Thailand at Xmas

[JosieRosie]

Just a thought.... Would a week be long enough? Not to see everything obviously but to feel the benefit of having a break! What sort of weather could we expect? I know I could find out this information from a million websites but I put a premium on first-hand reviews so all information gratefully received!

Just come back from Thailand, which was low season officially, and when you go it would be high season and very hot. Weather was fab for us and very warm even so.

We went for 16 days to compensate for the journey and I'm really glad we did as it was very tiring (and Thai Air were crap). It took us 2 hours to get to Heathrow, 11 and a half hours to bangkok, another 1 hour to Phuket and 1 and a half hours car transfer to the resort.

I'd say a week would be just about worth it if you weren't travelling within that week, iyswim; so I'd make it 9 or 10 days to be honest.

There are other MNetters who go in high season who'd be able to tell you stuff about christmas, but I'd really recommend it for families - kids had a ball and the Thais were very child-friendly.

ask if there's anything else you want to know...

Where would you go? Thailand is huge! There's Bangkok for city breaks, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai for culture, Phuket, Koh Samui, Krabi and others for beach breaks - all are a flight between them. If you want to see lots, try 3 days in Bangkok, a week for Chiang Mai / Rai and a week on the beach in Phuket (it's rainy season in Nov / Dec in the Gulf of Thailand so avoid Samui / Krabi) You won't even get over the jet lag (which is a killer traveling west to east) in a week if you're coming from the UK.... and it's a lot of money for a flight for just a week. I'd look at Caribbean or South Africa if you're looking for a week's winter sun without so much flying / jet lag.....

god yes I agree re the jet-lag! It was fine when we got there as we were just dossing by the pool the whole time, but we came back Tuesday might and I've been up and about at 5am the last 2 mornings. I feel hungover...

I've been back in Singapore from Italy since Saturday and DD1 ha yet to fall asleep before 1am - she normally ends up crying with frustration (plus I am waking her at 7am every morning to try to get her back on track). It generally takes 24 hours for every hour's difference to recover fully. Thailand is 7 hours ahead of GMT so in winter it will take a week to get over jet lag each way...

Thanks everyone Really good point about the jet lag! acatcalled bob, I have no idea - hadn't gotten that far! I think we would just want a 'collapse-and-eat-lots-of-food' break so maybe a week just isn't enough.

For collapse and eat lots of food at Christmas in the sun, have you considered the UAE / Oman? Not so far and just warm enough for swimming outside.... Cape Town also has no time difference and the food there is fab too :o We took DD1 when she was 3 and we had a blast.

We are just looking at booking a holiday to Thailand and a bit worried about the flights. Want to go to Koh Samui and are thinking of 2 nights in Bangkok on way out (flying Emirates so 2 hours in Dubai on way) then 6 nights in Koh Samui. Were going to go straight home (via Bangkok then Dubai) but I've just said to DH I think it will be too much for the DC so might stay in Dubai for a couple of nights on way back. Definitely wouldn't go straight there for just a week.

Whatever you do don't fly Thai Air for the long flight. We had both 11.5 hour flights with no individual inflight entertainment, contrary to what their website implies. Film screen was miles away, the dds couldn't see it and quality was crap.

Bless them, they were great and did loads of colouring whilst listening to music on the way there. But on the way back the music channels weren't even working either and the cabin staff just shrugged.

Never again!