14 day Thailand Itinery needed.

If you want to do a full moon party then you will have to work around that, have you checked if you can make one with your dates?

So the full moon party is on Koh Phangan. If your dates line up you could do a few days in Bangkok, get the train down to Surat Thani, get a ferry across to Koh Samui, spend a few days there and then a few days on Koh Phangan followed by a few on Koh Tao for diving before getting a ferry to Chumhon and a train back to Bangkok. You can find elephant trekking on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan (according to the internet).

1) Avoid organised tours. It's easy to do it on your own, and much cheaper.

2) How you travel around will depend on your budget. I assume you are a young, budget-conscious backpacker. With that in mind, a possible itinerary could be as follows:

Arrive Bangkok
Overnight train, bus, or cheap flight to Chiang Mai
4-5 days in Chiang Mai and around (elephants, trekking, sightseeing, national parks etc.)
Back to Bangkok and then immediately south to the islands by train or bus (island choice between will depend on prevailing weather at the time of year you will be visiting). Ko Tao is a good all round island and arguably the best spot to get a diving qualification, dry season there runs mid January to August/September.
Do diving course, then chill out for a few days, perhaps visit a neighbouring island (but don't attempt to fit lots of islands in, you don't have enough time and one beach is much the same as another).
Back to Bangkok for a few days, shopping, depart.

fmp is shit

check out travelfish.org

What level of diver are you?

Lots of good advice there so thankyou.

I've heard differing opinions of the FMP so maybe could leave that out.

I did my PADI open water and adventure about 5 years ago in Oz and NZ.

I like the idea of heading north to Chiang Mai and then getting to the South Islands to do diving etc.

chiang mai is a waste of time. tourist trap.

go issan and islands

Love your name Chief De Beers - great galloper :)

I have 13 days in Thailand in November and my itinerary will be following:
3 days - Krabi/Railey (flying in from BKK to Krabi)
4 days - Liveaboard diving in the Similans
3 days - Khao Sok NP (flying out from Surat Thani to BKK)
3 days - Bangkok

I think this will give me time to enjoy each place and I will not be wasting time for transfers. I paid only 500baht (booked 2 weeks ago) for Airasia from Surat Thani to BKK, so perhaps you can find yourself a similar deal and avoid the lengthy trip overland. That is if you want to go to Koh Tao and Ko Phangan or do a similar route to mine but the other way around (and fly back to BKK from either Phuket or Krabi).

glina, good plan.