RAILAY- KOH LANTA-KHO PHI PHI
 

Hello ,
we will hire a car in Bangkok and we go to the south . But I have a problem. We will spend 1 night in Railay and we thought to go the next day to Kho Lanta to the waterfall bay in Anda Lanta Resort and then go the next day to phi phi and spend 1 night in Phi Phi. After Phi phi, we have to go back to Koh Lanta to pick up the car and then go to Phuket and fligh to Bangkok the next day. Do you think it is too much or do you think it can be done easily.
We will better go back to phuket from Phi phi directly by boat but we have the car...

The other solution will be to leave the car in KRABI and go to Railay,1 night and then go directly to Phi phi from Railay, spend 2 nights and go back to Phuket by boat. Is it worth it to go to Koh lanta or not? Moreover we have 2 small kids and it might be difficult to move without car with all the luggages...
Once in Kho phi phi how much time do we need to visit by boat the main islands?
How long will it take to go from Railay to Kho Lanta? Are the ferries to go to kho lanta by car are quick or do we need to spend 1 day in traffic?

Sorry I find your post a bit confusing. Are you hiring a car or a car PLUS a driver?
If you are hiring a car how are you leaving it behind when you fly back to BKK?
And if you are hiring a car plus a driver and you will terminate his services in Krabi (Koh Lanta?) then that also doesn't make much sense as a car plus driver is pretty useless to you if you're going island hopping around on ferries. Sure you can drive to Koh Lanta but I've done it a few times and it isn't much fun. Those car ferries take their time, roads are rough.
Unless you have some great reason to have a car with you, I suggest you fly to Krabi and travel around on the ferries, that are cheap and regular and lots of fun.

In fact we are hiring a car WITHOUT driver from Bangkok
and we go
1 night in Prachuap Khiri kan
2 night in Khao Sok
1 night in Khao lak
1 night in Railay
1 night in Koh lanta
1 night Koh phi phi
1 night Phuket and flight to Bangkok in the morning
Last night in Bangkok
we have to give back our car in Phuket airport(One way) before flying back to Bangkok .
But I can still change the booking for the car and give back the car in Krabi airport . In this case we will go to Railay 1 night,
2 night in Phi phi from Railay by ferry
and 1 night Phuket by ferry and we will forget a bout Kho Lanta. What do you think?

Using a car+driver from place to place is easy in preference to getting a rental.

If you still plan on a rental I would leave it in krabi ( Budget or Avis ) and then just use local transport for Koh Lanta, Phi Phi etc, it would make sense to do Railey-Koh Lanta-Phu Phi-Phuket but you are only giving yourself 1 night in these place except Khao Sok ( 2 nights ), you are going to be spending all your time getting from one place to another, unpack, get settled, and next day packing up again.

From Railey you can do a day trip to Phi Phi and then just get a car+driver or mini-van service from the hotel to take you to Phuket Airport for your bangkok flight.

In prachuap are you planning to stay in prachuap town? There is really only 1 hotel there and instead I would deffinately say to night-stop in Hua Hin. I would also suggest that if you are set on a rental that you take a cab or limo from Bangkok to Hua Hin and pick up the rental from there, driving a rental out of Bangkok is no fun especialy with children in the car too.

What I would do anyway is use car+drivers, easily arranged at each hotel the day before.

I would go Bangkok to Hua Hin, then from Hua Hin to Khao Sok for the 2 nights, then straight through to Krabi(Railey) and base yourself there and then venture on day trips to those other places.

Just do Hua hin 1 night, Khao Sok 2 nights and then base at Railey or even Ao Nang.

I have driven those routes many many times over years and although I very often suggest beach hopping along the coast when heading down south as a great way of seeing more of the country I always strongly suggest using a car+driver and not doing a rental yoursleves.
However adventurous you are you can't realy spend all that time going from place to place you will simply have no time left to enjoy them, sorry if it sounds a bit 'to the point' but I and others who love Thailand really want you to enjoy yourselves so unfortunately I think others are going to agree simply too many places, one night in each, you will not have time to relax and enjoy the places.

On the cost side: A small sedan from Budget/Avis will cost perhaps THB 1,500-1,700 per day, plus your fuel, a rough idea about THB 500 - 700, that cost is roughly the same as what a car+driver would cost you but almost all cases the car with the driver would be a larger sedan or mini-van or station wagon. Also you would have to leave the rental in Ao nang whilst you go to Railey and also leave it again doing Phi Phi.
Every hotel will gladly arrange a car with a driver known to them who will take you place to place, it is a great and easy and stress free way to get around, but again I would base yourself at one place in the krabi area and do Koh lanta and Phi Phi as trips from there.

i think james makes good points, but i might add.....what kind of a vacation will this really be....you spend all your time travelling from one place to another, in a strage country where there are few road signs, with two little kids in the car....sounds like a disaster waiting to happen to me...

i can appreciate your wanted to see as much as you can but this way all you will see is pavement....you have no down time and no time to even visit places and relax....

also the point about renting the car, if you must, from hua hin is a very valid one....driving in and around bangkok is not for the uninformed....that is why you never see any posts here about car rentals in and out of bangkok....DON'T DO IT...

ok . I think I have to work again on the itinerary. Concerning the car,we don't plan to go inside Bangkok. So can you give me some advices how to get out of the airport direction the south .Is there a ring? Is it easy to get on without entering in Bangkok?
We will finally give the car back to Krabi . We will stay 1 night in Railay and 2 nights in Kho phi phi and back directly to Phuket by the ferry.
So we will not go to Ko Lanta.
In Prachuap we will stay exactly in Hat Ban Krut, the ban klang aow beach resort.
Thank you for your comments .

mariechristine,

Bob is right. I have driven in some big cities in Europe but I wouldn't even attempt it in Bangkok! There are rules of the road but it seems they are followed loosely.

Did you bump your head before you planned this trip? :-) Sorry, but it just looks like far too much work to me. I am afraid your children will never go on a holiday with you again if you put them through this.

All kidding aside, Thailand is such a great country but it is also quite large and the distance between some places can take hours or even a full day of travel.


You are truly going to spend you entire vacation just getting from place to place. I think you may be underestimating the travel times between each destination.

As far as I know, there is no vehicle traffic on Ko Phi Phi and the only way to get there is by ferry.

I would suggest that you base yourself on either Phuket or Phi Phi and the take day trips to other islands. This will allow you to settle in your hotel and relax while still seeing some beautiful islands.

Good luck with your planning and have a terrific trip!

OK, I have a clearer picture now. However, I still think the best thing you can do is forget the car idea altogether, fly to Phuket and spend your time traveling around Phuket-PP-Lanta-KohJum-Krabi/Railay on the ferries.
Remember if you have an sort of motor accident in Thailand your holiday in paradise turns into a nightmare in hell.

Bang Saphan / Baan krut is nice, I know
Baan Klangdaow in Bang saphan and it's nice, that would normaly be about 6 hours by road from Bangkok.

Some very clever people might say 'it's easy, it's ok', well I drive between Jomtien on the outer expressways to head through Hua hin a lot, I know the route but I know it by experience, not by signs, I know that when a sign appears to show I should take the next right excit to ignore it because the way the direction sign curves it actually means the left exit.

Getting off a long haul flight with children in tow my most polite and humblest opinion would not be to load up into a rental for a drive through the BKK expressway system and then head out on a 6 hour journey to a remote area. Getting into around bang Saphan also needs knowing, there are at least 4 different ways.
I would skip in this case Baphan, I would just take a taxi/limo from the airport to Hua Hin and get Budget to deliver your rental to you next day in Hua Hin. Over 15 years and if "I" go into Bangkok by road I park at a shopping mall east of the city and cab into the center, and on return take a cab to the mall and pick up the car.
Another advantage is that Budget in Hua Hin will be able to show you a clear way to your resort in Bang saphan and they will also without doubt glady write the details in Thai for you to show at any gas station for assistance.

Your road route from bang saphan to Khao Sok: Back to main highway south and then head east, this is a very mountainous single roud, constant hair-pin bends, up and down to K'Sok, not many turn directions required but it is a very hilly up and down road, lots of trucks and stuff. Again, I would just get Baan Klangaow to arrange a driver and a car to take you. Note that rental companies will probably not ask for your Internation DL/permit but it is however 'required' to have one.

so we regulars have said don't do it and now our resident expert, jamesA, has said the same thing.....don't drive through bkk....

ring road---no not like in other cities...there is the expressway system but who can figure it out without experience and james has pointed out how the signs work...

also do you not see our point about spending all of your vacation in the car and not seeing thailand at all???

its your trip of course, but you asked for assistance...

Marie, on our most recent trip to bang saphan we stayed at banito resort which is great with children as they have lots of different sized places and duplex suites with 1 or 2 bedrooms and family houses too, prices range from about USD 23 for a twin, seaview 37, suites about 78, it's really nice and we enjoyed it.

http://www.r24.org/beachsiam.com/hua...beach/details/


For Khao Sok National Park the Greenery resort is great, rooms/bungalows around USD 27, family suite about USD 34 (!!) absolute bargain and they run the jeep safaris into the park from there, nice pool, very natural surroundings
http://www.r24.org/beachsiam.com/pha...aburi/details/

My suggestion for Khao Sok is Limestone Lake Rainforest Tours. They run great accom and activity itineraries in the park and at the lake. Great for kids, prices good, friendly and professional. We travelled with our two small ch'n and they loved it - treehouse accom, elephant riding, boat trips, jungle - superb. www.limestonelaketours.com

I am not sure, but maybe you have also overlooked the distances you want to drive; it is around 1000 kms between Bangkok and Phuket; even though the roads are good, the Thais are driving as if they actually really believed they will be reborn in a next life. Having kids in the car in a foreign country is just a bad idea, if you have not driven here before.

You might miss Hua Hin in your itinerary, but flying from Bangkok to Phuket you can reach everything else very easy by car or tour bus from there and distances are very manageable: Krabi, Phi Phi (see: http://phi-phi.com), Khao Sok, etc.