Hi everyone,

I need some help on recommendations for an upcoming trip to Thailand (and possibly a few days in Hong Kong). We will have 14 days in late Nov (12 days of actual time minus 2 travel days). The problem I am having is convincing my Wife and Father in law to skip Hong Kong (they want to go there for a few days also). Below is a basic itinerary.

Bangkok (5 days). Including a daytrip to the floating market and Ayutthaya in this time along with everything else to see Grand Palace, Shopping, etc)

Chiang Mai (3-4 days)
Krabi (3-4 days) (would love to go to the beach)

or

substitute Hong Kong for one of the above.

My question is this. What is so special about Chiang Mai that makes
It worth traveling that far North for? I included it in my itinerary because
Everyone else was. Going out on Elephants and seeing a local village sounds
like fun, but what else unique could we do? I would prefer to stay in Thailand
For the whole trip so I need to develop some interesting things to see to sell
the other two in my party on avoiding Hong Kong , extra days of travel, etc.
I also noticed that you can take daytrips from Bangkok out to ride elephants as well
which so far is the only thing that sounds interesting in Chiang Mai.

Advice?

I'm not a fan of CM. Some people love it, other people yawn. When I go to Northern Thailand, I want to be in the countryside. I prefer the Golden Triangle area (you fly in to Chiang Rai). Or take a look for a recent post about Pai (Hanuman found a great place to stay there), and look at other northern destinations such as Mae Hong Son (the Fern resort comes highly recommended) and Chiang Dao Nest (I hope I have that name right). Any one of those would be a great substitute for CM.

Three days in Hong Kong is just not enough. Save it for another trip.

You could also do Phuket and Ko Phi Phi to explore the beaches in addition to Bangkok and leave it at that. It's the season for Phuket/Krabi beach side, so I would definitely do the beach in some way.

Phuket sounds to commericalized. Krabi sounded more remote, cliffs, better beach reviews etc. We love kayaking, hiking, snorkling, etc. I like quieter beach areas as well.

skip CM...its not that special and your time is very limited...

i would do only HK and BKK....i also would skip ayutt....plenty to do in bkk and with the short time two trips outside the city would be too much...

so i would suggest 6 days bkk and 5 days HK, plus a travel day between...

the extra day in bkk is to adjust yourselves...

Why skip Chiang Mai? We were interested in seeing more remote places and parts of the country and some of the Hill tribes, along with seeing some of the beaches while we were there, but I also would like to see Hong Kong. We will need to drop something I guess. We also like ruins which is why we picked Ayutthaya as well. questions:

Can you trek on Elephants outside Bangkok?

Would you suggest dropping Hong Kong, Chiang Mai, and Ayutthaya and seeing Angor Wat for 3 days instead (ruins)?

Of the beaches in the South has does Krabi compare to the others?

Choose a max of three places, but you'll have more time to explore and enjoy with two places. You say "We were interested in seeing more remote places and parts of the country and some of the Hill tribes.." If you get way outside of CM you can do that, but I'd recommend a more rural location. My first response to your queston gives suggestions. No where outside of Bangkok will give you a real feel for the elephants. You'll have to go to the north.

everyone thanks so much for your advice.
The thing that makes this so tough is deciding what to do. One more question:

How does Krabi stack up against the other Beaches? In pictures I have seen it looks gorgeous.

Krabi is gorgeous. It is way less developed than Phuket. Go there.

The choice seems to be HK or CM. It's simple. Do you want two totally urban experiences, HK and BKK or would you rather have a totally urban experience, BKK and another with a possibility of some countryside, CM. CM has easy acces to elephant rides, hill tribes and hiking.

If you like kayaking and hiking, then PLEASE COME TO HONG KONG. The hiking is abosolutley suberb and you can find some very challenging trails. There is kayaking as well. November is a perfect month here in terms of temps for walking. If you really want to challenger yourself and will be here in November 7-9 join the 100 km Trailwalker hike of the entire McLehose Trail for charity, but beware the Gurkas virtually always win it … See http://www.oxfamtrailwalker.org.hk/en/home.html

You, like many many people, are just reading the tourist stuff about Hong Kong and are missing all the outdoor activities on offer. It’s over 40% parkland here. You can come and spend NO time in the city if you want. Take a look at my thread called
“Cicerone’s Reccos for What the Locals Do for Fun in Hong Kong (Hint: We DON’T Go to those Awful Night Markets....)”

I can't promise we won't have pollution in November, but the hiking is still good even if views are a bit obscured. You should be here today, you can see almost to Macau.

While I liked CM, I didn't love it. This might be due to the fact that we didn't do any treks or sign up for whatever activities tour companies were selling. So if you don't plan on doing a trekking/hill tribe/white water rafting (did I really see that on an ad?) then I would say skip it. The best thing we did around Chiang Mai was in Lampang (elephants). The food was good though!

How does Krabi stack up against the other Beaches? In pictures I have seen it looks gorgeous.....................???? Well Jimbo, without doubt Krabi is incredibly beautiful, especially the Railay Bay area, but after many years visiting this part of the world Phi Phi pushes all the buttons for me.
You might find more to entertain you at Krabi (if that's what you want), but you will find much better beaches in many parts of Phi Phi.
If you like quiet, then maybe Phi Phi will be better suited to you.....provided...you choose carefully.

I am one of the people on this forum that loves Chiang Mai. The city is still fairly large without being overwhelming, there are great restaurants and fun bars and I really enjoyed the Sunday walking market and getting cheap foot massages each day!

If you are looking for something a little more remote you should consider Chiang Dao, which is just about an hour north of Chiang Mai. From there you could do some of the trek type activities such as riding an elephant and drifting a river on a bamboo raft.

Check it out at www.chiangdao.com. it is a little slice of paradise!

The Krabi region is stunning. I would recommend staying on either East or West Railay. These beaches are only accesible via boat. From these beaches there are many day trip options including some wonderful kayaking. You could go over to Ao Nang for the day but we did that and were sooooo glad we didn't stay there!

Have a great trip!