Thailand next year hopefully......any tips for a novice?

[KingsArmy]

Wanting to take me and DC's aged 18, 11, 11 to Thailand next year. Any guidance is appreciated as I am not a seasoned traveller.

Should I book a package and stay in the same place for 2 weeks? Should we try and move around to see as much as possible? If so how do I book this without paying through the nose and how do I obtain transfers between the different locations? What are the 'must sees' from people's own experiences?

I guess I am trying to establish whether it's easier/cheaper to sort everything out myself (if so can anyone recommend websites to help) or should I just book a package and stay in one place.

Slightly garbled but hopefully you've got the gist. Thanks

What time of year are you planning to go? We've been to Thailand many times with our children and I think it's very easy to navigate. Last year we went in July to Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Bangkok and Kanchanaburi, transfers are easy to arrange and cheap compared to the UK. Lots of lovely things to do there

Try Intro or Intrepid travel - maybe see if they have a trip that might suit you. If not, maybe it will give you some guidelines against which to play your own trip.

DD is there at the moment, and loving it!

No need for agencies, Thailand is very easy to navigate and hotels will help you with local transfers. I would move around a little, maybe a couple of different hotels and a couple of days in Bangkok as well.

Yes easy to arrange your own transfers through hotel or online. For example We booked a 'luxury' minibus to take 6 of us + luggage from Bangkok to Hua Hin (about a 3 hour drive) and it was about £70.

What do you fancy doing?
Beach? City? Rainforest?
Fly and flop? Food? Adventure?

What time of year?

Chose the season carefully. Travel just isn't fun in the rainy season. Thailand has two monsoon seasons east and west.

You'll most likely fly into Bangkok. The best flight deals seem to be with emirates or Qatar. Book an airport transfer into the city as navigating your way through can be a struggle after a tiring flight.

Pick your hotel location with care. It's a huge sprawling city and traffic is awful. Deffo worth a little planning to see the main Bangkok sites. The temples and palaces. The night markets are not for the faint hearted and since weed was legalised they are even seedier. Rattanakosin is the old town. Hotels are good value if you shop around. If you've got kids you might look for a pool.

A few days is enough to get the Bangkok experience then id suggest internal flight north to Chiang Mai. Lovely old royal city. Opportunities for trekking trips, logging camps etc. Elephant camps have a bad reputation so be wary. Also great for food market and cooking classes.

Finally pick your beach. Loads of choice. There's some really good value mainland resorts although avoid Pattaya. But it's the islands which make Thailand magical. We have a special place in Phuket so I can't recommend other islands. But you're spoilt for choice. Phuket and Kho Samui have international flights so you can avoid going back to Bangkok

I would recommend using Trailfinders - they have booked all our Thailand trips. They put together packages for you flights, hotels, transfers and day trips if you want.

They have really good suggested multi centre itineraries and have been the same price, if not cheaper, than doing it ourselves every time.

We usually don’t book day trips though, just the main logistics bits.

Thanks everyone for all the advice - it is appreciated. Just for info I am a woman travelling solo with the 3 DC's, 2 boys and a girl. To answer some q's

@anatara It would have to be in the school holidays, so late July/August time. Did you arrange your whole trip in the UK or sort your transfers whilst you were out there? Did the hotel do this for you?

@ajandjjmum Amazing for your DD, what an experience! Everything I have read and seen just looks amazing. Thanks for the website recommendations, this was the kind of thing I was looking for.

@TheMousePipes I want to do/see everything! Totally unreasonable of course.....this would be my first holiday with DC's 11 since they were babies, I just want them to experience as much as possible, to soak up other cultures, food and experiences that are totally different to their lives thus far. So not a holiday where we entirely flop about!

@Hobbesmanc thanks for this info. Sounds like I need to be a bit cautious of night time Bangkok. Can you enlighten on the elephant trips as this was something the DC's would love to do/see however I obviously don't want to facilitate cruelty. How did you book to travel to all these places/hotels? Did you do it in advance?

@DibbleDooDah Great I will definitely look at these websites. This was the kind of info I was after. It would give me peace of mind to know most of the important stuff, hotels/flights are booked in advance, especially as I would be travelling with the children. When I have googled only the run of the mill Tui, Virgin etc have come up and they are not really offering exactly what I had in mind. Have you booked your day trips via the hotel when you've got there?

Thanks so much for this everyone. Also is it cheaper to book in advance ?

@KingsArmy Yes, just book day trips through hotels once you arrive unless there’s something you are desperate to do and you are going at peak times. I know what you mean about having all the key things booked for you. Trailfinders are really flexible and even have a Family brochure with trip suggestions in.

You’ll want to be Koh Samui side of Thailand if you want beaches that time of year.

I would say book trips on the street - often hotels sell the exact same provider's tours for 3 times the money.

Hi KingsArmy I've done a mixture of booking transfers direct and booking through hotel. Sometimes the hotel is more expensive, but sometimes it just easier, and Thailand is mainly quite cheap anyway.

We usually book a beach place first so we can get over jet lag and relax, then do a bit more activity for the second part of the holiday. If you're going in the school summer holidays Koh Samui is perfect, so I would plan to fly into Koh Samui, and probably stay at Bophut, know as Fishermans village, it's close to the airport, so I would message the hotel direct and arrange a transfer. Bophut has a lovely clean beach with beanbag bars on the sand and fire shows. There's plenty to do, night markets, restaurants, massages etc. In the past we've done an island tour, last year we did a days boat tour around Ang Thong islands with this company
www.tripadvisor.co.uk/AttractionProductReview-g1179396-d11476114-Angthong_Marine_Park_Semi_Private_Sunset_Tour-Bophut_Ko_Samui_Surat_Thani_Provinc.html
It was a lovely wooden boat, amazing food and they had their own kayaks, so we didn't see another boat all day. There are also speedboat tours there which are about half the price, but they get the kayaks there.

My family all dive so we also headed over to Koh Tao and spent a few days there, it's about 3-4 hours on a ferry, much smaller that Koh Samui, but amazing reefs, really good for snorkelling, we also did a Thai cooking class there.

I would then transfer up to Bangkok or Chiang Mai. Last year we stayed a couple of days in Bangkok and then went to Kanchanaburi. I don't love Bangkok, but it's worth a couple of days, we did a food tour in a tuk tuk visited the huge market and a few temples. Kanchanaburi is very different, Bridge on the River Kwai, so lots of history, stayed in a little eco resort and arranged a trip before we arrived that was quite a long day but really good visiting the railway sites and Erawan falls, a walk that takes in 7 waterfalls. We were going to do it ourselves, but it was so worth getting a guide. We just stayed 2 nights.

We have been to Chiang Mai on a separate holiday and went to an elephant sanctuary, where we looked after them. Also went cycling, and again lovely markets.

Then I'd get flight back to UK from Bangkok, or CM if you can get a direct flight.

Hope that helps!

@anatara thanks for taking the time to write all that. It is immensely helpful, it sounds like you had an amazing time!
thanks for the replies @DibbleDooDah @Orangello
I just found a website called Explore! which looks like it has some great pre planned trips too.

How lovely to have a poster come back with enthusiasm and excitement. I'm so envious. We do everything independently using booking sites and travel forums. It takes time but it can be really rewarding especially if the kids get involved in the planning

In the past we've really enjoyed the elephant camps. Washing them, elephant treks etc. but there have been some concerns raised about the welfare and treatment of the animals. So I'd suggest researching them in advance.

Hi OP,

We went to Thailand a few years ago and booked through trailfinders. Without kids but I think this itinerary would still work really well for you if you want a mix of relaxing and activities!

We started with a few days in Bangkok which was enough but loved it! We did a cycle tour which was brilliant and took us round the city and on a boat to the countryside, to some floating markets and temples - really packed a huge amount in! We went to asiatique in the evening which was very touristy but good fun - our hotel was on the river and had a boat so we travelled there on that.

Then we flew to Phuket and had a night there before getting picked up for a pretty long drive up to kho sok and stayed at elephant hills which was just amazing! Did 2 nights in the tented jungle camp and 1 night on the floating lake camp. Visited and fed elephants, hiked, kayaked, amazing scenery, honestly amazing. Then back to Phuket for some chill out time (we stayed at the Surin hotel which was lovely) before getting the ferry to phi phi.

It was a few years ago now but absolutely lovely, we had a great time and for us it was the perfect mix of activity and relaxing, travelling around but not too much so you felt you were living out your suitcase. Would love to go back!!

You will have an amazing time!!! As pp have said you’ll want to head to Koh Samui etc at that time of year we also went to Ko phang Nan ( spelling!) an easy organised boat trip from the island. We had 5 days there and 5 in Koh Samui. Koh Samui is much busier so depends on what you’re after.
if you would like an ethical elephant experience look here www.elephantnaturepark.org, they’ve won loads of responsible tourism awards and it is phenomenal!!!
bangkok is busy and sticky but interesting for a couple of days, Longtail boat up the river and wat Arun are my highlights!
we flew with Singapore last time and had a few days there on the way back which was fab!
happy planning!

We are looking at this now too and hoping to get sorted and booked shortly, but with younger kids. Likely will mostly book ourselves but as others have mentioned there are lots of companies that will help with organising the flights/transfers/hotels and can either add excursions now or when out there - takes the admin out of it for you

Look at indirect flight options too, particularly if you can stretch longer than 2 weeks even by few days, the flights are a bit less and the money saved pays towards few nights somewhere else too e.g Singapore