Hi ,

Have about 3 days in bangkok, can you help us where to find reliable tours for city tours, chinatown, floating market etc;......or do you have their websites? thanks

Most any hotel will have a tour desk where you can book city tours, etc. They are, by and large, reliable, although some will often take you to various shopping opportunities that you may not have much interest in.

That said, a lot of sights in Bangkok, such as the grand palace, Wat Po, etc. are easy to get to and see on your own. Even remote places like the floating market are best seen by arranging your own car and driver, rather than booking a tour.

Still, if you want to book tours in advance, the best site I can recommend is Viator - http://www.viator.com.

You can do a lot of it on your own by skytrain and taxi. Happy Travels!

two guides who are often used by fodorites are tong (www.tourwithtong.com) and rat....someone will have to give you her address...

tong is a guide, ratt is a driver with guiding experience....both are wonderful...

with only 3 days sometimes it is better to have someone drive you around and take you directly to the places rather than you fumbling around trying to find things and getting steamy hot and ending up not seeing as much...but you can do the in town sights on your own...

a wonderful day outside the city with tong would take you to the floating market and then the secret place often written about on this forum...

in town you would want to see:

grand palace
jim thompson house
wat arun
wat pho
v-mek palace

There is really no need for city tours. You can see all of the in-city things on your own. If you take one of the group tours, you'll be with a large group on a bus going from place to place. On your own you can see what you want, skip what you want.

Outside of town, you'll need a taxi or you can hire a driver.

If you want a group tour, wait until you are in Bangkok to book it. It will cost less than half the price you'd pay to book it ahead of time.

Ratt's email address:

http://www.ratservice.com/index.aspx

Aloha!

Ratt's website address:

http://www.ratservice.com/index.aspx

Aloha!

I agree that there is no need for a tour in Bangkok. It is both easy and fun to get around using the sky train, water taxi and tuk tuks. For your info, there is a free tour given in English at 10:00 AM daily at the Grand Palace. I suggest that you get there about 1 hour beforehand if you are photo buffs and take your pictures, wander in awe and then take the tour to find out more about the sites. We used Tong for a day tour to the Floating Market, Railroad Market, & Secret Village and thoroughly enjoyed our time with her. If she is unavailable, I understand the guides under her are equally good. Best of luck.

I had the same questions you did and ended up booking a day guide (Nui) through Tong as she was busy.

Personally, I didn't find Bangkok that easy to get around. It's a very big city and there are various ways to get from point A to point B. We found there are many people that don't speak English (and I don't speak any Thai) so we always had a business card from the hotel and if we were going somewhere by taxi on our own we would have the hotel write down our destination.

If you have many things that you want to see in one day, (we saw the Royal palace, Wat Arun, Emerald Buddah, Reclining Buddah, China Town, flower market, lunch at Coconut Palm and it was a full day) the guide is the way to go. We enjoyed Nui very much. She was great!!

If you can do the Tong day trip to the secret place, floating market etc. DO IT! It was an unforgettable day.

Also the taxi's are very inexpensive and a great way to get around.
WE loved Bangkok!!

Hi rhkk and kathie!!! xo

You don't need a guide or a tour to see the main sights in Bangkok. However, an experienced guide like Tong ( or a member of her team) or an experienced driver like Ratt, will allow you to see much more in an effortless fashion. They don't cost much and you will really enjoy meeting them.

Outside Bangkok, a guide or driver will enormously simplify the trip. We've been to BKK 6 times and used Tong the last two times for wonderful days. It will definitely add to your experience.

Our experience with tours arranged through hotels is that they are run-of-the-mill and nothing special. The guides are hum drum.

thanks will try to visit their websites..........

Bangkok is very tourist friendly, besides tour desks in hotels most of the travel agencies also provide tours. Stop in a travel agency and check out their menu of local tours. Tour company picks you up and brings you back when the tour is over. Choose a tour the evening before and leave the following morning. Sign up for an evening dinner cruise in the morning and leave that evening.

Good luck.

thanks, I heard many people looking for Tong lately? and no answer from her.......

You have already received some great advice from,SirHalberd , but couldn't resist sending along this sweet, little guide site:

http://www.bkk-info.com/

jiah,

A few weeks ago you were asking about "Suits at Savile Row Bangkok,Suriwong" and now you seem to be an expert on everything. No advertising here!

Yes, Finally Tong responded she is there, we are working out the IT's.........