To all those wonderful ThornTree travel folk. I need more help/suggestions and advice please as I am going round and round in circles. Partner and I who are in our mid 50's are planning big Thailand trip to travel Feb 2016 for approx. 21-23 days. It will be our first trip to Thailand and prpbably won't be repeated, so it needs to be most memorable taking into account our desires to see and experience beautiful scenery/nature & animal lovers/ historic sites and see the less developed
area of this beautiful country.
So far 2 different ideas are:
1) London-Chiang Mai (7nts) - Koh Lanta (6 nts) - Krabi (3/4nts) or just one island for 8nts
then Krabi- Bangkok (4 nts) - Ayuthana (1nt) & Kanchanaburi (2/3 nts). Is this too much travelling,?
2)
As above pretty much but instead of Krabi/Koh Lanta maybe fly from Chiang Mai down to Phuket and then have 7/8 nts on KoH Yao Noi or neighboring island??
I am having difficulty with deciding which beach destination as we would like day trips from our base and scenic beauty. Can anyone also maybe recommend organised excursion programme by train to Kanchanaburi & Ayuthana for a few days sightseeing, staying in raft houses, visiting WWII museums visiting Erawan waterfalls, national parks etc.
Thank you in advance for help, tips and ideas. All comments are appreciated very much.
One and only trip to Thailand. ONLY 3 weeks ( hardly enough time to scratch the surface ). IMO take a package tour. No need to worry about getting around, stay in better class of hotel for cheaper than going independently and travel in a bus with big windows.
However, if you are set on independent travel. forget the animal lovers bit. Thailand isn't big on animal welfare and most of it gets eaten.
Chiang Mai (7nts) - Koh Lanta (6 nts) - or just one island for 8nts
That's far too long. 3 nights max anywhere is enough. Get out of Chiang Mai and go up north. Chang Dao is renowned for scenery and birds. Chiang Rai for the White Temple and trips to the river, Thaton has a spectacular temple on a hill.
The best beach for you would be Railay West.
Do not worry about age. Too much? I would say not but rather than 7 nights in Chiang Mai perhaps a trip around the Mae Hong Son loop would be rewarding.
Most people on this site do not use tours so best look elsewhere but trips to Kanchanaburi & Ayuthaya are very easy to organise your self (see man at seat 61) although departure stations in Bangkok are not the same and finding hotels is easy
As others said, you definitely do not want to miss Chiang Mai. From Chiang Mai there are also different tours available where you can visit Pai, an area that I haven't gone to but I have heard great things from fellow travelers.
Places like Kanchanaburi are easy to arrange trips from. There are a multitude of travel agencies there offering day trips. We did one that included Erewan NP, Hellfire Pass, some caves and the return back on the train. Everything else is within walking of the town and doesnt needed to be done as part of a tour. We took the early train out then several days later, a mininvan back to Bangkok.
You could go from Bangkok north stopping at the places you want to see on the way. Then from Chiang Mai get a flight to Koh Samui (will PM you more info after work) . From there, its easy to get the night train as far as Nakhon Pathom to connect with the train to Kanchanaburi. There is no backtracking and totally doable for any age group.
Thank you very much for your suggestion. I don't know anything about Mae Hong Son, so I will look at that up over the next few days. I think you are right trips from Kanchanaburi like you said are plentiful and easy to arrange once you are there. That's great and thanks for your response.
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