Greetings--

We are traveling to Thailand in a few weeks and are trying to finalize our plans for 14 days in country. For now, we will spend 3 days in BKK, then 4 days or so in CM. We then plan to head to the beach. We are a family of 4, with two kids 10 and 14. We prefer affordable, rustic (but clean)lodging in less touristy places. We tend to be more interested in hikes, kayaking, and such over resort type settings.

Question 1: which beaches would suit us? Any suggestions? The Krabi area looks interesting.

Question 2: we just read of a deal with Bangkok Airways where one must purchase 3 segments for $55 each (1 segment, for ex, is BKK to CM). How is this airline? Safe and reliable? Is this price good?

Question 3: is renting a car adviasable in the beach areas?

We are open to any and all advice on these questions and any other advice for not-to-missed locales.

THANK YOU!!!

Bangkok Airways is great! Their website, although easy, is the only difficult thing as it sometimes is is down or acting up.

The airplanes are nice, cute (yeah, cute!) and the attendants very friendly and professional. Good safety record.

You'll get meals even on the one hour flight to Siem Reap! We were given Christmas gifts and New years gifts on our flights this year.

bkk air is fantastic...mostly they use boeing 717's or turbo prop small planes...none are very comfortable but the hops are usually about an hour....they own two airfields: koh chang (trat) and koh samui...

you might look at koh chang given your interests....the tropicana might fit your bill...we stayed at the barali next door which is nice too but their food is not great, but tropicana is right next door and their food is excellent....

you have not aloted enough time for bkk....i would cut back one day at least from CM...

koh samui is also nice and peace resort there is quite nice..

I agree with Bob. Samui is nice! You can rent a car there easily for around 700 baht a day. There are lots of pleasant walks on Samui and you could hop a ferry over to Koh Phangan for a taste of some of the finest Thailand beaches and some great waterfalls & hiking. Temps will be very high from about early April. Krabi has rockclimbing but the beaches (except Railay) are not as fine as Samui or Phangan.

Bangkok Air is fine but if you get their discovery pass the savings on some routes are small. The net cost of domestic segments is $67 (55+12) except for BK to Samui which is $78 ($66+12). Airport taxes are extra. A regular fare to CM is $75. With the four of you it would cost a lot less to take one of the discount airlines to CM (around $50 or less). These also fly to Krabi but only BA flies to Samui.

To all who have answered, thank you. Keep the advice coming.

Scotters, do you advise waiting until we get to Bangkok to book internal air travel? The Discovery Pass has to be purchasesd outside of the country (before we leave for Thailand).

We stayed at the same place Bob did on Koh Chang and LOVED it, cant wait to go back again! The beach was awesome! Several times we stood on the beach and didnt see another person in either direction!

I would book the Discovery Pass before you leave. They will be delivered to your hotel when you arrive if you arrange through Mr. Eddie.

Krabi is very beautiful! Whether you stay on East Railay or West Railay really doesn't matter much as they back up to each other and there is a short narrow path that connects them. We stayed at Sunrise Tropical and loved it! It is on East Railay but the walk to West R. is only a couple of minutes.

We took a day trip over to Ao Nang to check it out. Boy, were we glad we stayed at Railay! The beach is not attractive and it was much too touristy for us.

During the time of year you are going you will want a room with air conditioning! The problem with the "rustic" ones is that the air con will probably make them a bit musty smelling.

You can take several day trips form Krabi, including kayaking and snorkeling trips.

I agree with others that say cut one day from Chiang Mai and add it to Bangkok.

Cheers!

If you deceide that you can use the pass then as you say flights must be booked while outside of Thailand. If you are using a discount airline especially Air Asia then the sooner you book the more savings. If using Thai Airlines or regular Bangkok Air I would also book now.

the big savings with the pass are on the international legs, i.e. laos, cambodia, myanmar, vn, etc...