Visa For Phuket Thailand?

joe2cool

Hi just wondering if when travelling via cruise to Phuket Thailand, do you need a visa? https://www.gov.uk quotes 'British passport holders arriving by air or land can enter Thailand for 30 days without a visa - this is known as a visa exemption. If you need to stay longer, it’s possible to extend your stay once, from the expiry date of the original visa, for up to 30 days'

Appreciate any help

Thx

Pollycat

Are you staying in Thailand for more than 30 days?

If not, the advice from the Foreign Office seems clear.

Don't you have any information from the cruise company?

joe2cool

Hi no 2 days staying. The foreign office says 'arriving by land or air'
Waiting for info from cruise company.

Thx anyway

eDicky

'By land' certainly includes sea, probably it should be written 'arriving by surface or air'.

agrinnall

eDicky wrote: »

'By land' certainly includes sea, probably it should be written 'arriving by surface or air'.

I would have thought that by definition 'by land' would exclude 'by sea'. As you say, 'by surface or air' would be inclusive, but perhaps Thailand has a reason why they want to exclude arrivals by sea from the exemption. They do sometimes have different requirements for different means of arrival, last time I entered by land from Laos and needed to get a visa from the embassy in Vientiane.

If I was the OP I'd definitely clarify it before leaving.

eDicky

agrinnall wrote: »

last time I entered by land from Laos and needed to get a visa from the embassy in Vientiane.

That could be because of a crackdown on people making a 'visa run' across the border to stay in Thailand long term. Two years ago I crossed there without a visa.

It's hard to imagine a visa being required for cruise ship passengers, but on the other hand logic is often scarce in Thailand. In fact I was actually going to write 'almost certainly' but decided to stick my neck out...

PompeyPete

My stab in the dark for a UK Passport holder arriving at a Thai Port on a Cruise for a day or two is that.....Land = Sea, therefore a visa exemption is, I'm 99.99% certain, the correct answer. But the Passport holder must, I assume, meet the current Passport validity requirements if he/she wants to go ashore.

I've scoured TA, and can't find any mention of a UK Passport holder being stung for a visa fee.....as much as anything it doesn't make sense.

dickydonkin

I arrived in Phuket from Singapore by sea and there were no problems whatsoever.

IIRC, the cruise line (Royal Caribbean) retained my passport for the duration of the trip and they dealt with the immigration element.

Hopefully you will be transferred off the ship in Patong and not at the cruise terminal on the other side of the island which is relatively out of the way.