Any recommendations re travel to Bankok, Ankor Wat, etc for a great tour? Or, should we try to find guides or local English speaking tours in each spot?

I find SE Asia remarkably easy to travel, so I never do a tour. You can find local English-speaking guides everywhere. I usually use my hotel to recommend someone, and I've never had a bad experience. <BR><BR>For a preview of Angkor Wat, check out www.marlandc.com My traveling companion put together a website of our photos. We spent a week there and loved every minute.

Have you done most of your travel outside the US on pre-arranged tours? Or is this your first time to SE Asia so you feel you need a tour?<BR><BR>I agree with Kathie that a tour is unnecessary and personally I would prefer to be on my own schedule.<BR><BR>So...what are the ages of the mother and the daughter? When are you going? For how long? What are your interests --shopping, temples, cultural activities, etc.? I can recommend hotels in Bangkok and Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), and guides for Angkor. But the choice of going on a tour or on your own is one you must make for your own comfort level.

I would agree with everyone that you probably don't need an organized tour group.<BR><BR>I took my mother to Bangkok for a week in 2000 and we had a great time on our own.<BR><BR>I went to Angkor Wat last month with my husband and we had a fabulous time. I can highly recommend a local guide we had there. I found here right here on the Fodor's board. Here name is Ponheary Ly and you can reach her at [email protected] Also do a search of this baord to read more about her.<BR><BR>You can see my trip to Bangkok with my Mother and the beginning of my trip to Cambodia (more to be posted soon)on my website if you want.<BR>http://www.wired2theworld.com

I also agree that booking a tour is unneccessary. When you get to your destination it is educational and helpful to hire a guide for a day or even several days. You can hire your own driver with a guide and they will wait for you at all the sights while your guide takes you to the sights.

However...I have been at Angkor Wat and heard a locally hired guide speaking with great authority and total inaccuracy about one of the bas reliefs. It is a good idea to get a reputable guide through your hotel or a recommendation from someone who has been there. <BR><BR>Let me also recommend self-guiding using Dawn Rooney's excellent and thorough book on the temples. Please buy the book before you get to Cambodia as the ones sold at Angkor are rip-offs and the author gets no royalties from their sales.

Thank you for your response. We have maybe 16 days for the trip. My daughter is now back in school after a career change. Funny now that she works part time we could have taken time off from work but school will limit us. We would love recommendations for guides and hotels as we will not be doing a tour. I'm thinking 4 days in Bangkok, a few in the north, maybe a beach resort for R&R for my 29 year old daughter, maybe 3 days in Angkor Wat. She is studying interior design we'll want to do some museums and visits to markets to see their fabrics. And yes we'll want to soak in the culture for sure. Looking forward to your reply. Harriet

I'm unfamiliar with chat rooms so I posted the above message as a reply with Marilyn's name as sender. Sorry Marilyn.

No problem, Harriet. I will send you a direct email sometime in the next few days, if that's ok with you, with a bunch of info that I hope will be helpful.