ryanjriv

My fiancee and I are trying to put together a honeymoon and are starting to set our sights on Thailand. She's not the type to go for sitting on a beach for a week, so we're looking for something that includes a big city experience, culture/history, some sort of eco-tourism leg or excursion(s), and a day or two doing the beach relaxation thing.

We're using a two week itinerary given to us by a travel agent as a rough guide that includes Bangkok, Siem Reap, Chiang Mai, and Phuket, but we're open to anything. We know SE Asia can be done on the cheap, but since this is our honeymoon, we'd like to shoot for closer to high end than cheapest-way-possible. Ideally, we'd like to spend no more than $10K. This would be 10-14 days in June 2009.

In addition to any general suggestions...

1) How much should this trip cost? Cheapest possible, most expensive, and in the middle?

2) Is Phuket the best place to go for the beach portion of the trip?

3) Are there any travel agents you'd recommend? The first I contacted was Explorient (who some posts suggest may be more expensive than it should be) and I've seen in the forum recommendations for Innovasian Travel.

Gpanda

Four places is too many for two weeks. I would cut out Chiang Mai. You don't need a travel agent. In Bangkok, reserve Tong as a guide for one day. She can be reached at TourwithTong.com. In Siem Riep, reserve Ponheary or Dara for three days. They can be reached at [email protected]. She can also help with hotels.

For a beach, Phuket is not the place for June. Either Hua Hin (a 2 1/2 hirsdtour drive from BKK) or Ko Samui will have better weather.

If you go to SR and Ko Samui, you can save money by getting a Discovery pass from Bangkok Air, the only BKK-SR carrier. You call the 800 number which is a call center in India. You make the reservations (Check the website first, so you will know the flights you want). The cheapest way to book is to send a certified check to the address in NYC. This saves the credit card percentage charge. We've done this twice and it's worked perfectly.

You will have a great time.

Kathie

Gpanda has given you some good advice. Your travel agent has not.

In two weeks, (and do opt for as many days as you can) you want no more than three locations. Bangkok, Siem Reap and a beach location would be a good combination. As Andy says, Phuket is not the place to go in June (unless you are looking for rain and rough seas, but off-season prices).

Believe me, you can do this trip, staying in very luxurious places for much less than $10k. You can do it cheaper on your own than by using a travel agent as well. You can book your own air, and hotels are easy to reserve online.

ryanjriv

Thanks for the advice. A couple follow up questions, assuming a new itinerary of Bangkok, Siem Reap, and either Hua Hin or Ko Samui...

Discounting personal preference, is there any particular order of travel that makes most sense? From some of the other posts, it looks like you may favor spending a few days in Bangkok both coming and going.

Given past experience looking through the forums, it seems the most avid travelers favor a more is more approach. But given our personal style, we tend to get overwhelmed/jaded/bored in a single trip (ex: in Italy, after a few days in the same city, it was like "Oh, another priceless piece of art or thousand year old church.&quot Given this, what would you say is the absolute minimum must stay length for each stop? And should we maybe bring back Chiang Mai?

For hotels, do you recommend booking directly or is there a best website to go through? (I've seen listed elsewhere on the site places like http://www.sawadee.com/ and http://www.asiarooms.com/)

Thanks again,

Ryan

Gpanda

Ryan-three days in Siem Riep. It sounds like Ko Samui will be better than Hua Hin, but it will add a lot to the cost. There's more to do in KS.

Using 12 days as a middle amount (that's a two week trip from the US), I suggest:

BKK 3 days
SR 3 days
KS 4 days
BKK 2 days

If you fly Bangkok Air just figure out the schedule so you can go from SR-KS with a smooth transition through BKK.

Kathie

Again, Andy has given you excellent advice. Three destinations is plenty. There will be so much new to do and see you are more likely to feel overwhelmed than ho-hum. And Andy's adive about the order of things and the Bangkok Air Discovery pass is excellent.

I typically use sawadee to book hotels in Thailand or else I book with the hotel directly, which ever can get me what I want for the best price. Tell us which hotels you are considering and we can be helpful. Or, give us a per night price and we can suggest places.

shanek

Hi Ryan, The advice you are getting is very sound. Remember that there will be some excellent day trips available at both Samui and Bangkok so in 4 days at either place you will not get board. I am an avid Thailand traveller but I also like to be on the go to the extent that some people close to me like to think that I may have ADD, but I have spent 2 weeks in Samui alone and still found plenty to do. I am yet to get to Siem Reap but I would love to include it on my next trip. I would definately keep it to 3 legs as the most tedious part of travelling is the travel and even a 1 hour flight can become a 7 hour ordeal of checking-out/taxi/waiting/flight/waiting/taxi/check-in (get my drift),so you really want to keep moving days to a minimum. As much as I have loved my time in Chang Mai,I think the parts that I loved are no longer the same. The hill-tribe treks are now just a commercial animal rather than a cultural experience. So my vote will also be for a BKK-SR-SAMUI itinerary.
On the subject of the order of your trip, this would depend alot on the amount of shopping that you would like to do. I deal with the public in a fast paced industry so my ideal thing to do is to get to the beach first and unwind for 4 days,then get the cultural experience and finally the big city buzz and get my shopping done without having to lug it around for the rest of my trip. My wife prefers it the other way and likes to chill out at the end of the trip,so we tend to debate this constantly. The right anwser is that there is no right anwser. Do whatever suits you personally.