Thailand holiday – package, DIY or mix of both?

thinking of going back to thailand next year, round about april time, hopefully for thai new year. we’ve been to phuket 3 times as we had family over there at the time, now we want to see a bit more of the place.

i think we definitely want koh samui, and have been advised also that krabi, surat thani, koh tao and hua hin are also worth seeing.

itll probably be just me and my wife. shes been looking at the package route, and can find samui for around £900 each i think for 2 weeks.

id like to at least look at the option of a few days samui, then a few days in a different resort, then a few days elsewhere, with beaches and relaxing being the main aim rather than hustle and bustle of say bangkok. (altho i wouldnt be averse to say 2 days there just for the experience). like i say tho, relaxings the aim, so dont want a set itinary and planes, buses etc to catch at certain times, we’d like the options to do what we want if and when we felt like it, possibly car rental too?.

any advice of the best way of doing this? will package operators do tailor made holidays like this? will they be far dearer? or should we just settle for 2 weeks in samui with coach/boat trips if we so desired once we got there?

thanks for any advice.

I think you are just going to have to do the research, decide what you want to do then find which is the best way to do it. Sometimes packages are so competitive they are a good way to get a base even though you don’t stay in the accommodation every night and end up paying extra to stay somewhere else you wanted to go for a night or two. A travel agent may be able to help you, bespoke packages are available so why not get a quote for what you want.

We DIY’d it and would thoroughly recommend that. We did a few organised things and they were not as good as just hiring a car and rocking up on your own. There is some great stuff around Krabi: cool caves, kayaking through the mangroves, nice beaches (Get a boat to Railay or Kho Phi Phi for a couple of days). Going north is nice too for a bit of history, jungles, elephants, biking.

Get a flight and go. Book your hotel for the first few nights. Everything else can be done when you get there.

I’ve done it all separately before. It’s easy enough to book the resorts and the flights.

But it’s probably not the cheapest route.

I’d go DIY as you can easily get about when you get to Thailand. Might be an idea to base yourself in Bangkok then travel from there. You can get a bus to Samui or fly down and get a ferry across. Don’t rule out using a mini bus taxi as they are not that expensive. You can also fly to Krabi then go on day trips to all the little islands.

If you want to relax I’d defo recommend going to Ko Samet. It’s only an hour or so from Bangkok via taxi and speed boat (from Rayong I think?)and is a beautiful little island that’s not spoiled by idiots.

I quite liked Samui but decent accommodation can cost more then other places. The best parts are at the other end of the island from the port as it’s less touristy. I didn’t think much of Krabi itself although there’s plenty of places nearby and from memory the next town (Raylay I think?) is very posh and exclusive.

Don’t rule out a trip to the jungle. If you head to Kanchanaburi (where the bridge over the River Kwai is) there are plenty of lovely resorts to chill out in.

I was very lucky as my Brother and his family lived out there so knew how to get about but all the places I’ve suggested were easily accessed from Bangkok with travel and decent accommodation usually reasonable. If you get to a hotel in Bangkok the staff will tell you all you need to know or you could go to a travel agent once in the country. Sounds a pain but really isn’t. You really do need to spend a bit of time in Bangkok though, it’s a great city. Just jump on the BTS (Skytrain) and go explore!

We’d heard Railay was posh and expensive but got taken by a friend and loved it, not at all how I’d imagined it. Very relaxing place. A mix of nice resorts, beach bars and backpackers. A lot of climbers go there for the whole season staying in cheap huts. Really nice beaches where the local boats moor up and serve great food. No traffic, other than the boats.

Krabi is a bit of a hub. We quite like it but I can see than others would be a bit under whelmed. It is a great centre for hitting lots of amazing sights by hire car, though. Very easy to get around.

All in the local area:

i think we definitely want koh samui,

We found Koh Samui to be very ‘meh’, could just have been any other holiday island anywhere in the world. On the other hand, heading north to Chaing Mai was amazing, and would happily go back and spend a load more time there. It’s obviously not a beach resort, but it is very chilled out (especially compared to Bangkok) and a lot more authentic feeling than Koh Samui

Great places include:
Kanchanaburi – lovely place in the river Kwai. V quaint!.

Ton Nai Pan Noi, on Koh Pagnan. Get away from teh ‘moon parties’ and really I could have lived on that beach forever and a day!!

DrP

Hire a car and drive yourself.

Khao Yai national park is 150km from BKK riding, camping and elephants there

Beaches within 2 hours of BKK – low season you can rent a bungalow a couple of km from the beach for under 100 quid a week

Get a flight and go. Book your hotel for the first few nights. Everything else can be done when you get there.

+1

I’ve never planned too far ahead in Asia.

Get a rough idea in your head of what you want to do and the potential ways to do it. Then just get there and follow your nose.

Booking internal flights the day before you want to travel isn’t like it is here.

For example, I just did a quick check on Skyscanner for flights leaving Bangkok tomorrow…you can get to 18 different airports in Thailand for under £50 and most of them are under £20!

In addition you could leave for Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia tomorrow for under £50.

Everyone is different, but for me nothing beats being in one location and sat having something to eat while looking at a map and checking where you can head to the next day, then booking the flights/boat/train on your phone, all before your food arrives 🙂

my wife and i when to thailand a few years back – it was incredible.

we flew from edinburgh – amsterdam then bangok

and then internal flight from bangkok – chang mai, chang mai – krabi and then home again from bangkok

we stayed in local hotels away from the tourist stuff and found internal flights cheap and quick. my wife did so well with the pricing, we actually managed to have another long weekend to marrakesh with the change.

it all sounds promising, thanks chaps. can i just ask whether you all had just hand luggage, or did you razz around all over the place with 2 large suitcases plus hand luggage each?

how much would you guesstimate 2 weeks bitting and bobbing over there to come to, flights plus decent hotels? under a grand per person? 1 to 2 grand? 3??

im up for a gamble with this, but i think mrs expunk may insist on knowing what flight months in advance, what hotel, and be happy to stay in one place.
cant fault that really, as we both agree we want a relaxing beach-type holiday in the sun, spose id just like to see a few of these places and still have time to laze in the sun reading and listening to some soft, romantic old punk songs 😀

thanks

We travelled for a month around Thailand and found it quite easy to book travel and accommodation. By booking hotels a few days in advance we managed to get some great prices although we did go at the back end of the season which also kept costs down.

Hotels – bollocks – 120 quid a week http://www.sun-4u.com/property/ba64-perfect-apartment/

Amazing beach, sod all people go there, other than swedes.

A bit fancier http://www.sun-4u.com/property/sbk12/ 300 a week with pull

Posh twunt status – http://www.sun-4u.com/property/bm1255/

Throw rotten fruit at the plebs below status – http://www.sun-4u.com/property/cmp40-41/

or get a couple of nights in a hotel

In low season Sun4U will also often do bigger discount deals as well

DIY it book flights and try get 2 nights Bangkok when arrive then organise everything through late rooms and a local travel agent for flights and outings , more fun and better for locals , 3 days samui is enough 3 days hui hin and a week in Phuket ,diy is such fun

so what are you chaps doing then, booking flights separate, and 2 nights in a BKK hotel separate as well. then just going on the internet and looking for hotels where you fancy going? or having a set routine to stick to?

and are you all taking large cases plus hand luggage each or going light with hand luggage only? itd seem a bit of a faff packing every 2 or 3 days……

quirrel, you stayed in any of those yourself?

Wow you can’t go all the way to Thailand for a 2 week beach holiday!!! that’s just insane.

It is an amazing country that me and crashtestmonkey keep going back! First went for 2 weeks in 2011. On that occasion we flew into BAngkok for 2 days HATED it. The heat, the craziness, the constant madness (food is amazing though). Flew up to Chiang Mai and had a blinding few days, trekking, etc. It is incredibly chilled out, more so than the islands and beaches. Then we went to Koh LAnta (island on west side with Andaman Sea) and spent a week diving and doing trips. Loved every minute of it. We returned to Bangkok as we had 24 hours to kill before our flight and we fell in love with the city. THink it’s just that landing in Bangkok in a tired haze makes it hard to see how beautiful it is.

We then returned in November 2013… spent a few more days in Bangkok… saw a woman riding a Tuk tuk with a dead pig in the back. Amazing place! Flew to Phuket and went to Khao Sok, which is where the tsunami pretty much wiped out! did a week liveaboard on a dive boat over the Similan and surin Islands… now they are just amazing. From there we went to Khao Sok National Park for more trekking, canoeing, elephant riding etc. And returned to Bangkok for a few more days!!

Thought that was me done with THailand… nope we’ve just booked flights to go for 3 weeks in Nov as so insanely cheap £400 a flight!!!! Not sure what the itinerary is, definately a week dive boat again but this time on the islands off Myanmar. I’m looking at Sukothai (google it!), Railay and Khao Yao National Park east of Bangkok. so along with selling this thread to you I’m also hoping to get some new handy hints!

I would not pay a £900 all in package to do nowt for 2 weeks, it is far too an amazing place. Everything there do there is chilled out and laid back. The canoe trip we did we sat in the canoe.. they paddled! They pointed out crazy frogs, snakes etc, gave us fish food to feed the fishes, stopped to brew a cuppa! was mega we just lay back with our feet up.

I would have a rough idea what you want to do but it really is a country like no other (That I’ve been to anyway!).

In relation to luggage just take one large rucksack and small hand luggage. you really do not need much clothing out there, temperatures don’t drop at night I always take WAY too much! Plus head to the Khao San Road to buy some crazy cheap clothing. I have three pairs of baggy cotton Thai trousers which cost about £3 and I love them! can’t wait for it to get warm in the UK to wear them.

Most of the time we took a suitcase. No problem at all. From memory the flight from BKK to Krabi was £30, booked the day before.

If your lass wants a beach holiday and not to move around I’d strongly recommend Ko Samet, as mentioned earlier. It’s a little gem. Hire a scooter if you’re bored and go explore the island via dirt track, stopping for refreshments at any bar you find on the way. Great memories. 8)

thanks everyone, some very interesting comments. im defo with you munque-chick, itd be a waste to just sit on a beach, but equally we dont want to be going here there and everywhere without stopping to take stuff in and relax.

im up for a bit of exploring more than the wife, shes happy enough just to stay in one place, so dont know which way this’ll go 🙂

btw, if you dont mind me asking m-c, how much did your whole holiday cost doing it that way?

cheers

Thailand?
Only one piece of advice – don’t take the wife 😉

quirrel, you stayed in any of those yourself?

Yes – stayed at the Bali Residence they rent out – in peak season, it was 1100 for two bedroom, kitchen etc, communal pool 200 GBP for 11 nights.

Sun4U are decent to deal with.

Mae Phim is one of my favourite beaches. Fantastic beach, safe with no scary currents, and sod all people there, which is even better for me.

If you are desperate to hang out with the great unwashed, you can get over to Koh Samet easily enough from there.

Did the DIY thing, but it was a few years ago so my views may be outdated. Koh Samui? No thanks – at the time it was very, very popular with young, rowdy Brits. Might not be like that now though.

Phi Phi was lovely but the highlight for me was Koh Lanta. Quiet and relatively unspoilt at the time. Would love to go back.

Roughly £1500-2000 but a huge chunk of that is the diving ie £700 worth. I also messed up a bit with flights first time I went so paid lots of £40-£60 for private taxis to and from airports now I know what I’m doing it is considerably cheaper :-).

koh Lanta is amazing look at Lanta Castaway for accommodation and as said hire a scooter for £4 for a day and just cruise some of my favourite and funniest memories ever is going out on a scooter.

instead of doing 2 weeks on a beach even just pick one other place to visit so you aren’t moving about all the time but get some experience of how phenomenal a country it really is.

as i said, we’ve done phuket 3 times now, been to phi phi (not that impressed, very touristy) and james bond island.

i think wife and i are more likely to compromise with having a base somewhere, then hopefully exploring in some way rather than just going from one to t’other. i think a good compromise would be ‘beachy relax’ one day, ‘something different’ the next. dont know how thatll pan out yet. im looking through all the advice above ^^^ to see whats workable.

maybe even a base one week, different base the next, picking somewhere thatll allow us to visit some of your mentions throughout the fortnight.

thanks 🙂

I did Bangkok for Songkran ( Thai New year ) last year and then headed to Koh Lanta and then spent a few days on Phi Phi.
Bangkok during Songkran was an amazingly mental experience, whole streets were closed down for massive water fights / crossed with a rave, Fire trucks and the police got involved in the whole thing.
Koh Lanta was a complete contrast, it was at the end of the season so a lot of the beaches were deserted, hired a scooter for a few days and explored the island – this was well worth doing.
Phi Phi was beautiful but was very hectic and touristy compared to Koh Lanta, it was still worth going for a few days though.

Looking to go back as I loved the place!

Hadn’t realised you were coming at SOngkhran – choose wisely where you go, some places it lasts a day or so, others a week.

I hate that time of year, **** with water and powder all it is these days, **** awful time of year.

koh lanta looks nice, googling that right now along with koh samet.

quirrel, we’re not definitely doing songkran, we’ve done it once, it was a great experience and the wife fancies it again. im not desperate to tho, can take it or leave it, but if she wants it that bad we’ll probably go for it.
you say ‘hadnt realised you were coming‘……. you live there?

The weather is hot hot hot so try not to wear anything polyester like the plastic shirt your buy from outdoor shop in UK, coz they are Not suitable in those weather. You will feel horribly sweaty sticky. Eewwwwhhh …

The weather no matter how cold it gets will not be as cold as UK. Wear a thin cotton t-shirt, shorts and toe covered sandals.

Go to the market and buy some cheap shirts or shorts and when you leave you just donate them …

Koh Lanta is ace good mix of stuff to do, elephant stuff, monkeys, snake thing I think!!! LOVED it there.

think the best way of seeing if i can make this happen is to ‘pretend’ we’re going this year and see if i can find flights, accommodation etc easily enough.
so….. for all you DIYers, which sites did you use for flights, which airlines, any to avoid, how and where did you book accommodation, hotels, beach huts?

ive had a quick look at the kayak site for flights, and lantacastaway site for accommodation so far. it scares me a little that theres so much i could **** up with, but itd be great to get my head round it and be confident i could sort a decent holiday. if not itll have to be the thomson/thomas cook route.

thanks 🙂

I would book flights through Travel bag or Trailfinders, then 2 weeks before you go – go to late rooms and book hotels where you want to stay ,it really is easy . Every town in the touristy areas have local travel agents who can book trips and days out even connecting flights between areas, BKK to Samui and samui to Phuket ect trust them they are not out to rip you off , i have been taken to dine / shopping even stayed the night with a travel agents family . do some research and really enjoy make it YOUR holiday not a brouchere. I always just turn up and wing it , one holiday went from 2 weeks to 5 months this way ,another 2 went from 2 weeks to 3 months – so much to see . Just roll the dice .

Sadexpunk – sent you an email, you are correct, I am currently based out here.

Only one ladybody and pingpong show joke allowed per Thailand thread.

Skyscanner best for flights.
Just google area you want to go to look on trip adviser. You can’t **** up unless you pay £10 per night. Easy to do online.

No ping pon/sex jokes Thailand is way more than that!

thanks everyone so far, just having a re-read of the thread, make a few notes for further questions…. 🙂

quirrel and MC, ygm….

got your email just getting ready for work will message you later! I have LOADS of info that’ll help and make it easy for you!

just playing around with flight sites, skyscanner, travelbag etc. what frustrates me a little is that if youre flexible with departure airports and dates, you still have to put a specific airport and date in, then it comes up asking you to choose different dates etc.

is there one site thats easier to use, where you can just basically put in ‘i want to go to krabi airport in november sometime’ and it shows you all available dates/dep airports/prices within a week or so timeframe, and you just choose the one that suits best?
or do they all work the same way?

ta

I found the prices didn’t vary for a month in Nov when I searched.

ok thanks. (btw, did you get my reply to your mail?)

same to you quirrel, you get my response?

cheers 🙂

The advice I was given by a seasoned traveller is book your flights,pack a rucksack and take it from there.