package tours to thailand, flying from us
 

Can anyone recommend a good package tour to Thailand (about 15 days) with participants who range in ages? Thanks!

Is there a reason you want a group tour to Thailand?

Thailand is remarkably easy and safe to travel in - no reason to be part of a bus tour that puts you in mediocre hotels that are inconveniently located, eat bland food, or make shopping stops that don't interest you.

Tell us exactly what you want. We can help you plan a trip that meets your needs.

I agree with Kathie...

several of us here have spent many wonderful vacations in Thailand and are more than willing to guide you through with the details..

its very easy...

there are 3 or 4 main areas of interest in T: Bangkok, the beaches/islands, chiang mai and the golden triangle...

get yourself a general guidebook like frommers or fodors or insight...take a read and start asking questions...

we know airlines, hotels, guides, food, entertainment, etc..

we are eager to help and to save you money---big $$

Are you travelling solo? I can understand the "group thing" if you are going somewhere by yourself for your first experience in a new (and pretty exotic) place.

It really is fairly easy to meet some very nice people along the way, without having to be shuttled around on a group tour that may or may not take you to places that are of interest to you.

Carol

In 2004, my daughter and I took a 2 week tour with Pacific Delight, then stayed in Thailand an additional week on our own.

I spent some time researching Thailand and made a list of places we wanted to go and things we wanted to do. We were very fortunate that I found a tour that included almost everything we would have wanted to see on our own. It had a very good balance of organized tour time and free time, which was very important to me. I didn't want us to just be always on the go with a tight tour schedule. We had a relatively small group (13) and our guide, driver and assistant were wonderful. And, the tour was VERY affordable (said by a single mom who paid for both my daughter and myself). As I said, we were very fortunate.

I agree that you can do Thailand on your own. My advice would be to do some research first. See if doing it on your own doesn't start to appeal to you. If not, there are a ton of tours out there so, look for one that includes the things you want to do/places you want to go and make sure that they allow you some free time, even if just a free half day here and there.

This probably wouldn't be my personal choice and I'm not necessarily recommending it, but I just happened to see this today, so I'm passing it along. Definitely do your research on this one, if it looks interesting to you:

http://www.groupon.com/deals/ga-paci...and?c=all&p=92

Price looks great, but don't let that be the only factor in deciding!

Stephanie

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies. The main reason I was thinking of a group tour is because I'm in my 40's and traveling alone. My husband can't accompany me this time. I thought it might difficult to meet people along the way if you're traveling solo and older, and not a twenty-something anymore. Will consider my options...
Also, does anyone know when the smoke conditions are the worst, either from the burning of the fields in the North or the "second hand" smoke from Indonesia? Thanks.

The smoke in northern Thailand is worst in March. Sometimes it starts in late Feb, sometimes goes into April. I've not experienced smoke from Indonesia in Thailand, but have in Singapore.

I wouldn't hesitate to travel solo at your age - indeed, I did. And I found it very easy to meet other travelers and easier to talk with locals as a solo traveler.

modernglobal,
I, personally, completely understand your reason for wanting a tour rather than going on your own. I think I'd feel the same even after having been there before. I guess I'm just not that much of an independent traveler yet. :-)

I get daily emails from Vacations-to-Go and today's just happened to include this tour offered by Globus --
http://www.tourvacationstogo.com/tou...&nr=df3_Q0k_NS

The price is more than I, personally, would want to spend, but the itinerary would absolutely appeal to me.

this is for sure an exhausting tour in 2 weeks... no down time.. no recovery from jet lague unless you go to bkk earlier... no time to linger if you see something you like.

price is not bad given that the flt alone would cost $1200-1500.

what is the single supplement pricing??

I retread the itinerary and it is pretty jam packed, but there is a little bit of down time and the time on the bus (i.e. day 6) could also be down time as well. I guess the activities really appeal to me; some I saw/did on my first trip, some I've got planned for my trip in August and others will just have to wait for another trip.

Depending on where you're traveling from, jet lag may or may not be an issue. I think you, rhkkmk, have been to Asia many more times than me, so I hesitate to disagree with you. I can just go by my own experiences. Coming from Los Angeles, I've experienced no jet lag going to China, Thailand or Japan, but had horrible jet lag on my return home.

I did not look for the single supplement price, but I guess the price seemed high to me because of how little we are spending, so far, for our 2 week trip. Using miles and points for flights and hotel rooms is leaving us with a total of $300/ea so far. This includes flying to Kuala Lumpur, taking the train to Singapore, flying from Singapore to Bangkok, a private tour in Kanchanaburi and a couple hotel nights where we couldn't use points. Thinking about it, that tour price actually does not seem excessive given all the tour includes.

IMO, one can always do better on one's own, over a tour. Frankly, this tour looks ghastly to me. Not enough time anywhere for a real experience of the place. A mere two days at Angkor might be enough for people who have little interest, but it doesn't even give you enough time to see all of the major temples.

There are whole days riding on a bus - see days 4, 5 and 6. It sounds like you see a lot, but much of this will be drive-bys.

The day 7 hilltribe excursion will be to a "human zoo" type setting, though given all that is packed into that day the visit will be mercifully brief.

The day 8 visit to the elephant camp is to one of the tourist-oriented camps. The care of the elephants is not the priority here.

I could go on and on about the problems with this tour, but I think you get the idea.

I'd just like to clarify that it's the items on this tour that would appeal to me - not the timing of the itinerary. As I said before, to do/see everything on this tour, it would take 3 separate trips for me, so I'm not necessarily in disagreement with rhkkmk or Kathie. I think the point I was trying to make is, if you want to take a tour, find one that includes things you want to do/places you want to go. Do some research first so you know what those things might be. On our upcoming trip to Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, we opted not to take a day tour to some of the more popular sites because the tours included places we had little to no interest in and we didn't want to be stuck going to them, thereby wasting our time and limiting our time to see other things that we do want to see.