I recently finished writing up an extensive itinerary post based on our recent three week trip to Thailand.
https://www.kaveyeats.com/2018/02/3-...itinerary.html
It's closely based on our actual itinerary, but not identical -- we had to switch the order of ours a little because of limited availability for the Elephant Hills package we wanted, and I've applied what we learned to my recommendations.
I've included background on each destination, why to visit and some of our favourites, recommended hotels and places to eat, and of course some photographs.
I'm now working on individual posts for some of the destinations, which will go into more detail.
I hope you enjoy!


Ayutthaya


Bangkok (Longtail boat)


Cooking class in Chiang Mai


Temple in Chiang Mai


Khao Sok National Park


Doi Pha Mee, Akha Hill Tribe Community


Elephant Hills Sanctuary

Now also published:

Great Reasons to Visit Chiang Mai: https://www.kaveyeats.com/2018/02/ei...-thailand.html
Elephant Hills An Ethical Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand: https://www.kaveyeats.com/2018/02/el...-thailand.html

No idea if anyone is interested in these but in case... here's the latest post, the floating camp on Cheow Lan Lake in Khao Sok National Park:
https://www.kaveyeats.com/2018/03/a-...-thailand.html

ooh love your pictures - makes me "homesick" - looks like you had a wonderful time

Thank you, yes we really loved it!

Further posts:
Ayutthaya, temples and markets https://www.kaveyeats.com/2018/03/be...-thailand.html
My favourite Bangkok floating market https://www.kaveyeats.com/2018/03/be...ng-market.html
Visiting an Akha hill tribe community in northern Thailand https://www.kaveyeats.com/2018/04/vi...-thailand.html
Sites of Chiang Rai https://www.kaveyeats.com/2018/04/ch...op-sights.html



Tha Kha Floating Market


Sorting Coffee Beans - Baan Pha Mee


Ayutthaya


White Temple, Chiang Rai

Your pictures are awesome. I can just image because I am also planning my trip to Bangkok.

Thanks Virginia, I hope you love it. Click through to read my posts on Ayutthaya and on Bangkok's Floating Markets, if these are of interest for your time in Bangkok.

Very cool. I really want to go after reading that. The white temple is incredible.

i was a bit surprised by the hotel prices. They seem rather high? But it’s difficult to tell from pictures about amenities vs price. Have you been to Thailand before? I’m wondering what a decent budget hotel would be expected to cost. Although you did mention it was high season?

Hi marvelous mouse,
Yes we did travel in high season and this was our first trip. You could certainly find much much cheaper accommodation, Thailand definitely caters very well for the budget traveller, especially outside of Bangkok. But I am very fussy on exact location, plus size of bed, bathroom facilities and room size.
The two most expensive experiences were the akha hill tribe your and the elephant camp / floating camp package inclusive of activities.
K

The last post I did in collaboration with other bloggers, a guide to souvenirs to buy in Thailand: https://www.kaveyeats.com/2018/05/th...-thailand.html

We will be in Chiang Rai in Jan and also have only 2 nights. Were you happy with your driver /guide and how did you book him? Also what was the approximate cost? Thank you.

I would not recommend our guide, they didn't give us much / any extra information on the sites we visited, whereas we had really hoped for that extra history and insight. I think, given how our guide was taking selfies of himself at one sight, that he'd possibly not been there before, though he did know enough to give us a short history of it, where to go for quick entry and so on. For us, the main value of the private guide and driver was really in being taken to each site, not losing any time figuring out where to park, and having someone else sort tickets or translate when needed.

I found ours by googling Chiang Rai tours (lots of operators) and looking at what their itineraries included.

Main things I'd suggest looking into:
* Private or public tour
* Type of vehicle, a lot of the companies seem to use open-backed vehicles with side-attached bench seating in the back for passengers which are fine if driving within a town but not so great for the fast autoroutes between some of the sights outside Chiang Rai. I'd seen photos of some of these and specifically booked a regular car / van with front-facing seating.
* Driver and guide, so driver can worry about finding a parking space after letting you and guide off, maximises sightseeing time
* Obviously, since all the tour companies have multiple guides, it's hard to choose for a better guide than we had, but we were still overall happy we booked the tour

we had a great driver guide out of Chiang Rai - see if you can find my trip report wtih the information as I am away from home and don't remember the name off hand. I think it was around $200 a day - whatever it was it was incredibly cheap by us standards. Let me know if I can help more

Laura, you paid $200 a day for a driver/guide? In Thailand, that is extremely expensive. While Drivers/Guides are more expensive in the Chiang Rai area than in Chiang Mai ( where a typical price is closer to $40-$50 a day), that is still a lot of money.