Thailand Visitors in December

Hi All, We%26#39;re 2 friends off to Thailand for the first time ever in December for 2 weeks. Planning to fly into Bangkok, travel to Chiang Mai then on to ... er, somewhere else!. Need some advice %26amp; receommendations:

1) Best to fly via Dubai/Doha on 15h flight or sepnd the extra 100 GBP and fly direct for 11 hours.

2) Hotel to crash in in Bangkok for 2 nights

3) Hotel %26amp; travel to Chiang Mai

4) then where? Phuket, Koh Samui, Phi Phi?

Any help, advice, tips %26amp; hints helpful %26amp; many thanks.

Thailand Visitors in December

Hi Pollyanna,

4.can I assume you%26#39;re young people looking for some action? we%26#39;re wrinklies(by comparison) Having been to Phuket,Koh Samui and Hua Hin I would suggest either Phuket or Samui,our preference would be Samui every time.

1.As for flights it%26#39;s swings and roundabouts! all the 2 leg ones are longer of course and in the case of Emirates you fly in a 777 where Emirates cram one extra seat accross economy compared to anyone else.It seems a good idea to break the journey but Dubai airport in the middle of the night is chaotic.

Of the direct flights Thai are our faves though we%26#39;ve used BA a lot (collecting frequent flier miles)

2. Plenty of reasonable hotels near/on low Sois on Sukhumfit road also the best area for eating,drinking etc and has good skytrain links to the rest of the city.

will that do for now?

H

Thailand Visitors in December

That%26#39;s perfect. Really good advice. At 37 we%26#39;re not that young (!) so we%26#39;re leaning towards the Thai Airways non-stop at the moment but hadn%26#39;t thought of BA - I%26#39;ll give that a look now.

We%26#39;ll look for a hotel in the Sukhumfit area which is kind of what we thought but you%26#39;ve confirmed it for us.

Samui is coming up favourite for us at the moment too, rather than Phuket, as the whole hotel on the beach thing is appealing.

This is all very new to us but we%26#39;d like to do some sightseeing, beach relaxing and socialising without spending all the time travelling.

THanks for your advice!

We are also going to Thailand in December and are breaking up the journey with a 3 night stopover two countries for the price of 1!

Have you looed at EVA air... we have used them twice direct from LHR to BKk and FANTASTIC value. we did fly business but their Elite (like premium economy) and economy look EXCELLENT. They will be as cheap as emirates and i would ALWAYS fly direct.

If you go to Chiang Mai consider Baan Orphan or the tamarind village. I loved CM we did a fantastic cooking school 9the owner of which did a sky prgramme on UK tv The thai way) its call Chaing mai thai cookery school and i would recommend it loads. it%26#39;s the initial reason we went to CM!!

we flew from BKK to CM on bangkok air, they are ok very cheap.

In BKK stay on the river its magical....

Please excuse all the typo%26#39;s on the above....

Warren - how did you get your stopover? We considered Dubai %26amp; Singapore but the only things I%26#39;ve been able to find meant much more expense. Let me know as it%26#39;s something we%26#39;d really like to do.

Asha - thanks for advice. I think we%26#39;ll be at the Marriott Resort %26amp; Spa (stealing Marriott points from my brother!) and I THINK that%26#39;s on the Riverside... let me know if I%26#39;m completely wrong there! Someone else recommended Chiang Mai to us %26amp; you%26#39;ve just confirmed it... we want a bit of culture - perhaps a temple or two as well - and that sounds really different. How on earth we%26#39;ll fit this in to 2 weeks I don%26#39;t know!

Any recommendations on good hotels in Koh Samui?

Hi again Pollyanna1,

We%26#39;ve only used The Boathouse (bit far out though great beach location) and Central Samui hotel(just outside Chaweng with great beach location)

It%26#39;s 5 or 6 years since our last visit(Central Samui) and I can see there are hotels springing up all over the island so you should have lots to choose from.

The centre of Chaweng gets a bit noisy so maybe on the outskirts or if you don%26#39;t mind using the local transport try one of the other beach areas,eg Lamai?

H

Pollyanna

A friend of mine stays at the marriot ALL THE TIME and loves it... it is slightly further along the river but they have regular water taxi service to the sky train .. you will love it there it is a BEAUTIFUL hotel and great value.

you will fit it in we did BKK twice Chiang Mai Singapore and Krabi in two weekl although in hindsight i would have skipped something and spent more time in each place. Plus WAYYYY too much time at the air port.

Really recommend Chiang mai thai cookery school its fab (make sure you ask for the classes at sompons hous just perfect and all for about 拢9!!!(and you get to eat it all)

Pollyanna

Just another thought Thailand really deserves a visit in its own right and i think if you go direct that will of course give you more time there. (as i said in my last post i wish we had cut something from our manic itinerary -Singapore - although i LOVE SP )

Also make sure you go to the Sky bar at the top of the dome (not far from the oriental peir)) its a GREAT way to start a trip in BKK (drinks are very dear but you can have a couple!)

We are stopping in Dubai for 3 nights on way to Bangkok and then to Krabi travelling with Emirates.