Hi everyone,

I'm in the early stages of organizing a trip to Asia with my husband. We are planning to spend 4 days in HK, a week in Vietnam and a week in Thailand.

Currently working on the Thailand portion. Bangkok is a must...thinking about 3-4 days. Is Chiang Mai a must-do? Should I fit a day or two in there? And we definitely want to hit the beach! We don't want anything too touristy so are avoiding Phuket. We are young and active. Which beach would be better for us? Krabi, Ko Samui or perhaps another suggestion?

Thanks in advance!

When are you going, weather may dictate your best choice. we just got back from Krabi and loved it, as did my 29 year old son and his wife.

We will be going in mid May...

Why did you love Krabi? Thanks!

Krabi is not as touristed as Phuket, but has wonderful scenery. The limestone formations are beautiful and sometimes startling. You should check a weather site for average rainfall for Ko Samui and Krabi. I've never been to KS, but my impression is that there may be more nightlife there, if this is a desired activity.

i think you would also love samui....both krabi and samui are lest touristed and workable....they are both smaller places...one other place to investigate is koh chang....i think in may you will find the weather better on the east coast, thus krabi is out....but allow others to comment on the weather part...

we were there the last two years in may and june....we found the mornings to be fantastic, but about lunch time it clouded up and some days had some rain in the late afternoon...all very manageable...

i personally do not like chiang mai, but many prefer it to any other place in thailand....i have no specific reason, it just sort of leaves me cold..

with only one week i would split my time between bkk and the beach, with 4 full days in bkk and the rest at the beach...

I've stayed in both places - Koh Samui 18 months ago and Krabi just three weeks ago. Koh Samui is fantastic and the weather in June (when I was there) excellent. Not sure about April. As Gpanda suggests, there is more night life in Koh Samui, especially Chaweng.

In terms of beaches, I preferred Krabi, but when I say that I really mean Railay Bay (http://www.railay.com/railay/intro/intro.shtml) don't make the mistake of staying Krabi itself!

I'm happy to answer a more specific question if you have one... what do you look for in a beach?

Cheers

Guy

In May weather should be better Samui side, but as it's the start of rainy season Phuket/Krabi rates are low and a lot of bargains. If you can chance the weather you can find a lot of bargains at that time.

I would add Koh Chang into this, weather May should be fine and if you want a quiet island with a mix of beach plus jungly/mountain style and laid back could be to your liking.

Getting there: Phuket has almost 20 flights on 5 airlines, so highly competative prices including budget carriers.
Krabi is Thai with about 4 per day, plus also 1 x daily with Thai Air Asia ( budget carrier )

Koh Samui is only bangkok Airways, lots of flights but just the one airline.

Koh Chang fly bangkok Airways 40 minutes 3 times per day, but you can also go for cheaper by express bus/ferry or car+driver/ferry.

There are other options such as Koh Tao ( really for diving ), Hua Hin / Pranburi ( beaches ok but not so great as likes of Krabi/Chang, but benefit is you can mix with temples, elephants, national parks etc and just a couple of hours by cab from Bangkok)