17 Day Itinerary
 

OK. In beginning stages of planning a journey to Thailand. Looking at November. Wife and I would like to take in the culture, cuisine, temples and such, a humane elephant camp if one exists, maybe a Thai cooking class.... Also, I love to hike and beach. Wife loves beach. Would Chiang Mai be preferable to Bangkok for a few of those days. Not too crazy about the city. Recommended beaches? (not party beaches). Modes of transport? Rent a car? Fly? Train? I appreciate your help in advance. Cheers!

imo, bkk is far preferable to CM in every way..

what is your hotel budget?

I kike khao lak for the beach time.

fly everywhere

"Not too crazy about the city" which city? Any city? Bangkok and Cm are very different. We enjoyed CM for teh Thai Cookery school, hiking and driving the Mai Hong Sorn loop. Bangkok has a huge amount to offer, temples, food, art, culture are there to be had in abundance. Chiang Rai should also be considered as should Chiang Dao for hiking.

Flying is cheap and time efficient but trains will give a flavour of "local life" even if most of your fellow passenger will be tourists. Driving in Thailand is easy and renting a car affords the possibility of reaching places unavailable by public transport.

I second Rhkkmk's suggestion of Khao Lak. Just revisited the place after a 12 year absence and, although a lot busier than it was, it still offers some of the best beaches on the Andaman coast.

With 17 days I would probably split it 5 days BKK, 5 the North and 10 the beach ( inc. side trips to Khao Sok and Phang Nga or maybe the Similan Islands.

Thank you all kindly for your suggestions. rhkkmk... Hotel budget? Well let's say I am comfortable pretty much anywhere. We don't require luxury but if the cost is suitable we'll try it out. For 3 or 4 days I can see going as high as 200 a night. There just are so many great, much cheaper options such as guest houses that allow us to mingle more with the natives. I hope you get what I mean. Would you explain why BKK is far more preferable than CM because I really hear different opinions on that. It seems 50/50 as far as preference.

Crellston... Not crazy for cities... for example. Visited Greece for 3 weeks. Couldn't get out of Athens soon enough. 2 days in NYC is enough for me. We would like 75% to be chilled out such as hiking, beaches and taking in the culture and the people. Will check out Khao Lak for sure. Also have no objection to any mode of transport. Train does sound pretty cool.

A couple other questions... are the elephant camps humane? I have noticed that most people on the forums frown upon them. Wife and I would like to interact with them but will not if there is mistreatment... Also, would visiting neighboring countries be taking on too much? Say we went 20 days... would a short trip to Vietnam or Cambodia be out of the question?

Thank you again for all of the help, friends.

I love Bangkok and would spend most of my time there, but I'm a city person. There is so much more to see/do/experience in Bangkok, I get bored rapidly in CM. But it sound like that may not be you. (As a side note, as much as I love cities, I did not love Athens) So you might be fine with just a few days in Bangkok. Take a good look at a guidebook and decide what are must-sees for you. I'd suggest looking at info on the Grand Palace/Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Wat Po (Reclining Buddha), the Jim Thompson House as a start. We can make other recommendations when we know more about what you are interested in.

There is one very well-regarded place to interact with elephants: the Elephant Nature Park. Look them up on the web. It's the one place I feel I can recommend without reservation.

If you extend your trip, you could do a side trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia to visit the temples of Angkor. If this sounds at all interesting to you, do take a look at Dawn Rooney's book, Angkor: A Guide to Cambodia's Wondrous Temples. This will give you a good sense of whether you would enjoy this side trip. Note that it takes three full days just to see the major temples, so if you want to go, plan for 4 nights in Siem Reap. We spent a week and loved every minute, but that much time isn't for everyone.

Second Kathie' suggestion of Elephant Nature Park. We had a great experience there. There is no riding or preforming, and no hooks. Google "Lek Chelart and ENP (sp?) for more info about its origins.

My husband and I absolutely loved Chiang Mai as it felt small and walkable. We don't enjoy big cities either. We stayed at a b&b in the old city across from a wat where we sat on the balcony each morning watching the monks begin their day. We haven't been to Bangkok, so can't compare.

Me and the cook are into our 2nd week in the Khao Lak area at the moment.

We're enjoying the place, by simply relaxing, which isn't our normal thing.

Lots of expensive resort hotels strung along just off the beaches.

I prefer the Nang Thong area to the Bang Niang area, as the former is tidier, with a bit more going on after dark.

Transfer time by taxi from Phuket Airport is about an hour. The nearest train station is a few hours by road away at Surat Thani on the Bangkok to Malaysia/Singapore line.

If you are just not into cities then I would limit your time to the minimum. We like you, love hiking and the outdoors but enjoy cities as well. I would still spend a couple of nights in BKK as I feel you would miss out tremendously if you did not see at least teh major sights - Grand Palace, wat Po, the Chao Praya river etc.

CHiang Rai is a smaller quieter city and better placed for hiking. We have recently left Chiang Dao, about an hour from CM is also great for hikes and hil tribes and very quiet with some decent places to stay.

If you could and time then I would suggest a side trip to Laos, a few days in Luang Prabang ( a small,very walkable town, with some nices side trips out to the countryside. Also add maybe a few more days to the far north Muang Sing etc. The best hiking and some striking, unspoilt minority people's villages

We have just visited Siem Reap for the third time in fifteen years and I was genuinely shocked at a) how busy it was and, b) how badly the fabric of the temples had declined. Even though we were just into the low season, the place was very overcrowded, mostly with Chinese tour groups - neither a relaxing or pleasant experience. Many of the temples are showing serous signs of damage due to the vastly increased visitor numbers, lots of scaffolding. Ta Prom , one of my favourite temples seemed particularly bad compared with our previous visits. Apparently the rights to Angkor Wat are about to be sold of to the Vietnamese ( or so we were told) ,if this is the case, I doubt that this will improve matters

You're all very kind. Thank you for taking the time to help. Yes... when I go to a faraway place, I prefer not to be inundated with pushy tourists and crowds. But it is what it is. When there is a place as beautiful as Thailand, I guess we have to share. So anyways..... I have a concern with the time of year and climate. Conflicting posts say November is the worst month for rain while some say it's tail end. Preferably, after mostly beach and outdoor time, we would like to be in Chiang Mai for Loy Krathong which falls on late Nov. Original plan was leave for BKK approx. 11/7. BKK for 2 days. Fly to beaches yet to be determined then Chiang Mai for festival. Can anyone give me input on climate? Will we get rained on quite a bit? If it matters, beaches on my radar are Khao Lok, Railay Beach and Hill House in Koh Yao Noi looks to be pretty interesting. Just looking at those for a start. Sorry I'm all over the place. Any more input would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

For weather info, use a good weather site. I like www.weatherbase.com

Part of the reason you are confused about weather issues is that Thailand is impacted by two different monsoon systems. And November can be a transitional month. November (the later the better) is a great time to go for Bangkok, Chiang Mai and beach resorts on the Andaman Sea.

One of the major advantages of November is that the air will be clearer of teh smoke pollution that blights this part of the world at that time of year. We left early from CM this month because the air quality became unbearable ( some people were wearing gas masks on the streets of CM! Visibility was appalling. This was the case from Mai Salong in the far north to Nan 500kms furtehr South. Even in Bangok it is very hazy at the moment and even the torrential downpour yeaterday only helped a bit? Khao Lak and Phnang Nga was also pretty bad visibility altjhough nowhere near as bad as the North.

Coming in Nov, you may or may not have a bit of rain but that is far, far preferable to teh polltuon at the end of the dry season. CM over Loy Kratongs will be great.

Beach wise, we really enjoyed Khao Lak but itvis getting busier. Choose your hotel wisely and you will find somewhere quiet I am sure. Very good restaurants are everywhere. There are many island which re off the mainstreams tourist trail and are worth considering for a "no shoes, no news" approach to beach time.
This sight has some pretty good info on Thai Islands http://www.travelfish.org/country/thailand

This is great info, everyone. Thank you again and again. Researching further this past week it seems CM and points north may suit us for a good part of the trip then the rest beach time. If I may, I'll ask questions regarding that area and sort of piece feed my friends here for input as it may be easier....

Wow crellston. I have heard of the smoke pollution but did not realize it was that bad. Thank you for the warning. So yes. We have decided on CM at festival time and maybe travel north to Mae Hong Son province as it seems more "authentic". Would that be accurate?

While in CM, besides festival, we are looking at the overnite in Elephant Nature Park, definitely partake in cooking class and would like to visit an orphanage. Can anyone recommend one? And would they accept gifts?

Re: Mae Hong Son province, a 2 or 3 day trek is being considered. We understand that many companies offer hiking tours to hill tribe villages, etc. I'm sure many other people feel this way, but we don't want to be involved with exploitation of these people. It just seems disrespectful. We are certainly interested in the culture and understand there are more private, non-commercial options where you are welcome to stay with the tribe, learn the culture, cook the food, etc. We have looked into Pooh Eco Trekking. Can anyone offer input on this company or recommend a private guide? Thank you in advance.... I'll get to the beaches as soon as this area's taken care of :-) PS.... Trip time increased to 21 days