advise on travel agents to use in BKK
Sep 11th, 2008, 07:11 AM
#1
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advise on travel agents to use in BKK
hello all
My daughter and I are visiting BKK for 2 weeks at the end of november and december 2008. We have booked our tickets for a good price so those dates are not changeable.
I have also booked a hotel in BKK
(Swissotel) for the first four days.
I have been looking on the web to try and arrange trips to Angkor and Hanoi and possibly Phuket. I am getting overwhelmed and confused with this part of the trip. Is it better to just get the visas in US and leave the other travel
arrangements until we get to Bangkok? Is there a travel agent in BKK who can do this for us?
Thanks for your help
calligraphy
My daughter and I are visiting BKK for 2 weeks at the end of november and december 2008. We have booked our tickets for a good price so those dates are not changeable.
I have also booked a hotel in BKK
(Swissotel) for the first four days.
I have been looking on the web to try and arrange trips to Angkor and Hanoi and possibly Phuket. I am getting overwhelmed and confused with this part of the trip. Is it better to just get the visas in US and leave the other travel
arrangements until we get to Bangkok? Is there a travel agent in BKK who can do this for us?
Thanks for your help
calligraphy
Sep 11th, 2008, 08:26 AM
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All of this can be easily arranged yourself. However, you say you have two weeks - how many actual days on the ground in Asia? You've listed four places you'd like to visit (Bangkok, Angkor, Hanoi and Phuket). With a mere two weeks, you want not more than 3 locations total. So start by choosing your locations.
Of the places you listed, Angkor is changing the fastest. So if you can, do go. The only airline that flies from Bangkok to Siem Reap is Bangkok Air. You can book it online.
I recommend you book everything before you go. You are traveling during high season and sccommodations and flights fill up. If you opt to go to VietNam you must have a visa in advance or a pre-arranged visa. To enter Cambodia, you can get a visa on arrival at the airport.
If you opt for Bangkok - Siem Reap - Phuket - Bangkok , the air arrangements will be easiest, as you can get a Bangkok Air Discovery Pass. Phuket, however, is an international beach resort, great for relaxing, but not a cultural experience. Flight connections Bangkok - Siem Reap - Hanoi - Bangkok are more complicated. There are seasonal flights between Siem Reap and Hanoi, but not every day. Often, you have to fly to HCMC and change planes. This is certainly do-able, but it will take more time in transit.
Of the places you listed, Angkor is changing the fastest. So if you can, do go. The only airline that flies from Bangkok to Siem Reap is Bangkok Air. You can book it online.
I recommend you book everything before you go. You are traveling during high season and sccommodations and flights fill up. If you opt to go to VietNam you must have a visa in advance or a pre-arranged visa. To enter Cambodia, you can get a visa on arrival at the airport.
If you opt for Bangkok - Siem Reap - Phuket - Bangkok , the air arrangements will be easiest, as you can get a Bangkok Air Discovery Pass. Phuket, however, is an international beach resort, great for relaxing, but not a cultural experience. Flight connections Bangkok - Siem Reap - Hanoi - Bangkok are more complicated. There are seasonal flights between Siem Reap and Hanoi, but not every day. Often, you have to fly to HCMC and change planes. This is certainly do-able, but it will take more time in transit.
Sep 11th, 2008, 08:56 AM
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kathie is right....3 places at most...
angkor really requires a min. of 3 full days...
bkk requires 5 days at least....you might want a guide for a day or two in and around bkk....tong is an excellent choice...
coming from usa, you will need 1-2 days upon arrival to adjust to the heat and humidity and to recover from the greuling flight....don't underestimate this....so don't cram day one and two with tons of things to do....
i prefer to have a few days in bkk at first at a hotel with a nice pool like the marriott resort and spa or the hilton or even the sheraton orchid....then i like to finish my stay with several days in bkk at the very end of my trip...
if you buy into this then i think i would do bkk-angkok (SR)-bkk and leave it at that for this first trip...
angkor really requires a min. of 3 full days...
bkk requires 5 days at least....you might want a guide for a day or two in and around bkk....tong is an excellent choice...
coming from usa, you will need 1-2 days upon arrival to adjust to the heat and humidity and to recover from the greuling flight....don't underestimate this....so don't cram day one and two with tons of things to do....
i prefer to have a few days in bkk at first at a hotel with a nice pool like the marriott resort and spa or the hilton or even the sheraton orchid....then i like to finish my stay with several days in bkk at the very end of my trip...
if you buy into this then i think i would do bkk-angkok (SR)-bkk and leave it at that for this first trip...
Sep 11th, 2008, 01:40 PM
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I just used SEA Tours in Bangkok to arrange my flights for Bangkok to Luang Prabang, Siem Reap, Phnom Phen and back to Bangkok. Made the hotel reservations on my own, but it was a big help having them take care of the airlines. They came recommended on this board, and were very helpfull and quick to respond to my emails.
Good Luck!
Good Luck!
Sep 11th, 2008, 03:26 PM
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thank you all for your great replies.
Kathie is right. As she suggests we will restrict ourselves to BKK, REP and HAN. We are thinking of doing 3 days and 2 nights in Angkor and another 4days(3 nights) in Hanoi.
That leaves us another 4 nights in addition to the initial 4 nights in BKK.
Kathie is also right about the flights.BKK to REP to HAN to BKK seems difficult to arrange without stopovers. This is the part I got stumped. I guess there is no other way of doing this.
rhkkmk, thank you for your suggestion. I think your advise about getting over jetlag is what we plan to do. We thought we stay at a decent place for the first leg in BKK because we may be sleeping for the most part!. when we get back to BKK we plan to stay at a riverside hotel for 4 more days.We wiil think about changing the hotel choices the other way round. This may be more sensible
Arizonashyguy, thanks for the travel agent suggestion. Now that we have decided to do BKK REP and HAN only, I will contact SEA travel to see if they have any suggestions on how to do this efficiently.
thanks again for all great suggestions and you have certainly removed any hesitations on my part about our plans. I have been reading this board for about a month and I feel I know most of you personally. I am amazed at your expertise and more than that, take the time and effort and help other strangers. I am grateful.
Calligraphy
calligraphy
Kathie is right. As she suggests we will restrict ourselves to BKK, REP and HAN. We are thinking of doing 3 days and 2 nights in Angkor and another 4days(3 nights) in Hanoi.
That leaves us another 4 nights in addition to the initial 4 nights in BKK.
Kathie is also right about the flights.BKK to REP to HAN to BKK seems difficult to arrange without stopovers. This is the part I got stumped. I guess there is no other way of doing this.
rhkkmk, thank you for your suggestion. I think your advise about getting over jetlag is what we plan to do. We thought we stay at a decent place for the first leg in BKK because we may be sleeping for the most part!. when we get back to BKK we plan to stay at a riverside hotel for 4 more days.We wiil think about changing the hotel choices the other way round. This may be more sensible
Arizonashyguy, thanks for the travel agent suggestion. Now that we have decided to do BKK REP and HAN only, I will contact SEA travel to see if they have any suggestions on how to do this efficiently.
thanks again for all great suggestions and you have certainly removed any hesitations on my part about our plans. I have been reading this board for about a month and I feel I know most of you personally. I am amazed at your expertise and more than that, take the time and effort and help other strangers. I am grateful.
Calligraphy
calligraphy
Sep 11th, 2008, 04:30 PM
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The person many of us use for complicated air ticketing is Eddie, [email protected] This is the American Express travel agency in Bangkok.
I'd highly recommend you spend at least one more night in Siem Reap. It takes a full three days just to see the so-called major temples. Also, take a look at www.theplf.org You may want to add this to your Siem Reap time.
It looks like you have 13 nights in Asia (I assume you've figured out about losing a day with the international date line.) I'd do something like
Bangkok 4 nights
Siem Reap 4 nights
Hanoi 4 nights
Bangkok 2 nights
Because you have to figure in your travel time, packing up, getting to the airport, waiting, flying, going through immigration, getting to your next hotel, etc, you have to figure at least half a day each time you change locations. From Siem Reap to Hanoi, it will be much of a day. So staying 4 nights means you'll have three full days in a location. I think this is the absolute minimum to stay in Siem Reap and Hanoi.
I'd highly recommend you spend at least one more night in Siem Reap. It takes a full three days just to see the so-called major temples. Also, take a look at www.theplf.org You may want to add this to your Siem Reap time.
It looks like you have 13 nights in Asia (I assume you've figured out about losing a day with the international date line.) I'd do something like
Bangkok 4 nights
Siem Reap 4 nights
Hanoi 4 nights
Bangkok 2 nights
Because you have to figure in your travel time, packing up, getting to the airport, waiting, flying, going through immigration, getting to your next hotel, etc, you have to figure at least half a day each time you change locations. From Siem Reap to Hanoi, it will be much of a day. So staying 4 nights means you'll have three full days in a location. I think this is the absolute minimum to stay in Siem Reap and Hanoi.
Sep 11th, 2008, 04:50 PM
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Eddie is great. A close friend was meeting me in BKK in December. I was flying from LAX and he from Copenhagen. He'd gotten his flights, but was having major hotel problems.
I told him to contact Eddie and he did. He was so grateful that he even wanted to take Eddie out for dinner to thank him. He got exactly the hotel that he wanted, but had been having problems trying to make a reservataion for it. The price of his 2-week stay at his hotel was about the price of a day and a half at a 5-star. Happy Travels!
I told him to contact Eddie and he did. He was so grateful that he even wanted to take Eddie out for dinner to thank him. He got exactly the hotel that he wanted, but had been having problems trying to make a reservataion for it. The price of his 2-week stay at his hotel was about the price of a day and a half at a 5-star. Happy Travels!
Sep 11th, 2008, 08:19 PM
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i just have to say again that going all that way to hanoi for only a short stay seems a waste of money to me....to me VN is a trip in itself....i went to hanoi and spent a week and did not see lots that i wanted to see
Sep 13th, 2008, 10:05 AM
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thanks all
rhkkmk- I understand your view point. I would like to spend more time in Hanoi. May be there will be next time.
We plan to do just a day trip and cruise to Ha Long bay.( I cannot spend time in a boat overnight!)
Please let us know what we should plan to see in Hanoi. do you have any hotel recommendations (midprice, decent neighbourhood for women)?
kathie and guenmai- my email to eddie has been returned as undeliverable. I checked American Express website and they no longer list SEA tours as an agency. It appears that the trip from BKK -Hanoi-SiemReap-bkk is a better option than the other way round. Expedia quotes a fare of 650 dollars /person for the above trip
and i think it is reasonable. What do you think?. I am thinking of Shintamini in Siemreap for our accommadation even though it is a over our budget ( 100 dollars a day)
Thanks for all your help.
calligraphy
rhkkmk- I understand your view point. I would like to spend more time in Hanoi. May be there will be next time.
We plan to do just a day trip and cruise to Ha Long bay.( I cannot spend time in a boat overnight!)
Please let us know what we should plan to see in Hanoi. do you have any hotel recommendations (midprice, decent neighbourhood for women)?
kathie and guenmai- my email to eddie has been returned as undeliverable. I checked American Express website and they no longer list SEA tours as an agency. It appears that the trip from BKK -Hanoi-SiemReap-bkk is a better option than the other way round. Expedia quotes a fare of 650 dollars /person for the above trip
and i think it is reasonable. What do you think?. I am thinking of Shintamini in Siemreap for our accommadation even though it is a over our budget ( 100 dollars a day)
Thanks for all your help.
calligraphy
Sep 13th, 2008, 11:26 AM
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Calligraphy, my apologies, I must have gotten interrupted when I was typing Eddie's address. It should read [email protected]
$650 pp for the tickets sounds high to me, but these are expensive flights. Try Eddie again.
There is so much to see and do in Hanoi. I stayed at the DeSyloia and liked it a lot. I don't know the current prices, however. Do you have a guidebook for VN? I like Lonely Plante for VN. Doing a day trip to Halong Bay gets mixed reviews - remember you'll spend 6 hours of that time in a car or van - is that how you want to spend your vacation? If it were me (and it isn't) I'd spend my brief Hanoi time IN Hanoi. Wander old town, visit the Temple of Literature, visit some of the wonderful museums such as the Ethnographic Museum, and, of course, shop and eat.
There are plenty of reports on Hanoi on this forum, search some for ideas.
$650 pp for the tickets sounds high to me, but these are expensive flights. Try Eddie again.
There is so much to see and do in Hanoi. I stayed at the DeSyloia and liked it a lot. I don't know the current prices, however. Do you have a guidebook for VN? I like Lonely Plante for VN. Doing a day trip to Halong Bay gets mixed reviews - remember you'll spend 6 hours of that time in a car or van - is that how you want to spend your vacation? If it were me (and it isn't) I'd spend my brief Hanoi time IN Hanoi. Wander old town, visit the Temple of Literature, visit some of the wonderful museums such as the Ethnographic Museum, and, of course, shop and eat.
There are plenty of reports on Hanoi on this forum, search some for ideas.
Sep 20th, 2008, 06:28 AM
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Hi
Just an update on travel agents.
[email protected] answered promptly. His airfare quotation is cheaper and I will let you know how it works out.
I also had good and prompt responses from Tonkin travels in Hanoi. I may not use any travel agent in Hanoi though.
I had excellent response from Ponheary from Siemreap. She is not available on our days there but she offered her brother Dara. I think this will suit us fine.
I thank you all for your help.
calligraphy
Just an update on travel agents.
[email protected] answered promptly. His airfare quotation is cheaper and I will let you know how it works out.
I also had good and prompt responses from Tonkin travels in Hanoi. I may not use any travel agent in Hanoi though.
I had excellent response from Ponheary from Siemreap. She is not available on our days there but she offered her brother Dara. I think this will suit us fine.
I thank you all for your help.
calligraphy
