bangkok first or last??

Hi my boyfriend and i have 2 weeks in thailand (last week of Oct and first week of Nov)

When we fly into thailand it is late evening. Should we stay at an airport hotel for the night and then arrange to fly out to the coast/islands the next day and do the bangkok city thing after at the end of our holiday?

Or should we just go and get in the middle of it all for a few days and then fly to the coast for the latter portion of the trip?

Prior to thailand we will have spent 4days in sydney and after we will have 4 days in dubai.

Also any reccomendations for islands/coast? i have been looking at krabi but am keen to do an island too.

We dont want somewhere that you %26#39;could be anywhere%26#39; i.e like spain in thailand but still want somewhere nice and not too rustic!

thanks everyone

:)

bangkok first or last??

For my Thailand trip next year I%26#39;m doing Bangkok at the beginning and end with a stay in Koh Samui in the middle. I thought it would be simplier leaving from a Bangkok hotel for my trip home rather than going Koh Samui to Bangkok and the having to hnag around the airport for ages for my flight home.

I%26#39;m flying London to Bangkok, spending 3 nights, then flying to Koh Samui for 6 nights and finally returning to Bangkok for 1 night. Having 1 night at the end in Bangkok allows me to do any last minute shopping/sight seeing.

bangkok first or last??

It depends on what you plan to do in BKK and your islands trip. I%26#39;m planning for 3 weeks trip in Thailand mainly go down south do some islands hopping. I%26#39;ll get there on Friday night and leave on Saturday night. To avoid even local crowd, I plan to start my islands hopping trip during the week day rather than weekend. BKK is BKK always busy so no matter which day you visit it is always busy and most places shopping, museums always open during the weekend rather than weekday. So I start my trip in BKK and end my trip in BKK on Friday to more of look around and Saturday for shopping at Jatuchak market. :)

HI

I like to do Bangkok at end of my trip, if I am planning any major shopping then I don%26#39;t have to carry with me.

the high season starts Nov 1 so if you do the islands first in Oct you can save money on hotels.

what time your flight arrives in Bangkok can also dictate what you do if a morning arrival I would head straight to islands if late at night i would get a night or two in Bangkok.

what ever you decide you will have a great stay.

I like both - Bangkok for 1 or 2 nights - then head out somewhere else - return to Bangkok again for a night or two.

You can get a hotel at the airport but it is not cheap! There are some other hotels now available not far from the airport but you are far from the city. In the city there are lots and lots of taxi cabs, even late at night. Out in the burbs you may be subject to some taxi price scalping.

I would get a hotel in town the first night, take a quick shower and hit the streets for an hour or two then sleep. Bangkok has lots going even late at night. Stop in at street cafe for a quick drink and watch the crowd go by.

Checking into a hotel in town will allow you to become familiar with the hotel a little so that when you return you can plan on things to do when you wrap up your trip. Don%26#39;t sleep late, the best way to adjust to the new time zone changes is to have a good breakfast and hit the road early.

The hotel may even store some stuff for you for free figuring you will return and book another night with them. Why carry winter stuff with you all over Thailand? Also this gives you a chance to check out the hotel and if you don%26#39;t like it you can quickly find another the following day. You can also book a hotel in person for your final days in Bangkok. You could do one area of Bangkok for the first couple days and a different area the final days. Lots of options.

(A hotel on the Skytrain route is a benefit, the Skytrain provides quick and easy travel to many areas of Bangkok. Sukhumvit and Siam are two areas that have the Skytrain nearby.)

Lots of travel agencies in Bangkok, they may have some ideas on where to go and some special priced mid week deals. Advice is free. Even in Bangkok you can get a tan just walking around, Thailand is warm all year long, top to bottom so you don%26#39;t have to be at a beach!

When you are in Bangkok you will know that you are not just in another city in Spain or Italy!

Bangkok is possibly the world%26#39;s number one shopping centre. I%26#39;d say do it last rather than having to carry anything you buy there around with you as you travel.

personally i would do bangkok first. last yr i did it last. i was there for 5 days and my tan faded thats the only reason i would do it first. you don%26#39;t really have to carry all stuff around if you have a suitcase, if your a backpacker its a different story. last yr i sent an 8kg box back home to aus and i will still over the limit with my suitcase by 10kg, they didnt even charge me :) was so happy.

this november im doing phuket for 10 nights and 3 nights in bangkok with my boyfriend then he%26#39;s flying back home by himself (hopefully he can take some of my shopping with him hehe) then meeting my mum and aunty in bangkok for another 2 nights then back to phuket for another 6 nights.. so im doing bangkok in the middle which is great so i can go back to phuket for some more sun baking! i know it sounds ridiculous but your tan fades so quicky.

best of luck!

shazz

thanks everyone. some mixed advice but very useful as we will probably have a few days in the city to start and then save a couple of days at the end for shopping. sounds like we should avoid staying near the airport.

Shazz i am not too worried about my tan fading as i have 4 days in duabi after thailand so plenty of sunning to be had there!

shazz what about posting stuff home, is it easy to do? i was worrying about customs etc at the other end depending on how much the stuff is worth!

i just know i will want to go mad on the shopping , in particular bags and shoes! i cant wait!

thanks everyone for all your tips

oh wow dubai!! that%26#39;s going to be amazing :) i think you should do an island first then bangkok then dubai.

i sent it via EMS which was the cheapest..cost me almost 200AU and you can track it online only took less than a week from phuket to melbourne. I only put my clothes in there that i had bought in thailand and also clothes i wasn%26#39;t going to be wearing for the next week in there plus some stuff i bought like cushion covers etc but none of the good stuff incase the box got lost. so i had all the shopping in my suitcase. customs didn%26#39;t even look in my bag. i just had to have the wood out that i declared which i organised to have in my hand luggage. i had like 20 watches 15 bags so much jewellery.. i went overboard, i doubt i%26#39;ll be buying that much when i go in nov again hehe. but if you are to send your stuff back home with replica items in the box it should be ok just not too much.

if you have any more quesions don%26#39;t hesitate to ask me :-)

izzy-aus thanks so much for the tips! i think i could quite easily go overboard with the shopping! might as well in bangkok as dubai will be much more expensive!

have a great trip in nov!

cheers!

IF you dont want an island/area that you %26#39;could be anywhere%26#39; you should probably avoid Phuket Phi Phi or Samui.... In all the places I travelled I found Ko Lanta to be the most %26#39;quaint%26#39;, but Ko Phangan was good too!

Like others have suggested spend a couple of days sightseeing in Bangkok to start and then head South. Head back for a bit of shopping at the end of your trip!