casseyks21

My fiancé and I will will be finishing up our honeymoon (late Nov/Dec) in Ao Nang area after spending 3 nights in Bangkok and 5 nights in Chiang Mai (excited to see Loy Krathang and staying at Ping nakara after getting some recommendations from you!

We will be arriving in Phuket on November 30th and wanted to see if it is worthwhile to make a trip up to the Khao Sok national park and stay in a bungalow or a treehouse in the park before heading down to the Krabi District. Initially we were planning on just taking a bus down to Ao Nang from Phuket, but then I was intrigued by what I saw about the park and the lake.

Is it a worthwhile side trip or will it make things to hectic? We will only have about 6 more nights to explore Southern Thailand....Any comments or suggestions would be great! Would it be better to do the park after Ao Nang or before? Or skip it altogether?

Otherwise we will spend our time checking out the following:
*Railay Beach
*Phi Phi islands
*Phang Nga Bay

And time permitting check out the Tiger Cave Temple, the emerald pool and hot springs...

Some other possible interesting places/islands were Koh racha, and Koh Mook...your thoughts on those?

We have not booked any accommodations in the south of thailand yet (or our flights) and our trying to work out the final details...

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Cattail

The only other area I'm familiar with is Phang Nga Bay. I liked Khao Sok much, much better. I think it depends entirely on personal preference, and what you find romantic. My husband and I loved the wildlife and the serenity and peacefulness of Khao Sok over the somewhat more touristy vibe of Phang Nga Bay. Not that it's touristy exactly, just not wild and remote. I would choose what most appeals to you both, and not try to fit too much in.

khunwilko

Highly recommended - accommodation can be variable - google a lot.

casseyks21

Where would you recommend staying-we want to do the whole tree house thing...

Cattail

We stayed at a wonderful, but very, very rustic spot, with just a thin mattress in a shack inches above the water. Probably not honeymoon material, but if this sounds appealing, I'll fill you in.

lincasanova

do tell.. cattail. sounds like my type of place.

Cattail

The bungalows belong to the national park, lincasanova. We booked them as part of a package with Paddle Asia, but I think you can book them yourselves. We aren't generally "tour people", but, in this case, having a guide was a fantastic decision. We saw WAY more than we would have on our own. Somehow, we ended up with a private guide, which allowed us to explore at our pace. At the end of the stay, we considered him a friend.

If you click on Paddle Asia's website, you can link to the bungalows. The family who runs it is very, very nice.

khunwilko

You can rent bamboo huts built on rafts. THese are accessible by long tail. Before you go you can order your meals and they are brought out to you.


I can't find the name of the place I stayed at with tree houses, but I felt they were overpriced and stayed on the ground....so to speak.
Bring some mozzie coils/sticks to leave in your rooms while you're out.

Kayaking around the karsts is a good thing to try.

casseyks21

Thanks everyone, we are going to try and stay in a treehouse for 2 nights, and out on the rafts for the 3rd night.. We want to do a long jungle hike one day, and we probably will just arrange the overnight lake portion through a tour to simplify things-any recommendations for tour companies? Heard Limestone Lake Tours is good.