NovPhuket proximity needs a road, not a radius
Use the actual entrances, travel mode and return journey when comparing Phuket locations. A map circle cannot establish the convenience of a drive.
This article reflects the named expert’s practical perspective. See NovAsia’s editorial policy for how material is prepared and reviewed.
When two screenshots give different times for a Phuket journey, I check what each one was asked to calculate. Starting point, destination entrance, direction and transport mode can all change the answer.
A Phuket property pin often represents a building or an estate, while the useful starting point for a driver is the accessible vehicle exit. A school or shopping-centre pin likewise may not identify the entrance the buyer will use. Small changes at those ends can alter the route without moving either property.
Check the return as a separate journey
The return needs its own route. Turns, direction and the approach to the gate may alter it. Any claimed restriction must be checked; neither an assumed shortcut nor an invented obstacle belongs in the comparison.
Google Maps provides route planning for different modes of travel. That makes it important not to justify a car journey with a pedestrian route or a straight-line measurement. Time estimates also belong to stated conditions; they are not a promise about every future school run or airport departure.
Saving those settings beside the result makes a comparison reproducible: the entrances, intended transport and relevant time. A later difference can be traced, and two homes are not being assessed using conveniently different queries.
A radius graphic may be fine for an initial overview. It becomes misleading when the buyer reads all the landmarks inside it as equally accessible. Being close to several destinations geometrically does not mean the roads connect them equally well to the house.
One property may serve the school journey well and leave a longer airport trip. The buyer can decide whether that suits their pattern. The screenshots become useful when they describe those trips consistently, rather than merely produce a reassuring number.
Make route comparisons reproducible
Two travel-time screenshots can look scientific while answering different questions. I prefer to keep the mode of travel, the type of start and end points and the approximate checking conditions consistent across properties. Otherwise a table can create precision without comparability.
Large developments are a common source of error. The map pin may sit near the road even though residents exit elsewhere. A shopping centre or school can also have several entrances, and the one used by a driver may not be the pin chosen automatically by the map.
I would save more than the final number. Recording the actual entrance, transport mode and when the route was checked makes later changes understandable. That is not an attempt to promise an exact future travel time. It is simply a way to stop a five-minute difference produced by different settings from becoming a major property argument.
Different journeys also deserve different interpretation. A school run is time-sensitive. A beach trip may be flexible. An airport journey typically includes a larger margin because the consequence of delay is different. A single “average time to key amenities” removes those distinctions.
A radius is therefore useful for discovery and poor for final evaluation. It tells the buyer what may be nearby. A handful of consistent road routes shows which destinations are actually convenient for this home. That is the level at which proximity becomes useful to a purchase decision.
It can also be useful to run the same journey from two plausible entrances. If the results are nearly identical, the location is relatively insensitive to a small mapping error. If one route creates a substantial detour, the buyer has found a specific question to resolve: which entrance is actually available to residents? That is a better use of mapping than selecting whichever screenshot produces the shortest number.
Sources
1. Google Maps Help, Get directions & show routes — route planning by travel mode and endpoints; an estimate is not a guaranteed travel time. Accessed 27 September 2026.