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Land of Smiles"Thailand" => About Thailand => Topic started by: JoeDW on August 21, 2012, 10:58:49 PM
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Hi,
This is my first time on this forum, and it will be my first time traveling to Thailand. I leave the US on December 24th and return January 8 I'll be traveling alone but I would like to meet other young adults traveling and make friends.
Does anyone know where I should stay for New Years? Im staying in Bangkok for 25th through the 28th then thinking of going to Phuket and staying there till the 2nd of January and going on from there to Karibi and then Chang Mai
Any suggestions or thoughts?
Will anyone on here be traveling during that time?
Joseph
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Hi Joseph
I think you might like to stay at Khao San Road in Bangkok (Near Sanam Luang), there lots of backpackers and I think you may like enjoy travel around there (Food,Temples,Museum),
About go to Phuket ,if you will fly from BKK I advice you to looking flight of AirAsia (cheap and okay), or you can take Bus at Khao San.
and then you can fly from Krabi - Chang Mai.
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24 dec - 8 jan - 15 days
25-28 dec BKK
29-2 Jan Phuket
6 days left to get to Krabi and then Chaing Mai? Why rush? Spend an extra day in each of BKK andPhuket and 4 days in either Krabi OR Chiang Mai. Less stress.
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Thank you Kaki I was actually thinking that maybe I should spend more time in less places. But now I'm thinking maybe I should go North from BKK and then head south to the beaches of Phi Phi for new years and then make my way across to ko Samui and then pattaya. Still I might be pushing it. There's just so much I want to do
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24 dec - 8 jan - 15 days
25-28 dec BKK
29-2 Jan Phuket
6 days left to get to Krabi and then Chaing Mai? Why rush? Spend an extra day in each of BKK andPhuket and 4 days in either Krabi OR Chiang Mai. Less stress.
Thank you DC,
A lot of advice has led me to stay near the khan San Road and take in all the culture. I want to visit the floating markets, and of course some temples maybe even a muay Thai fight. I'm not sure if I should go to Phuket or karibi to spend new years. Where do you think I'll have more fun?
I also heard something about moon parties, do these happen often?
Thank you
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Hi JoeDW,
Khao San Road is a great place for backpackers.
December is high season in Thailand. Air fare and room rate will be very high. For AirAsia, now it cost approx. THB1900 from Bangkok to Phuket. If you book the tickets well in advance you can still get THB2200 from Bangkok to Phuket during December. If you book in December, the price might go up to THB4000++. From Phuket, you can fly to Chiang Mai directly. If you book now it still cost THB3700. In December, the price of all flights will be double.
One thing you should know about travelling by air. There little difficulty now about making a transit to other cities as the domestic airport is not in the same location of International airport anymore. It was moved a few months ago. Domestic airport is now 45km away from International one. Transit to other cities is not easy as before.
Travelling by buses from Bangkok - Phuekt - Chiang Mai can be economical, but takes a long time to get to the destinations. For example from Bangkok to each city mentioned above, it takes at least 10-12 hours per trip. Also the cost is not that cheap as we thought. It will cost between THB600-THB900 per trip. If you look at price of air fare, you can tell that air fare is only twice expensive than of those buses. Flying can cut time from 12 hours to just 1-2 hours. So you will have more quality time to enjoy your trips.
During New Year Krabi will be more quiet than Phuket. New Year in Krabi (Phi Phi Island) is perfect for a honeymoon, but if you travel alone and feel like to have more fun, I suggest to go to Phuket. There is more fun there.
You mentioned about full-moon party. It is in Phangan Island.There is full-moon party held each month, on the full-moon night. Many people said that this event is the biggest full-moon party in the world.
The party will be held on 28 (full moon party) and 31, December 2012 (New Year Eve), also 25 for Christmas night. It will be a lot of fun there.
When you go to Phangan, it is also worth to go to Samui (the Island next to it). In fact, there are more tourists in Samui than in Phangan. To go and stay in Samui & Phangan for full-moon, it's good to spend 1 night in Samui and another night in Phangan. Totally 15 days, then you may have to cut one day from Bangkok and one day from Phuket trip to go to Samui & Phangan.
Seeing from your schedule, if you choose to go to Phangan for full-moon party (28 Dec) and Phuket for new year (31 Dec), you have to leave Chiang mai after the New Year.
From Bangkok to Samui & Phangan, you can take a bus in Bangkok, or a train to Surat Thani city, or air plane to Surat thani airport. From the airport or the city to the habour it takes 1 hour. If you want to do this trip you have to plan carefully because there are only 3 boats to Samui a day. There is an option that you can go from mainland to Phangan directly (and from Phangan, go to Samui or back to mainland)
Assuming you want to go to Samui first. You should go with this order, mainland --> Samui --> Phangan --> mainland. The first boat that leaves mainland hobour to Samui is at 07:00, and the last one is 14:30 hours. For the trip back, the last boat that leave Phangan to the mainland is at 12:30 hours daily.
When you reach mainland, you can go to Phuket or Krabi by bus (approx 4 hours to Phuket and 2.30 hours to Krabi). There is no flight (AirAsia) from Krabi to Chiang Mai. So between Phuket and Krabi, you have to plan that in the way your last day in the south is in Phuket. From Phuket you can fly to Chiang mail directly. After that fly back to Bangkok and spend last few days in Bangkok before heading back home. 15 days, I think the schedule will be a little bit tight but it will be a lot of fun. The trips can look something like this.
Bangkok --> Surat Thani (Bus, train and air plane: 10, 14 and 1 hours, respectively)
Surat Thani (habour) --> Samui (ferry) : 2:30 hours
Samui --> Phangan (ferry) : 1 hour
Phangan --> Surat Thani (habour) (ferry): 2:45 hours
Surat Thani (habour) --> Krabi (bus): 2-3 hours
Krabi --> Phuket (ferry) : 2 hours
Phuket --> Chiang Mai (air plane): 1.5 hours
Chiang mai --> Bangkok (air plane): 1 hour
And don’t forget to allow some time in case of waiting time.
Enjoy your trip and have a nice holiday in Thailand. :-)
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I'm taking my 14th trip to bangkok this December, arriving 2 days after you.
Since you have 2 weeks, Choose the north or the south, but not both. Running around spending days traveling won't make your trip very enjoyable.
In my humble opinion, you should go to Bangkok, stay on Koh San Road for a day and then take the train to Suratthani and a Ferry to Koh Phan Ngan and stay there until it's time to leave. I know there are so many things you want to see, but you will just stress yourself out if you try to see a bunch of stuff in 2 weeks. Take the money you would have spent on extra plane tickets and go scuba diving, elephant riding, jet skiing, fishing, do archery, go out for sushi, and buy drinks for your new found friends at the bar. There is a huge party on Koh Phan Ngan on Friday December 28th for the full moon, that will continue right until New Years Eve. If you don't get to Koh Phan Ngan until the 28th, book ahead. Really. I've seen people sleeping in hammocks in bars on the other side of the island, the night before the full moon party. Koh Phan Ngan is my favorite place in the world. I've spent months there. I've been all over Thailand and for a two week vacation, it's the best.