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Thailand - Help with Itinerary 15 Days to incl. North & South

Thailand - Help with Itinerary 15 Days to incl. North & South

Old Jul 1st, 2016, 01:25 PM
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Thailand - Help with Itinerary 15 Days to incl. North & South

Would appreciate any advice re our itinerary to Thailand. We are travelling with our kids (15 + 17) for 15 days December 2016 Not sure if we are trying to accomplish too much in a short time, and looking for advice in getting to Khao Sok as we think it could be one of the highlights of the trip.
As it stands we have the following organized:
2 days in Bangkok
2 days in Ayutthaya - UNESCO heritage festival, then overnight train to Chiang Mai
3 possibly 4 days in Chiang Mai
Here's where we need the advice: not sure best strategy to get from Chiang Mai to south as we'd like to go to Khao Sok for an overnight stay on a river raft
6 full days for the south - we'd like to see Khao Sok and spend a few days relaxing on a beach (we thought Ao Nang) before returning to Bangkok on Christmas eve. We will have Christmas Day in Bangkok and fly out on the 26th.

Questions: Best way to maximize trip to see the country - is it worth the side trip to Khao Sok? Should we be looking to go to another beach area closer to Khao Sok? and if so where?
What is the best way of organizing a trip to Khao Sok? Pros & Cons of flying from Chiang Mai to Krabi vs taking train all the way back down + bus to Krabi/Ao Nang and also Khao Sok? Is there another great place to see the scenery and experience the raft houses that doesn't require travelling to the south?
Looking forward to learning from your travel experiences!
SHughes is offline  
Old Jul 1st, 2016, 03:11 PM
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We were in Khao Sok last year. A pleasant enough place (even if we did end up staying in a dire hotel!). Is worth it? I was a little disappointed, but if you want to stay in a raft house, that is one of the few places in Thailand that I know of. The only other is at Kanchanaburi ( of bridge over the river Kwai fame). You could easily combine a trip there with Ayyuthaya.

The most enjoyable part of Khao Sok was the boat ride on the river/lake. We didn't stay in the raft houses but cruised right by them - quite small and I would imagine very hot with no air con. They seemed to serve up decent food there which is just as well as there is nowhere else to go. One night would be enough i feel.

The nearest beach resort is Khao Lak. Some nice beaches outside of the town. I would recommend a trip to Phang Nga bay with John Gray Sea Canoe.

Pros and cons of train v flying. I have done the BKK - CM and BKK to the south train rides and enjoyed both but not at the same time. Personally, I would do one or the other, probably Ayuthaya to CM as the scenery as you come into CM at dawn in pretty special. In the time you have available, flying to the south via BAngkok would seem to make more sense.

As an alternative, you could consider renting a car and self driving either in the north or the south. For the south we picked up a car at Phuket airport and used it to drive to Khao Lak and Khao Sok which made life a lot easier. In fact it would have been pretty difficult without it.

If you did want to go the self drive route then a car would also be pretty convenient to see Ayyuthaya and Kanachanaburi.

The options are endless, unfortunately, time is not.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2016, 06:07 AM
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Thanks very much for all of this time you spent relaying this info to us. It is really helpful. I'll look into the river raft at Kanchanaburi. The south a Christmas time seems to be booking up fast so we want to have our itinerary fairly well set soon.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2016, 06:39 AM
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You are taking the train from Ayutthaya to CM - that is an overnight train. Be aware that you may not get a lot of sleep on the train. I'd fly from CM to Krabi or Phuket so you don't waste time. The train ride would be long and take up (for me) way too much of your vacation time.

Also, I'd suggest you NOT do the beach at the end of your trip. If you can move it earlier, you'll save yourself some money and hassle. The hotel prices in the days leading up to Christmas and between Christmas and new year are the highest of the year. Those price are often double what they were just a week or two earlier. Many of the beach resorts have a mandatory "gala" dinner that will cost you US$100 pp for Christmas. Hotels in Bangkok rarely have those mandatory dinners. And you are quite right that many hotels on the beach are already fully booked for Christmas. Take a look and see if you can start with the beach.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2016, 11:42 AM
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The thing with trains in Thailand is punctuality.
They usually set off on time, but quickly fall behind schedule.
Set off from a terminal [eg Bangkok Hualamphong] and there's no problem. But if you want to get on the same train at Ayutthaya, you could be sat on the platform for ages.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2016, 06:04 AM
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ok good to know about the trains. At least if we are setting off from Ayutthaya the train would be coming from BKK so hopefully wouldn't be too delayed in one stop.

Family set on heading to the south so it may be far more efficient to simply fly from Chiang Mai to south.

Anyone know any good tour operators for the Khao Sok? Or any good mid-range hotels in Ao Nang or vicinity?
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