Iahawk

Good evening, My son and (soon to be) daughter in law are in the early stages of planning a 3-ish week honeymoon in Thailand. This is their tentative plan:
LAX to Bangkok (3-4 days);
Bangkok to Chiang Mai (4 days and must be over November 27-28th)
Chiang Mai to Krabi (5 days)
Koh Lipe (5-7 days).
Back to LAX

They are planning this around the lantern festival
Plan is to hit the heavier touring activities when they arrive and then use the back half to relax on a beach.
Does this make sense to those who've been to Thailand?
What kind and how reliable is transportation between the locations they've selected?
How much time between locations will be chewed up with travel?

Thank you in advance!!

crellston

Good morning. Yes it does make sense, indeed if a primary objective is the festival in Chiang Mai, which is great BTW, then it works well. It is a great time to visit from a weather perspective. Should be pretty good in all those locations.

Generally transportation within Thailand, it is very reliable. Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Krabi will be by air, Probably Air Asia, Thai or Bangkok Airways. IME all are reliable. Krabi to Koh Lipe will most likely be done by speedboat which from memory takes around three hours or so. To get back to Bangkok will require a speedboat back to the mainland and then a private transfer or minibus to Hat Yai airport for a flight to Bangkok. Sounds complicated but it is pretty easy to organise a combo ticket either direct or through their hotel.

In terms of how much time to allow for getting between locations, they should bank on losing half a day to get from A to B, more in the case of Koh Lipe to Bangkok. I would suggest booking the night prior to the LAX flight in Bangkok. Partly because it would be a VERY long journey , but mainly to allow for any problems in the journey back from Koh Lipe. a taxi/bus/boat/flight combination allow plenty of opportunity for travel screw ups. NB There are two airports in Bangkok so Don Muang mostly for internal and Suvarnabhumi which could mean switching from one to the other which adds additional time.