juliejj

Planning a Dec./Jan. trip to Thailand. I usually book out trips via the internet, but I have never been to asia. Is it easy and best to book the trip this way or is it cheaper and easier to go thru an agent? Or should I book hotels and flight only, then book tours thru the hotel when I arrive? Any experts out there? Thanks.

JamesA

If you are staying in Decv/Jan it is essential to book your hotels in advance as absolute Peak travel time. You should also be looking for your flights. Thailand is very easy to travel around in, there are also now several budget flight operators so if you can plan ahead you can gret real bargains.
As far as hotels are concered you can find a far bigger choice through Thailand based operators who offer not only the top range of hotels but a large number of mid-range mid-price hotels which are rarely if ever offered overseas. I am sure everyone will chip in with hotel ideas once you can give us an idea of how much time you want to spend in city/jungle/beach areas. Your first step though is to get 'shopping' for some good flight deals, many on this forum know the good flight deals, I am in Thailand so I don't know about your best deals from N.Am/Europe or wherever, but I and others will happily give you some place ideas if you can give us a 'feel' for how you want to spend your vacation.

Andrea_expat

I agree that you should book airfaire and hotels in advance, but for tours, I research online and then book upon arrival.

I research the tours online, choosing the ones that are my first choice in terms of price, itinerary, etc. (I tend to choose private tours, so I check for what kind of vehicle we'll be using, etc.). Then I print out the tour description page with price and contact information. Upon arrival, I can then compare my best option with what's available locally (usually for MUCH better prices).

Hotels are generally not the best place to get deals. On the islands and in the smaller cities, there are usually many travel agencies around the touristy shopping areas, so you can shop around. In some places, restaurants even have tours listed in the back of the menus!

Kathie

As others have said, I'd definitely book hotels and air in advance. Frankly, I don't use tours. I either hire a car and driver for the day or in cities, I simply use taxis or other transport to get me from place to place. No question, if you want tours, they are much less expensive booked locally.

Gpanda

The question of tour/self-booking comes down to comfort/innovation. As you can see from this board, it's easy to arrange everything yourself, air, hotels, sightseeing etc. I suspect that you will lose some time in inefficient transitions and planning. A tour would avoid this. However, on a tour you would also avoid the serendipitous happenings that can never be arranged. The first time we went to Thailand, we had everything arranged through Innovasian.com. The second time, we did all of our own planning. We had a great time both times.

MikeBuckley

<i>I suspect that you will lose some time in inefficient transitions and planning. A tour would avoid this.</i>

I believe that depends on the nature of the tour. If it is a group tour involving a bus that stops at every hotel to pick up and drop off each tourist, you'll likely lose more time in that process than the time lost from the inefficiency of making arrangements on your own the first time.

kareng

We are a family of five (2 adults and 3 kids, ages 17, 15 and 10) traveling for two weeks in Thailand in June. We would like to do some independent travel and some travel with tours. I am interested to read the advice not to book tours in advance. I have sometimes found when traveling with five that we have trouble getting what we want if we wait to book, but we have never traveled to Asia. Would your advice still hold for us? I realize we're not traveling at peak time. If we wait, will we really save money? Any help or advice will be appreciated!

Lyndie

Email [email protected]. She is a travel agent in Bangkok and we have used her several times for international,internal flights, train tickets, etc. They have a website www.olavi.com. We have had excellent service from olavi. We paid a little more (50-200 baht on most tickets)than organising flights and rail trips ourselves, however it was worth the effort. Thailand is a very user-friendly destination and I would book on the net if you've done it before. The heat in Bangkok can be horrible although Dec should be OK. Kati just saved us around US400 by us buying our tickets to Turkey via her instead of in Oz.