Travelling Thailand & Laos

i would drop AY because of flood destruction

Your itinerary looks ok apart from the fact that you will be travelling from place to place for a lot of the time. 1 nioght in a place leaves little time to actaully explore. Like rhkkmk, I would give Ayuthaya a miss. Partly because of the flooding and partly because Sukothai is similar but much more impressive.

Chiang Rai is simply not worth just one day unless you are staying there en route to get the boat down river from Chiang Saen to LP in whci case you need to factor in an extra night for the boat trip (2days , 1 night).

Unless you have specific hotels/guesthouse you want to use then, even though it is high season, it is not necessary to book in advance as it will be possible to find somewhere on arrival. The one exception might be LP where it will be very busy at that time.

Juding by you palns it seems as though you might be travelling by train for some of the routes? If so you might want to book a day or so in advance - can be done online or at the stations. Is $100 per day your budget for hotels or total spend. $100 per day buys a lot in Asia but it is perfectly possible to get a nice place to stay for a LOT less. As an example we are staying at http://www.3sisbedandbreakfast.com/Vacationlodge/lodge.html which comes highly recommended.
http://www.fernresort.info/ is another place we are using at a similar price.

It is aocourse possible to pay less and still get somewhere comfortable, clean with aircon and hot shower or a LOT less for somewhere with basic facilities

Thank you for the responses they are greatly appreciated
We will bypass Ayutthaya and take the train from B. to Sukhothai instead. The Itinerary I have drafted has a couple spare days which will be used for travelling such as Ph-B, B-Suk, CR-LB etc.

Would you suggest taking the Boat to Luang Prabeng or train? Considering the price etc.

We will probably just use Chang Rai for the Golden Triangle tour.

Is it possible to prebook LP acc. in Chang Mai?

Thanks for the advice about the trains we will be travelling majority on their services would you suggest travelling 1st class always or 2nd isn't too much different?

the $100 each day is for our total days activities/food/transport/acc. etc. Thanks for the rec. on the hotel also.

theangkorguide.net

kohtao.com

2 more I might add

subtract a number of the above

too crammed flood damage.

sawadee.com

seat61.com/thailand

airasia.com

Happy Planning!

Bob, nothing wrong with Ayutthaya. The tourist area is more or less back to normal already.

There is no train to Luang Prabang. The choice is to fly or take the boat. The slow public boat takes 2 days with and overnight in Pakbeng - my preferred choice if you are adventurous. You can do it in a fast (very!!) boat which takes around 7 hours we found it to be extremely uncomfortable and noisy (and some would say dangerous because of the speed, rocks etc.)

As for trains, I would recommend 1st class for overnight (private compartment) or 2nd class for daytime.

Given your budget I suggest you look at www.hostelworld.com www.hostelbookers.com and www.hihostel.com. All have good, reliable online booking systems and the customer reviews tend to be reasonably trustworthy. Don't be put off by the "hostel" bit they deal with guesthouses, small hotels with en suite rooms not just dormitory style accommodation.

if it were me, I would book a place to stay in Luang Prabang as soon as you know your dates. Try to get a palce in town if you can - The Aspara is in a good location but prices have shot up over the last few years so may not be in your budget (unless you can find a deal somewhere)

Luang Prabang is a very walkable and lovley city. I would stay right close to down town area and then you can get up early to see the monk procession too. The costs in Lao are very inexpensive, many wonderful restaraunts on the main strip that are good and reasonable.
You will probably love Vang Vieng given your age. It is a crazy party town. I stayed at a lovely hotel on the river, Elephant Crossing for $50 per night. It was very quiet but close enough to walk to everything and had a great little resteraunt. You can do a hot air balloon ride at sunrise for $75 each for a splurge that is really worth it.
In Vientienne I stayed at Souphaphone for $22 a night and it was lovely, clean and close to everything.

If you click on my name you will see my trip report to Laos from Febuary and it lists most of the costs. I travel on a budget too.