$75/pp Bangkok itinerary
 

Cherry wants $75/pp (party of 4) for the following itinerary:
Pick up around 9AM
drive through China Town with a short stop at the flower market.
On to Wat Thong (Golden Buddha temple). Then Wat Pho (reclining Buddha) and continue to the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha Temple.

Lunch at Baan Supattra River House

Canal (Klongs) tour on a Longtail boat

Back to hotel.

This seems outrageous.

It is outrageous. Even with lunch and the klong tour included. I'd check with someone else!

Are you sure it's per person and not total for the day? It's a very light day...in fact, nothing there you couldn't do on your own, though having a guide might give you more information about each place you visit beyond what a good guidebook has.

It was definitely $75 per person ($300 per day).

Then no way would I pay that. A fair price would be around 3000 baht for the day total, not per person, I would think, plus lunch, which might run another 300 or so. So total price of not more than 4000 baht, or 1000 baht per person - about 1/3 of what you've been quoted. You can either make an offer and bargain or decline. Have you checked Tong?

That's beyond ridiculous. Get a Nancy Chandler map and get on the skytrain in combination with taxis that start the meter at 35Baht(about 95 cents at today's exchange rate). I'm in Bangkok at the present. Happy Travels!

peachey, remember there are differences between drivers and guides. Guides will always be more expensive, and Cherry is a guide. But this is a very simple itinerary for which you certainly don't need a guide, and for which I wouldn't even opt for a driver.

If you are staying by the river, you can catch the water taxi to the GP/Emerald Buddha/Wat Po area. Any hotel along the river can arrange a longtail for you for the klong tour, or you can do it yourself at the central pier. You could take a taxi through Chinatown...

Peachy...a little creativity can save a lot of money...This is what you do...pick yourself up some index cards and on each one write the name of the place that you're interested in going to. Then when you get to your hotel, have the concierge write the name on each card in Thai. Or if you have a guide book with the names of places written in Thai, then photocopy the names and tape them to your index cards. This way you can take the cards along and hop in and out of taxis and very easily go from place to place. Just hand the card to the taxi driver and off you go. When you finish with one place, flag down another driver and hand him the next place of interest and off you go again. I've been using this system for three decades in places where either the alphabet is different or I don't speak the language. Happy Travels!

I am always amazed at people who pay a fortune for travel guides. A map and you can do it for peanuts on buses, armed with a guide book. Even taxis are very, very cheap in Bangkok (metered).

Lots of travel agents charging reasonable prices. Use one of them.