Thailand - travel agent or organise ourselves?

[rookiemere]

Hi would really appreciate any advice on this.

DH and I are thinking about visiting Thailand next year, probably November once DS is (hopefully) off to Uni.

I used to love organising our holidays but we've never been to Asia and we're in our fifties and I just think it might be easier to do an organised package with a few stops, rather than trying to do it ourselves. But I just wonder if I'm being silly and wasting lots of money that way. Anyone got any advice please?

Following as wondering the same!

Thailand is easy. And safe. Fine to just do what you fancy and organise it yourselves.

but if you want someone to sort it all, then call Trailfinders

Did a few weeks flash packing about 10 years ago. We were early 20's.Booked to Bangkok and booked internal flights and accommodation as required online. Was very easy and gave us the flexibility to stay where we liked longer and shorten plans where we didn't like. W had planned to go north to Chaing Mai but was train strike to we were able to change plans and not lose anytime.
If 2 twenty odd year olds can do it so can you.
Make a list of things you'd like to do/see and take it from there.

Agree with@StillWantingADog . Trailfinders have deals so may save some money. Otherwise wait for BA sales.
Do check monsoon seasons, so if you island hopping choose the less rainy side of Thailand.

@DNLove I think the thing is we're not in our 20s anymore. I used to love pulling together a trip and researching all the different places and hotels. But now I just think well even if we pay a few hundred more, the travel agents will know what they are doing. Plus we both have busy, stressful jobs so having it all organised for us sounds good.

I've kind of answered my own question really . We've got a decent quote from Travelbag and she assures us weather will be fine in November and I'm waiting for Trailfinders to quote once the prices come out.

Following as I am having exactly the same dilemma - planning on going at Easter - it will be me and DD(18)

Monsoon season would hit part of the year in Phuket side and another part of the same year on Koh Sami side, which is Sept to Dec.
So if you in Phuket side you should be ok. Worth double checking on google etc.

@rookiemere We used to book our own flights but get a package within the country we are visiting. Check ABTA rules on exactly what a package holiday is! You get more protection if it’s a package. We feel that putting everything together yourself has implications these days. Our next few holidays have flights included but we aren’t really interested in cheap flights and budget hotels and holidays.

My friend went to Thailand and her boyfriend booked hotels. She was bitterly disappointed. They didn’t look like the pictures. Always check out reviews.

Friend was 70 - not 20 somethings!

Following with interest

Definitely book yourself - it’s so easy. Just do it as you go along, don’t need to book in advance. It’s better for the local economy, and more fun !

Just come back. Easy to do yourself. Join the different Facebook pages. However i actually think it might be cheaper to get a package holiday. I found flights very expensive.
I used Luxuary Travel for hotels in Thailand. Some great deals. But flights looked more expensive through them . Domestic flights are very reasonable.
We did 3 nights Bangkok and then whet to Khao Lak.
Weather, expect some rain in Nov.

I don’t think I’ve used a travel agent for a package deal since 2005. I’ve always booked the elements of my trip separately. It wouldn’t occur to me to go for a package, wherever the destination. I think the difference in price can be significantly more than a few hundred pounds for multi-centre trips. In my experience it’s often easily double the price with the cheapest hotel options.

If you book the flight and hotels through the same company then even if they’re booked at different times they get treated as a package deal for the purposes of ATOL protection etc. We’ve booked flights for a few trips where we didn’t know which hotels we wanted to stay in yet and then booked hotels later one at a time whenever we found ones we liked the look of and it all gets bundled together as a package trip in my booking.com account. I imagine this would be exactly the same with other similar websites.

There’s no shame in paying someone to plan it if you don’t want to organise it and have the money. My parents use trailfinders for the exact same reason as you. I personally plan it ourselves but I have less money and more time. Thailand is fab.

When u arrive in Bangkok there is
a well organised tourist service hotels trips information

Trailfinders and yourself, you can do a mix on the same holiday to get best price and better promotion rates.
Check CNtraveller.com, Condé Naste Traveller, website have boutique hotels and restaurants suggestions.

Sounds great and that's what we would do (similar age). Do pop back and update us on what/where you decide to do/go, would love to hear.

We travel to Asia every year (in our late fifties) and we always organise it all ourselves. Book flights direct with the airline (on the credit card for security) and deal direct with the hotels. The planning is half the fun! Why pay more just to have someone else do it for you?

I'm nervous about using 3rd parties including travel agents. I like to see all of the confirmations myself and in my own name, especially in a very different time zone.

We did a family trip to California 10 years ago and used a lovely travel agent. However we were given lots of vouchers for the hotels and trips. I couldn't see the details which I found stressful. I didn't feel in control.

We had booked a particular room which was noted on the voucher but the hotel queried. Going forward I wanted it in black and white from the hotel directly.

I've read on here about issues that people have had about flights booked through 3rd parties. Notifications of any changes go to them, not you. If something goes wrong you're hanging around waiting for someone else (maybe still in bed thousands of miles away) to sort things rather than cracking on yourself.

Super easy, DIY it, tailor to your preferences and save money. Win win!

Absolutely book flights direct or you'll have no end of hassle if anything changes or they cancel one.

Use booking.com for hotels. Air Asia and Nok air are good choices for internal flights. It's so easy to travel around. Happy to help if you have questions, I've been a bunch of times - several alone too.

We've recently gone back to using a travel agent (trailfinders).
It's been useful when flights have been cancelled. Just message the agent and they sort it out for you. No need to worry about the non-existent update from the airline.

I’ve done a few trips to this part of the world with a travel agent. If you are short of time and not too fixed on what you want to do, then I wouldn’t hesitate to use one. I really do love planning trips and I still use a TA where they are flexible enough to basically book an itinerary I’ve devised, maybe with some tweaks to hotels used. You can also leave a few days out of the itinerary they can book if you want to do something or use a particular hotel they don’t offer. Trailfinders will certainly be able to do this in Thailand.

I have tended not to use them in places where they only offer fixed options.

The big benefit is that if flights or hotels get changed then they deal with the hassle of sorting it out, which is worth a lot when you’re busy at work. I have had both happen, including the TA themselves changing the hotel due to feedback from other customers that I’d never have known about or been able to act on if I’d booked myself.

When we have long haul holidays we use a travel agent (Trailfinders). We research the hotel we want first, so just tell them the dates we want to go, which hotel and they sort the rest. So it’s not a package holiday as such. When we went to Thailand some years ago, we were glad we’d done this.
We found out a week before flying that one of our flights ( Abu Dhabi - Bangkok) was taking off later than originally planned so we wouldn’t be able to get the flight from Bangkok to Phuket until the next morning, meaning an overnight stay in Bangkok. Our travel agents managed to get us hotel rooms at Bangkok airport, we were collected as we entered the arrivals hall and whisked through a very long passport control queue, put on a shuttle bus to the hotel and our baggage brought to us. Our meals that night were paid for as was the hotel.
If we had been independent travellers we would have had to pay for that ourselves!

I've always found you get a far better update directly from the airline and they'll reorganise for you. They will prioritise direct bookings and especially if you have some kind of status with them.