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?

Darn now I'm swithering again,might price up the hotels and see how much it would be independently and DIY if it's a huge difference.

I used to find trip planning fun, it's maybe menopause or something but at the moment I like the idea of someone else making the choices.

Where would you like to go? Currently waiting for a delayed flight as we speak so I can try help with an itinerary if it helps!

@ErinAndTonic oh wow fantastic.
So probably Phuket and some islands 2 week trip with 3-4 bases. Thank you !

Which airport are you flying from? And do you know the time of year?

If it's the non monsoon side for Phuket then I'd do it with Krabi and/or Ko Lanta.
You can do boat trips to Phi Phi and Phang Nga if you'd like that type of thing. Loads to do around those areas, and you could stay on Phi Phi itself.

If it's during monsoon season there I'd potentially do some combination of Ko Samui, Ko Tao & or Ko Phangan which is easy via a very modern ferry. This is a combination of busy touristy island, sleepy relaxing island, and another which is beautiful and has good visibility for diving or snorkelling if that would appeal to you.

Or you could fly into Bangkok and stop over there before going on to either. Or loop in Chang mai in the jungle area which is very cost effective and has loads of day trips and things to explore - and a lovely night market.

Or you could fly to Langkawi which I think has direct flights from Phuket for a Malaysian island which has lots to do too.

There is more off the beaten track stuff.. but they are some of the easier to visit spots. Highly dependent on your interests though and also time you plan to take 😊

In terms of pre booking I would sort the main flight, internal flights if required and secure the hotels through booking.com which are usually refundable until very close to your departure date.

Ferries etc don't need to be booked until the day. They have schedules online and are easy and fine with luggage. Fast ferries are what you'd want not the slow ones which are a bit more rickety. If you want piece of mind you can book them ahead though.

If you like Thai food I'd definitely recommend a cooking class. I did a lovely one in Chiang Mai where we went with a local out on a train to their garden and picked lots of the ingredients we then cooked with, and we got a recipe booklet after. Others take you to the local market for ingredients instead.

Hi it's mid November next year and flying from either Edinburgh or Manchester if we can go directly from there.
Thank you .

Definitely Phuket side then and the north is good that time if you wanted to include that. You could fit Phuket, some islands nearby and either Bangkok or Changmai into two weeks. Roughly 3 days in each place or split out depending on what interests you more.

You can fly from either via Dubai with Emirates or Doha with Qatar (could get a free stopover I believe if you were interested in that) and flight times are very efficient without long layovers. I think even Bangkok isn't direct from those airports - unless it was some kind of charter TUI flight. It is simple enough to do though and the planes are generally more modern in my experience (I fly with Qatar a lot)

Let me know if I can help with anything else.. still stuck on the runway it seems 😅

You can fly to Phuket direct from Manchester with Tui. In your situation, I’d strongly consider this, as it cuts out the hassle of a transfer from Bangkok. It’s also very reasonably priced.

Unless you can find a TUI charter your best bet flight wise is to go via the Middle East eg Emirates/Qatar/Etihad

I’d ditch Phuket personally and go to Krabi. But ideally go to a couple of different places plus perhaps Bangkok (it’s smelly and noisy but good fun for a couple of days)

Thanks yes was thinking this as an easier option.

We found it incredibly easy to do ourselves.
We travelled internally on AirAsia flights, as we were limited on time so wanted to avoid bus and train travel.
Booked everything in advance, including ferry travel.
We used GetYourGuide for booking tours, Agoda for most hotel bookings, and booked directly for the dive resort we wanted.
And having just read the Disney spending money thread, spent less on a pretty luxe trip than people are spending on just the extras for Disney!

@rookiemere Thailand is not very expensive so I cannot imagine DIY savings are huge for decent hotels. Why not just look at multi centre Thailand holidays from a reliable provider? It will save you lots of time! We have always found that they offer a choice of hotels too. Now we are older, we don’t like the hassle of planning. We prefer to have input on destinations and hotels but travel arrangements are better done by others!

Defo plan it yourself, I went alone, it's super easy. I would also recommend Bangkok, it's really interesting and easy to navigate, I just strolled out of the airport onto a bus. Koh tao was my favourite island, Ko Lanta was lovely, I had a bamboo hut right on the beach ❤️ There are great overnight trains if you want to go north..oh lovely memories.

Were you backpacking? Very different from someone later in life wanting somewhere high quality and not remotely what I would do. What sort of traveller are you @rookiemere ? Heart in backpacking or wanting everything organised for you?

@TizerorFizz definitely not backpackers!

In the past I've been happy to do a lot of organising as we wanted accommodation where we didn't share a bedroom with DS.
But recently we've done a couple of package
Holidays for various reasons and it's so nice not having to do anything except pay.

I was backpacking, but I'm 50 and I'd still do similar, but a fancier hotel, not a bamboo hut😂 Don't discount the trains, they are great and first class is actually nice.
I think you just get more out of a holiday if you're travelling and involved, package tours are a bit bland in comparison. I'd much prefer to experience a train than an airport. You can do a hybrid of backpacking and luxury.

I've priced up the hotels included in the package without the internal transfers and it doesn't seem like we would save much to DIY, so I think we will go with a tour.

I hope we enjoy Thailand and it may give us the confidence to return and organise our own trip in the future.

I was talking to someone at work about this - he is thinking of cruises as again you don't need to pick where you go, so at least I'm not at that stage yet !

But thank you so much for everyone's input, it's been genuinely helpful.

@grass67 Im not sure you understand what a “package” holiday is. To satisfy ABTA conditions for refunds if an airline goes out of business, (for example) you need only need two elements of the holiday to be a package. Therefore you can easily have a bespoke package where you choose nearly everything. We use companies like Audley Travel with various hotels on offer from them plus a few ideas from us. They have booked us very bespoke holidays! It’s completely different from the “package” to Benidorm. In fact I’ve found Audley a couple of wonderful hotels they added to their portfolio! So nearly everything is down to you. We have found getting the travel company to book internal flights and transfers to be beneficial if it’s somewhere like India or Botswana!

@TizerorFizz I’ve just had a look at the Audley website and their holidays do look amazing but they are a lot more expensive than a self-booked trip. I’m going to Japan next year and was curious as to what their packages look like and their Tokyo, Kyoto and Japanese Alps trip is “from £4595 per person” for 11 days. We’re going next year for 14 days at pretty much the most expensive time of year (end of March-early April) and it’s cost £2650pp for flights and accommodation and we’re budgeting about £1000 per person for all food, activities, travel and spending while we are there, including a couple of guided day tours.

So we expect it to cost about £3700pp including meals. The Audley trip is at least £900 more per person without food and spending money included for a trip that’s three days shorter. For a group of 5 adults that would work out to a lot more money overall and I suspect that their price might be significantly more than the headline £4595 at that time of year.

Admittedly, our itinerary has a different, more urban vibe. We will be based in Osaka and Tokyo with trips to Kyoto, Nara, Mt Fuji, Kobe and maybe Kamakura or Kawagoe (not decided yet) plus some theme park days. However, the cost would not have been radically different if we’d gone for more “traditional” options. If anything, it may have been slightly cheaper.

Went to Koh Sami in March 4 years ago, early 50s.
Checked flights in Skyscanner, checked hotels on booking.com.
Booked the lot through Expedia as a few 100 cheaper, which goes a long way in Thailand.
Organised trips while there - local agent.
Brilliant trip, weather very hot.
Flights were with BA, good when one of the connections were delayed.

I’ve done that trip with Audley and I know how much direct flights are now. We don’t compromise on hotels and you would be for what you are spending. Audley is quite expensive but we are talking about Thailand. Not Japan. I like knowing exactly what I’m doing and where I’m going and when. We had amazing places to stay in Japan and it was important for us to have everything organised. So we spend the money because these elements matter to us. If price matters more, then choose another way if you have the time. Inside Japan are similar to Audley prices. Your costing is rock bottom and what does it include? Thailand is cheaper anyway so less difference between DIY and tour company.

I have booked to go to Thailand in February with Trailfinders. We are doing 3 different places so lots of transfers needed. I found it easier to get someone else to sort it rather than doing myself. I also priced it up separately and couldn't get it much cheaper which was surprising.

We have used trailfinders before. They are really helpful in terms of sorting out an itinerary, but where they come into their own is if there is a problem.
During the pandemic it was so much easier to get a refund from them than from airlines. Peace of mind is worth paying a bit more in my eyes