How easy is it to DIY travel to Thailand and not go via eg Trailfinders?

[tricerotopsrule]

Exactly that...!

I've had a quote from Trailfinders for Feb 2025 for 5 of us (two parents and 3 teens) to go on a multi centre trip (Bangkok, Chaing Mai and Khao Lak) for two weeks to Thailand.

With flights, 4 or 5* hotels, breakfast, transfers and several excursions they are quoting £13k!

Is that about right or a rip off?

Can we arrange it all ourselves re booking flights and hotels? How hard is it and has anyone done that?

Thanks

Also since I have your attention now...

How many days would you recommend for Bangkok? Or is Chaing Mai better to go to?

Bangkok isn't my thing. I wouldn't spend more than 2 nights there personally. It is just all a bit too much!! Too hot, too busy. First time I did 2 nights at the beginning and 1 at the end. Wish I hadn't done the one at the end. Definitely worth a visit but don't stay

I'm currently looking to book Cambodia but my heart is torn as I love Thailand so much!!

I would not try and squeeze Siem Reap in to the same trip. You can easily spend three days visiting the Angkor Wat temples and it seems a shame to rush it.

I did Thailand (Bangkok) and AoNang (for the Beaches) For around £900 per person stayed in 4/5 star hotels and took ubers.

Just look at:
Skyscanner - be aware of luggage charges
Look at Booking or Hotels.com for rooms that would work for you.

Totally do-able for way less than £13k probably around £5k-£6k

I also normally schedule flights overnight so I dont waste paying for a hotel

Bangkok is not my favourite city either: too noisy and traffic is awful. Chiang Mai is much more relaxed.

On the point of money I cost my trips at £700 each for flights and £400-500 for hotels for 2 weeks for 2 of us. Take £2.5k for everything else. Always come back with at least £500 and that includes paying for taxis etc. So £4.5k total for 2 of us

Would definitely save Cambodia for another trip. So much in Thailand alone.

I thoroughly recommend setting up a Trello board to keep track of where you’re going/staying and on what day. It’s basically like being able to create and arrange zillions of post-it notes but digitally.

You can flag things as done/not done, save useful links there, make notes to yourself - I always use it if i’m planning a trip where I’m travelling about and have lots of bookings and connections.

I'm also planing a trip to Thailand next year and was looking at booking through Trailfinders but reading through these posts is giving me confidence to do it myself! Some great recommendations

Chala Number 6 (SHA Extra Plus)
Just to echo what others have said . Really easy to do yourself. We stayed here in chang mai in feb was lovely and in a great spot.
We flew with Eva Air was absolutely fine

Am in Thailand now. I booked hotel with Booking.com which was totally fine but went thru an intermediary for flights. They messed my flights about a bit which took some crazy calls/emails flying about. I would recommend booking flights direct with airline. Also definitely use the get your guide app. I booked taxis to and from airport for an excellent price also booked some tours via the app. Everything was seamless and excellent value.

As others have said, very easy to do yourself. If you’re happy with cheaper accommodation and travel there is a lot of choice. Your kids might enjoy some more ‘backpacking’ type experiences (you might not!) but either way you’ll easily be able to book travel and hotels yourself for less than 13K.

I got Trailfinders to price up a Far East trip for us this year and the hotels they offered were crap. We just wanted mid range in a decent location but they didn’t seem to be able to offer them in any place.

That’s what made me start to investigate independently and after a couple of hours looking at the options I booked direct with the airline and booking dot com and for 4 of us was £1k cheaper, in much, much better hotels.

We’re going for two weeks this summer (2 adults and 2 children aged 13 and 11) and I got a quote from trailfinders but I have booked it all myself as it was significantly cheaper and gave me the flexibility to book exactly the accommodation we wanted. We’re doing 2 nights Bangkok, 4 Koh Phangan, 3 Koh Samui , 3 Chiang Mai and one night in the Bush Camp outside Chiang Mai (Elephant Hills). We’re staying in 5 star hotels everywhere other than Chiang Mai which is 4 star, flying with Finn Air via Helsinki and internal flights with Bangkok Air. I’ve prebooked a private transfer when we land in Bangkok to our hotel and a tuk tuk food tour. Total costs, including generous spending money for food and any other activities will be around £10k.

happy to help :-) oh and take loose clothes. if you do Thailand right you should gain at least a few pounds. everything is so delicious. the fruits are unbelievable even compared to other countries in the region.

they put the pressure on so you panic and commit. that's how they make many

You can do it hybrid. My mum likes Trailfinders but when we travelled together the hotels they suggested were very dowdy. So she booked flights and first night accom with Trailfinders in order to get airport transfers and ATOL protection included, then the rest we did ourselves.

Edit to add it worked out because one of her flights was cancelled and Trailfinders fixed it all before we even knew.

I have been to Siem Reap.

Really enjoyed it. Angkor Wat is amazing.

I did it as part of a multi country trip (which I sorted) Bangkok-Vientiane (Laos) then up to Luang Prabang then flew to Siem Reap then back to Bangkok.

I wasn't a great fan of Bangkok to be honest the traffic was insane and I'd just spent 4 weeks in backwater Laos.

Yes , really easy to do yourself. I'd start and finish in Bangkok.
Internal flights to Chiang Mai then down to Koh Samui (rent a car ) then back to Bangkok.

Oh that sounds amazing! Did you just book direct with the hotels?

I have family in Thailand and go often.

For your size of group id recommend: Centre Point Sukumvit 10, as it's well located and have different room set ups.

We're doing a similar trip this summer with a similar group size. We've booked it all independently.

But you've just reminded me about airport transfers, as there will be 5 of us, so need to think about logistics of this!

We're very laissez faire though, and will likely play a lot of it by ear!!!

Should have said that hotel recommendation is for Bangkok!

Very easy I would think. We travelled around Thailand independently in 1997 (armed with our LP guidebook) and I imagine it's much easier now - no booking things on the internet in those days! I'd only ever use travel agents/tour companies for genuinely challenging destinations where you would really need a guide.

In 2018 we travelled to Singapore/Borneo with 2 adults 2 teens for 2 weeks. Our entire spend for everything (flights/accommodation/food/activities) was well about 5.5k. It wasn't super luxury but it was very nice - a great mix of different types of places. I think flights would be more expensive now, but not that much! I've browsed Thailand/Vietnam/Cambodia recently and accommodation is very cheap!

I've spent the entire morning on my day off looking at flights and hotels 😂🤯 My head is in a spin!

@GoogleWhacking I just looked at that Tower Levi's hotel... £1200 for 3 nights for a 2 bedroom suite! Is it worth it? Looks amazing!

Lebua hotel- autocorrect!!!!