Thailand.

[Howard-]

My girlfriend and I have decided we'd like to go to Thailand for 10 days or so...

Talk about information overload!

Due to her work commitments the only time she can really take off is during the summer holidays, so we'd be looking to go in August. Yeah, I know, it'll probably rain each day for half an hour or so


The sort of holiday we're after is about 50/50 chilling (beaches and whatnot)/sightseeing - cultural stuff, elephants, fantastic views and attractions and whatnot. Where on earth should we start? Is there a single destination that would serve this purpose? Phuket and Ko Samui both look rather ideal. Flight and hotel to these places looks to average at around £1200 pp - is this right? Can it be done cheaper? How do we minimise time wasted waiting in airports to transfer etc?

Bangkok looks like a bit of an urban sprawl.. Or am I wrong?


Any information and suggestions to start us off would be fantastic.


Thanks!

[Howard-]

ctid said:

I've just booked 18 days in Thailand with my girlfriend for this August (she's a teacher so school holidays only!). I can relate to the feeling of information overload, I must have looked at about 100 different hotels in 10 different locations before we decided on our final plans.

We're flying out Manchester to Bangkok via Helsinki with Finnair, it came to just over £1600 return for the both of us. Keep checking SkyScanner as the prices seem to fluctuate quite a lot. The flights going via Dubai/Doha seem to have long connection times unless you pay a premium for decent flight times.

We were looking for a similar kind of holiday to yourselves and decided on visiting Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Koh Tao. We're doing 2 days in Bangkok and then flying up to Chiang Mai on a Sunday in time for the Sunday night markets. The plan is to spend 4 days there, then come back to Bangkok for another couple of days. Finally we're going to do a week on Koh Tao as a bit of a chillout after the bustle of the cities.

Chiang Mai seems to be perfect for doing the temple tours, elephant riding, cookery classes etc. We found a guesthouse right in the centre of the old town for £15 per night with air-con.

We chose Koh Tao as our island part of the trip for a few reasons. With it being on the eastern side of Thailand, it's protected from the monsoon rains that are hitting Koh Lanta and Phuket at that time of year. Also, it's smaller than Koh Samui and Koh Phangan so should be a little quieter. It really depends on what you want from the trip though.

Send me a PM if you want any more info on hotels etc. Bangkok is cheap if you stay near the Khao San Rd, but even Sukhumvit hotels can be found for £40-60 per night. For our time on Koh Tao we decided to splash out on a villa near enough to Sairee beach but out of the way so it's quiet.

ctid, that's absolutely perfect advice, thank you. Having spent now many hours researching, I think our plan is likely to be very very similar, i.e. fly to Bangkok, spend a day or two there, up to Chiang Mai to do all the lovely cultural stuff, however I was then thinking about heading to Koh Samui, although the "island" half of the trip isn't yet finalised and I am now going to take a nice close look at Koh Tao. They all seem to have their pros and cons so it's a bit tricky!

Can I ask you how you're planning on getting to/from Chiang Mai and Koh Tao? I was thinking of domestic flights as they're nice and quick and I don't really want to spend 8 hours on a bus or train just to save a bit of cash. And we're only going to be there for about 11 days so don't want to spend too long travelling. Although the Chiang Mai > Koh Samui trip is likely to take a day probably.

Also which guest house have you found in Chiang Mai if you don't mind me asking?


Thanks loads.


Edit: Oh and we're going to get a direct flight from Heathrow to Bangkok with EVA Air, about £850 each.

Edited by Howard- on Monday 15th April 15:06

[Howard-]

ctid said:

No problem, glad I could help and all the time I spent reading up on this stuff is actually useful.

To get to Chiang Mai, we're going to fly with Air Asia from Don Mueang Airport. It worked out at £160 return for the two of us, so is a bit cheaper than Bangkok Air from Suvarnabhumi airport.

Koh Tao is a little trickier. There's an option for an overnight coach from Bangkok to Chumphon, then a 2 hour Lomprayah catamaran trip across to the island. This is the cheapest way of doing it, but we didn't fancy spending a night on a coach. You can also fly BKK - Koh Samui with Bangkok Air and again get a Lomprayah catamaran to Koh Tao. This is probably the quickest way of doing it, but flights into Samui aren't cheap.

We decided to use Nok Air to fly from Bangkok to Chumphon, then get the catamaran across. They seem to be a small regional carrier and the prices are quite reasonable. You can book the entire transfer with them including the flights, bus from Chumphon airport to the pier, and the catamaran. This worked out at just over £260 for the both of us. It's an early start from Bangkok (7:30am flight), but better than spending a night on the coach! Just be aware that the catamarans don't run too frequently, I think the last one from Samui to Koh Tao is at about 1:30 in the afternoon.

Here's a link to the Nok Air website:

http://www.nokair.com

We're staying at the Thaphae Garden Guesthouse in Chiang Mai, and booked it through Agoda. It's in the middle of the old town, inside the old city walls. It seems nice enough, gets decent reviews, and we figured we wouldn't be spending too much time in the room anyway. Somebody on the lonely planet forum recommended it to us.

edit: I recognise your name Howard, were you a member of the Hexus forums a while back? Ignore me if I'm going mental

Edited by ctid on Monday 15th April 18:30

I was indeed a member, not been on there for years. I thought your bloody username seemed a tiny bit familiar too


Thanks for all the info.

I'm thinking at the moment either the direct flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui at £440 for the pair of us, or the 5.5 hour flight/bus/boat trip for £157 for the pair of us. Cheaper but more of a ball ache. Not sure really!

It's hard trying to tie together all the times of these "connecting" flights!

[Howard-]

That's quite shocking, and not something I really considered, although I did think it sounded a bit unnatural, riding one. Really we just want to get up close and see them in all their more natural habitat, riding them isn't our priority.

[Howard-]

ctid said:

Wow, that's a bit of an eye opener. This is the place we were planning on visiting, it's an elephant sanctuary near Chiang Mai and is supposed to be one of the places that treats them properly. They still seem to advertise elephant rides though

http://www.baanchangelephantpark.com

Has anyone got any recommendations of a better place to go and see the elephants?

www.elephantnaturepark.org - Highly rated by CNN, the BBC, National Geographic, etc. Looks like an incredible experience and my girlfriend will be in absolute heaven here!





Oh and I'm currently looking at the overnight train options between Bangkok and Chiang Mai and Koh Samui - http://www.seat61.com/Thailand.htm

Looks fun and adventurous, and over night trip so you're not wasting time travelling and don't need to spring for a hotel.

Just currently trying to think through all the logistics of baggage and whatnot though, however I'm sure whichever hotel we choose for our stay in these locations won't mind holding our baggage for us before we're due to check in. Hopefully!

Edited by Howard- on Tuesday 16th April 13:07

Edited by Howard- on Tuesday 16th April 13:08

Edited by Howard- on Tuesday 16th April 13:11

[Howard-]

bigandclever said:

We did the overnighter from Bangkok to Chang Mai, in 2nd class. Was fine ... decent food and beer, the usual friendly locals and the fold down beds were pretty comfortable. 3rd class was wooden seats and cheapcheap; 1st class was twice the cost of 2nd, but you got a cabin with a basin.

.

Good to hear it's worth doing! 1st may be twice the price of 2nd but twice the price of sod all is still sod all Certainly compared with flying anyway!


Can I ask what you did with your luggage when you got to Chaing Mai? Where did you go once you got there etc? You stayed for a few days before coming back, I take it?

[Howard-]

Thanks guys.


Also.. Vaccinations.. Are they needed?

[Howard-]

What's everyone's opinion on Koh Samui? Most people/sites seem to suggest that if you avoid the busy beaches (Chaweng etc) unless you're into that, and find a quieter beach then it's quite lovely.