Hi,
I'm going travelling in about 6 months time around the world once I've saved up and finished Uni, During them 6 months I'll hopefully be in Thailand for about 5 weeks. I'll prob arrive by plane into Bangkok and start my journey there and travel down throughout visiting a few of the islands on the way and depart in Singapore.
As you're landing in Bangkok I'd probably look at doing the north first (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, then trekking). Chiang Mai is a small city with a nice atmosphere, it's slightly more authentic than the islands, and serves as a base for all the activities up north. I'd definately arrange to go here, and there's many little tourist agencies here to book all sorts of activities. Chiang Rai is another place worth looking into (but I haven't been here)
You could then move on and go down south for island hopping/full moon. The two bigger hubs here are Koh Samui (for the islands on the other side of the southern part of the country) and Phuket (for the islands down south). You could do either group of islands first, this perhaps depends on what sorts of flights you can get and the date of the full moon party (as it's just once a month) - also Phuket may be better connected to Singapore.
For the Koh Samui area. Koh Samui is the bigger town, I like the place as it's got everything you need and some decent nightlife, if you book a place on/near Chewang beach you're right near all the action and the beach to chill out in.
Koh Phangan is where the full moon party is. It's a fairly short boat ride (maybe 40mins-1 hr) from Koh Samui. Here there's two options both with advantages and disadvantages. If you book accomodation you may have to get tied in for 5+ nights, which is a fairly long time for this relatively small island. But the nights building up to the full moon are still pretty good as well (if you do this try book well in advance). Other option is to get the boat across from Samui in the evening, and try board the boats with the big crowds on the way back at night/morning after full moon. As a last resort there will be guys offering rides on the less comfortable fishing boats that are likely to get you soaked in water :P
For this area perhaps do some research on Koh Tao (I haven't been here but many do).
For the Phuket area - Phuket is okay - allow perhaps 2-3 nights here, but I think other islands in the area are better. I'd highly recommend Phi Phi (Ko Phi Phi Don) where the snorkelling and boat trips in the beaches around here are fantastic, and the island is a great chill out spot - its a nice little town with good beaches and still a few spots to party, theres no cars here and just foot traffic which adds to the peacefulness. Other areas worth researching in this region include Krabi, Koh Lanta, Langkawi (I haven't been to these but many people go to them and have heard fairly good things).
As for the living costs - to live reasonably comfortably and eat 3 meals in restaurants - you're probably looking at 1500-2000 baht a day (~$50-70US). You could do things cheaply staying in more basic accomodation and street food etc, which may cost around 700-1000 baht a day (~23-$30US). Of course this doesn't include things like partying and day trips/travel costs.
Hope that helps!
0 Response to "Thailand Itinerary Ideas/Advise Needed"
Post a Comment