Kids are too young for serious trekking. The month is important too cause that park gets more rain than other places. If you want to keep costs down Id skip Samui and Khao Sok. The tours in Samui are double the price of tours in Krabi and hotel prices are higher as well.

Khao Sok has 2 sections being the lake area and the jungle area. They are a long way apart.

Chiang Mai and Krabi would be good choices for a family.

Hi everybody, myself and my boyfriend are thinking of travelling to SEA in November for 3 weeks and I'd love some advice. I was thinking of the following itinerary:

Fly into Bangkok, stay 2 nights
Fly to Siem Reap, stay 2 nights (all we're planning to do while we're there is visit Angkor Archaeological Park - obviously would love to have more time in Cambodia and see other places)
Fly to Luang Prabang, stay 3 nights
Fly to Chiang Mai, stay 4 nights (Hopefully do a cookery class and maybe a 2…

Well, if you are seriously considering taking two small boys to Pattaya, perhaps you should just sign the kids over to Child Protective Services now and skip in the intermediate steps. But Pattaya is a small part of a very large country (and a part no sane parents would take their kids).

And we went to Ubud. Those damn monkeys. Though I like the idea of playful, fun-loving, Curious George-type monkeys, I have resigned myself to the fact they don't really exist. I am OK with the reality of…

Hi Ryan!

My boyfriend and I have recently moved out here to Koh Samui (we are from the US as well) to help open up a freediving school, so maybe I can help a bit. We have not done the island hopping, but it seems that is something everybody does. You can make it around the island on a scooter in one day. Big Buddha will literally be a 10-minute visit as you can't actually climb the steps up to the big guy due to repairs (I was just there today), but there are little shops you can check out and…

Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai gets very good recommendations on Trip Advisor - http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/ - it is a rescue and rehabilitation centre.

As it is Christmas, I would agree with the others about booking in advance. Yes, you can still get places on walk in, but it might not be your preferred level of accommodation (could be a dump) or you could be forced to pay a lot more as it's the only choice left.

If you are looking at the Krabi area, you could consider Koh Lanta…

I'll let you in on a little secret......
Khao Lak.
It's north of Phuket Airport - 30 minutes or thereabouts by car/taxi.
There are some very nice options for "beaches/bungalows/hotels that would have some privacy in mid November, that have beautiful sand and water (possibly even good for snorkling)".
I'm not going to recommend a specific hotel - there are quite a few to chose from.

Alternatively, I can highly recommend the Dewa on Nai Yang beach - they have private bungalows with swimming pool etc…

There is only one Full Moon Party at Ko Phangan and its at Hat Rin beach and it doesn't take over the whole island . The main reason one would avoid Ko Phangan is not because of the party scene but because its fast becoming another Ko Samui with ever increasing development . The best beaches are being built up like there is no tomorrow and even Bottle Beach has a concrete hotel and swimming pool at the middle part of the beach.

You can get a "visa on arrival" at the following Cambodian/Thai border crossings

Anlong Veng - Chong Sa Ngam border crossing (Phusing Land Border Checkpoint, Sisaket)
Poipet -Aranyaprathet border crossing (Aranyaprathet Immigration Checkpoint, Sakaeo)
Phsar Prum - Ban Pakard border crossing (Pong Nam Ron Immigration Checkpoint, Chanthaburi)
Koh Kong - Had Lek border crossing (Khlong Yai Immigration Checkpoint, Trat)

I never went to Ko Lipe or Ko Raya Yai, but I found Ko Lanta to be fairly unimpressive when I went there a few months ago.

There didn't seem to be enough to do and we motorcycled around a little but the scenery was less impressive than some of the other islands. I preferred the islands on the other side. Ko Phangnan had both a party scene and a few other towns you could rest and take in beautiful beaches.

If you are going to the islands, these are a good bus/boat combo firm. They leave from Thanon Rambuttri (near Khao san Road) in Bangkok. You can get a shuttle bus from to Don Mueang to KSR.

If you are getting the train, note that Surat Thani train station is about 10km out of town. Then it's another 20km on to Don Sak pier for the islands.

For trains

Public Buses go from Bangkok's Southern Bus Terminal (Saai Tai Mai), 10k West of KSR (take local bus 124 or a taxi) and also from Morchit2…