DLT residence certificate requirement

Ride-hailing coverage on Phuket is genuinely uneven, and it should shape where you live.

The island's traditional transport trade has resisted app-based ride-hailing for years, and while Grab does operate, availability, wait times and driver willingness vary sharply by area and hour. Somewhere that looks well-connected at midday in Phuket Town can be unservable at ten at night in the south of the island. If you do not want to ride a motorbike, test ride availability from a candidate address at your actual travel times before you commit to a lease.

Source: Phuket local transport market; ride-hailing coverage variability

Monsoon season changes the roads as well as the sea.

From roughly May to October, sudden heavy rain makes the island's steep hill roads — the climbs between Patong and Kathu, up to the Big Buddha, over to Kamala — slick and genuinely dangerous on two wheels, and localised flooding closes low-lying stretches without warning. Riders who learned the island in the dry months are the ones who come off. Slow down, allow far more time, and treat the first ten minutes of a downpour as the worst conditions of the year.

Source: Phuket seasonal road conditions

Common mistakes to avoid

Riding a motorbike on a car-only IDP and voiding your health insurance for the most likely injury you will have here
Accepting the rental shop's helmet instead of buying a proper full-face one
Trying to convert a licence before your landlord has filed the TM30, which blocks the residence certificate the DLT requires
Bringing a residence certificate or medical certificate older than 30 days — both are rejected
Choosing a house in the quiet south or east without testing whether you can actually get a ride home at night
Learning the island's hill roads in the dry season and riding them the same way once the monsoon starts

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.