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Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Sukhotai ..or even Siem Riep?:

Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Sukhotai ..or even Siem Riep?:

Old Aug 17th, 2017, 06:38 AM
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Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Sukhotai ..or even Siem Riep?:

We are beginning to put shape to our trip in January and/or February. trying to figure out how many days to spend (somewhere between 15 and 21 nights on the ground), balancing between travel fatigue and taking advantage of being there. A priority is to minimize changing hotels, using up days in stressful travel while of course seeing as much as possible.

My original thought was Bangkok 5 nights (4 at beginning, one at end) with maybe some day trips from there

Chiang Mai 5 nights

and somewhere on the Andaman coast 5 nights.

then guide book seduction sets in. If we added a night or two is there a way to visit any of the above (Chiang Rai, Sukhotai or Siem Riep) without adding in another airline trip or driving it ourselves. Can any of these be done as day trips from Chiang Mai? or could one hire a driver or guide and spend say two nights in C.R. or Sukhotai? I would love to see Angkor Wat but at least from the guide book can't figure out a way to do it that wouldn't add on a lot of transfer travel time and energy.

your thoughts and experience would be most welcome.

oh and we love history, nature, culture, etc. but not big on partying, night life (we are big on food!) Thanks
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Old Aug 17th, 2017, 07:55 AM
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None of these are realistic day trips. I suppose you could visit Chiang Rai as a day trip, but you's spend most of the day on the road. Likewise Sukhothai. Siem Reap is definitely a flight away - and you'd need to go to Bangkok to catch the flight. You could hire a car and driver and spend two nights in either Chiang Rai or Sukhothai. Also, you could cut a day from Chiang Mai and still have plenty of time there.

Of the destinations you list, Angkor is clearly the most amazing. If you wanted to visit Angkor, You could do it at the beginning of your return to Bangkok. You would fly into BKK from The Andaman Coast or Chiang Mai and immediately transfer to a flight to Siem Reap. After your time in Siem Reap (at least four nights, so you get three full days to visit the major temples). you would return to Bangkok for your last night or two.

Arrangements in Siem Reap are easy to make - your hotel can arrange a car and driver for you. There are lots of lovely little hotels (and a few big ones) in Siem Reap.

If you are still thinking about this, get a copy of Dawn Rooney's book, Angkor: A Guide to Cambodia's Wondrous Temples. This will provide you with enough information to make the decision.
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Old Aug 17th, 2017, 07:58 AM
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Chiang Rai could conceivably been done as a day trip but it is a two hour drive each way so I would recommend a couple of nights there. If you can, include a Saturday night for the walking market.

Sukothai is somewhat difficult and time consuming to get to and probably not worth the effort in the time you have. The easier way is to drive but it does take time.

Angkor needs a couple of full days, more if you really like temples a lot. I have been a few times and amazing though it undoubtedly is, in recent years it has become way, way to crowded. It can be reached, I think by direct flights from CM and certainly from Bangkok.

Your food, culture and history requirements will be met by both Bangkok and Chiang Mai. They are very different places Bangkok is much larger and has more sights to see and so I would suggest spending more time there than CM. There are some fantastic places to eat in both cities. Some of the best food, is to be found in small local places away from the main tourist areas. There is no need to spend a fortune on expensive restaurants. A little research in advance will be well rewarded.

CM has direct flights to Phuket so that shouldn't take up too much time in transit.
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Old Aug 24th, 2017, 06:20 AM
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I'm researching my trip for January too.

We'll spend some time in Bangkok at the start and end of our 3 weeks.

We're doing 7 nights up in the north of which I'm currently thinking 2-3 nights for Chiang Rai, 1 night (but the better part of 2 days) for mountain villages and landscapes, 3-4 nights in Chiang Mai. No detail beyond that yet.

We are also booked into a 3 day/ 2 night package for Khao Sok National Park, which includes accommodation, activities, meals and transfers.

We're planning a 3 night round trip from Bangkok to take in Khao Yai National Park and Ayuthaya.

We have a single night in Phuket and a single night in Bangkok in between things to make the transport / logistics work. I was trying to avoid these but actually they make the best sense.
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Old Aug 31st, 2017, 05:51 PM
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sounds amazing but I think it would involve too much moving around for our taste - and I want to spend some time on the beaches. Can you share more about Khao Yai and Khao Sok national parks and why you are focusing on them
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Old Aug 31st, 2017, 11:07 PM
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We love seeing wildlife in its natural habitat. Khao Sok National Park looks beautiful, and we've had personal recommendations for Elephant Hills from two people who've been. We are doing their Jungle Lake package, which includes one night in the tented safari camp in the forest and one night on the floating tented camps on the lake. Activities of various types are included, as are transfers in and out. I wanted to do three nights but was advised they were not offering that for my dates, unless I wanted to do all 3 nights in the forest camp only. This is one of the few places you can "meet" elephants, wash and feed them, and know that it genuinely is high welfare, one of the places that take in rescue elephants from logging / tourist industries (by which I mean riding).

Khao Yai National Park, I actually included for one key experience though I know we'll enjoy much more than that. At dusk, hundreds of thousands of bats emerge from their caves and it looks like such a spectacle. There are various places around the world you can see this kind of thing but I never have, and I'm so eager to see it. Again, friends recommended that to me. We have booked a rental car and own accommodation, as it seems there are other attractions in the area too, so we can play that by ear. I am going to book a one day guided safari-style excursion into the park and for the bats rather than self-drive that.

For northern Thailand, we are now likely doing 3 nights Chiang Rai and then 4 nights in Chiang Mai and day trips from there. I can't find a one nighter excursion between the two that suits what I'm looking for.

The single nights in Phuket and Bangkok are really just transfer nights -- I originally wanted to fly down to one of the airports near Khao Sok on the same morning, but the pick up by Elephant Hills is too early for that to work -- they will meet certain flights arriving in that morning, but none from Chiang Mai and if we pick a different flight that gets in same time but it's late, they won't wait. We don't want to miss any of the activities so we decided to fly down the night before, and stay in one of their pick up locations, Phuket. (They also pick up directly from Krabi and Surat Thani).

We aren't beach people, hence no beach time in our itinerary.
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Old Sep 4th, 2017, 05:11 PM
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Thanks Kavey - are you working with a particular guide or travel agent - where did you book the safaris/jungle lake packages?

and how are you planning on getting between Chaing Mai and Chaing Rai? have you driven in Thailand before?
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Old Sep 4th, 2017, 08:46 PM
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Never driven in Thailand before but feeling fine about it.

No travel agent with the exception of the Elephant Hills, I'm currently contracting for a travel company and they could give me a slightly discounted rate versus booking it direct via Elephant Hills website, which is what I was originally planning to do. They also got me a slightly better deal on my international flights.

All the internal flights and the rest of the accommodation, I've booked myself online. I've also booked a day tour for Khao Yai National Park and I'll likely book a few excursions out of CM and CR, plus a cooking class.

For the transfer from CR to CM, ideally I'd like to make that part of an excursion, if I can find a tour company who can do a custom one for me, but not yet started looking into that.

I may not bother with rental car in the north, I'm not 100% on that yet but we'll 100% be getting a car for the 4 day/3 night loop from Bangkok airport to Khao Yai National Park to Ayuthaya back to Bangkok.

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Old Sep 5th, 2017, 05:44 PM
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Thanks, we need to finalize where we want to go, and when we are doing so, and then I will start working on filling in the spaces.
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Old Sep 6th, 2017, 01:51 AM
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It's exciting isn't it?
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