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@Metty An hour north in Khao Lak prices seem way way cheaper for some reason too.
I have a friend who used to stay in The Slate but as he does a longer stay these days tends to go to Khao Lak (less ££) so we meant to go and see for ourselves last week, I’d rented a Hertz car (v cheap!) but then had to canx as I’d forgotten to get an International Driving Permit. Good job I didn’t risk it as the Police had set up a checkpoint just outside the airport and according to Reddit they are fining any tourists without the required IDP.
My wife just came home and I said I’d been reviewing The Slate…. her reaction was ‘you didn’t mention Sarah I hope, I’ll never be able to get another appointment’ before realising what she’d said…. 🙂
@Metty An hour north in Khao Lak prices seem way way cheaper for some reason too.
My wife just came home and I said I’d been reviewing The Slate…. her reaction was ‘you didn’t mention Sarah I hope, I’ll never be able to get another appointment’ before realising what she’d said…. 🙂
hahah she has nothing to fear, we wont be there for about 10 months. (Unless my wife offers Sarah a job in London of course!)
Don’t fancy driving ourselves over there – happy just to book car to head to Khao Lak.
Hi team,
Jumping in on this post for our family trip to Thailand next month. We’re a family of 3 (2 adults and a 10 month old).
We’ve booked return flights from LHR to BKK (via DOH) and we’re in the country for 13 nights. Here is our tentative itinerary with some outstanding questions for this community.
4 nights Bangkok; temples, parks, markets, walking/general tourism. Tours by Tong and hiring a a driver seems like a good approach here (1 full day or 2 half days) – anyone know how I can book or get in touch?
5 nights Chiang Mai/Pai; seems like a more chilled place, lots of wildlife, walking and exploring. I’d have loved to take the sleeper train as per the messages above but don’t think it’ll work with a 10 month old
4 nights ???; Any suggestions on how/where to end the trip? We’re flying out of BKK so we’d want to be nearby, and probably spend the night before the flight in Bangkok. We’re not massive beach people but some of the Islands look stunning. Anything that is feasible for a few days? We’re not after super luxury and obviously not into partying etc. with the 10 m/o.
Any thoughts, suggestions, comments on the above? And any tips for travelling in Thailand with a 10 month old would be welcome!
tourwithtong <at> gmail dot com
Personally I’d do 1 night less Chiang Mai and then go to Phuket or Krabi/Koh Lanta for 5 or 6 nights and then back to Bangkok for the last night. But I do love a beach !
I wouldn’t plan too much in first couple of days in Bangkok – I took my 2 toddlers inc 11 month old to Asia last summer and the jetlag was surprisingly brutal for them – full on playing and eating at 3am ! half days sound good
How about Hua Hin for the last part? You could fly from
Chiang Mai to Don Muang airport (prob. about 30 quid pp in
Feb) and from there a direct car transfer (around 3 hours)
with someone like BangkokTaxi24 (around 50 quid).
You could stay at the gorgeous Centara – plenty of shady gardens
and pools for the little one. Beach for strolls/mandatory
pony ride. Right in town centre – small mall with most
things, loads of places to eat, walkable night market.And of course, at the end, you could get a car straight back to
BKK if you didn’t want to stay in Bangkok city again!Personally I’d do 1 night less Chiang Mai and then go to Phuket or Krabi/Koh Lanta for 5 or 6 nights and then back to Bangkok for the last night. But I do love a beach !
I wouldn’t plan too much in first couple of days in Bangkok – I took my 2 toddlers inc 11 month old to Asia last summer and the jetlag was surprisingly brutal for them – full on playing and eating at 3am ! half days sound good
Agreed on both.
If no one in your family is keen on beaches, just stay longer in both Bangkok and Chiangmai Mai rather than moving around. You can leisurely explore these two and you’ll find something interesting everyday. Don’t rush like tourists with a checkbox approach.
Personally I’d spend more time at Chiangmai. You can also hire a car and driver and do a few day trips like Chiangrai.Evening all! I’m just finalising my last bits and bobs for my trip next week – do I need to book airport transfers for Singapore and Bangkok? Conscious, particularly for Singapore, that we will have been flying for 14 hours and don’t want to spend more time waiting than necessary if there will be large queues for the taxis. I’m generally fine with using public transport but not while lugging suitcases around!
H
5 nights Chiang Mai/Pai; seems like a more chilled place, lots of wildlife, walking and exploring. I’d have loved to take the sleeper train as per the messages above but don’t think it’ll work with a 10 month oldChiang Mai has potentially quite bad air quality between January – May due to the burning season. It’s worst around March/April, when it becomes one of the most polluted areas in the world at times, but in February it can also be pretty bad. You can see historic data here:
Evening all! I’m just finalising my last bits and bobs for my trip next week – do I need to book airport transfers for Singapore and Bangkok? Conscious, particularly for Singapore, that we will have been flying for 14 hours and don’t want to spend more time waiting than necessary if there will be large queues for the taxis. I’m generally fine with using public transport but not while lugging suitcases around!
No need to book taxi at singapore as the queues aren’t usually long and you get taxis quickly. Problem could arise due to the size and number of luggage – if you cannot fit them in a regular sedan, you’ll have to wait for a bigger one.
You can also book a grab (uber equivalent) when you are ready to leave the terminal.@BBbetter – thanks. Hopefully will only have 2 suitcases.
Have already downloaded Grab thanksHotels in Bangkok – I suggest somewhere on the river so that you can go to the Royal Palace and the temples by river bus. The Shangrila and the Oriental are close to a BTS station – the latter by shuttle boat.
One scam to be aware of in Bangkok is being told that the Royal Palace or a temple is closed today but ‘my friend’ is a Tuk Tuk driver and will take you to another temple for free – by way of a jewellery shop on the way!
We have also stayed on Sukhumvit at the IC but really around there is only big shopping malls!
We spent 3 weeks in Singapore just after it reopened after Covid and didn’t get bored. We couldn’t go elsewhere because of the risk of getting Covid and having to go in to quarantine when we got back to SIN. This was probably our 12th or 15th visit to Singapore since our first one when we were backpacking around Asia in 1980!
Michael C
(sorry reported by accident)!
Thank you very much, Hua Hin is exactly what we’re looking for so we’ll go with that. Thank you to the rest of you with your advice too.
Finally, in terms of currency, I note on the thread here (and others searching through the forum) that ATMs in Thailand charge for withdraws. My usual strategy of taking my monzo/revolut and taking out cash probably won’t work in that case. Any recommendations for exchanging currency (it’s been years since I’ve actually exchanged any money in the UK due to Monzo/Revolut).
Thomas exchange is very good and has shops in central london.
If you still need more, exchange at a money changer once you reach the destination, preferably a shopping mall. The hotel can guide you.
Add your fx free cards to apple / google pay and ask for paying through them first before using cash.Finally, in terms of currency, I note on the thread here (and others searching through the forum) that ATMs in Thailand charge for withdraws. My usual strategy of taking my monzo/revolut and taking out cash probably won’t work in that case. Any recommendations for exchanging currency (it’s been years since I’ve actually exchanged any money in the UK due to Monzo/Revolut).
You’ll be best off either doing a large withdrawal and paying the fee, or exchanging when you’re already in Thailand. You can withdraw 20k or sometimes 30k with a fee of 220 baht, so around 1% or less if using a card with no f/x fees.
The exchange booths downstairs at the airport next to the ARL station I found were offering rates around 0.5% – 1% away from spot rate, similar to the best rates offered at exchanges in the city. The best rate I saw available for collection in London was 2.5% from spot rate, and most were much worse. Thomas exchange mentioned above is nearly 5% from spot right now.
Good morning! Thought I’d report back on my trip with a mini trip report and say a huge thank you to those who helped. I hope this may also help those planning a similar trip for the first time.
Flew 241 on old style CW to SIN. Flights were ok, on both flights I’d say the crew were professional but not friendly. Stayed in Singapore for two nights – at the Holiday Inn Clarke Quay on points (SamG’s suggestion). Location was perfect, rooms were a bit small – fine for 2 days but wouldn’t want to do anymore than that in that room size. Free breakfast was a bit of a scrum but we found something to fill us up for a few hours. (Tip if you’re staying there – there are coffee machines in the outside dining areas so don’t join the massive queues inside..).
Then moved onto Bangkok. Some may recall we were deciding whether to drop this – I’m so glad we didn’t. Bangkok is dirty, busy and loud – but so fascinating! We didn’t do any trips, preferring instead to get out and about on the trains and exploring ourselves. We were surprised by the lack of westerners around (in the day anyway) and one little boy was so fascinated by my husband that his family wanted a photograph 😂. We stayed at the newly renovated IC Sukhumvit on points. Breakfast was given at discounted rate of £19 pppn and was like a kings feast! Not much around the area but is directly next to a station.
Moved to Phuket, we stayed in Kamala in a very small 12 room b&b 700m from the beach. Unlikely to be something which many HFPs would stay at as no points or status but we loved the personal touch from the owners. Did trips to one of the elephant sanctuaries and a boat trip. Spent the rest of the time lazing around on the beach etc.
Back to Singapore for one last night – thought I was too risk averse to fly back to Singapore on the same day as the flight home but in retrospect I would have stayed another night in Phuket. We stayed on points at the Hotel Indigo and really liked this hotel. Breakfast was at the discounted rate of £18pp – which at Singapore prices is great value.Tried the absolutely amazing Qatar lounge – we were one of only 7 people there so had our own bartender for most of the time. We popped our head into the BA lounge en route to the gate and were amazed at the difference.
Used Airalo and Grab which both worked seamlessly. Flew internal flights with Nok airways, Scoot and ThaiAirasia with prebooked extra legroom seats for a few pounds extra. All were fine and I’d fly on them again. Oh – and we didn’t prebook seats on the BA flights but were seated together on both legs.
In summary, we had a fantastic trip – thanks in no small part to the tips and suggestions on here – thank you ☺️. Needless to say we are hooked and I’ll be back at some point seeking suggestions on another trip in the future .
we loved the personal touch from the owners
Normally you’d have to pay extra for this service. Or so I’m told.
Glad you allowed us to convince you to visit Bangkok.
I’ve done 14 nights there thus far, going out of hotels for the bulk of each day and yet we’ve only repeated one of the points of interest – there is really that much to see & do there.@Aston100 😂😂😂
Good morning! Thought I’d report back on my trip with a mini trip report and say a huge thank you to those who helped. I hope this may also help those planning a similar trip for the first time.
Flew 241 on old style CW to SIN. Flights were ok, on both flights I’d say the crew were professional but not friendly. Stayed in Singapore for two nights – at the Holiday Inn Clarke Quay on points (SamG’s suggestion). Location was perfect, rooms were a bit small – fine for 2 days but wouldn’t want to do anymore than that in that room size. Free breakfast was a bit of a scrum but we found something to fill us up for a few hours. (Tip if you’re staying there – there are coffee machines in the outside dining areas so don’t join the massive queues inside..).
Then moved onto Bangkok. Some may recall we were deciding whether to drop this – I’m so glad we didn’t. Bangkok is dirty, busy and loud – but so fascinating! We didn’t do any trips, preferring instead to get out and about on the trains and exploring ourselves. We were surprised by the lack of westerners around (in the day anyway) and one little boy was so fascinated by my husband that his family wanted a photograph 😂. We stayed at the newly renovated IC Sukhumvit on points. Breakfast was given at discounted rate of £19 pppn and was like a kings feast! Not much around the area but is directly next to a station.
Moved to Phuket, we stayed in Kamala in a very small 12 room b&b 700m from the beach. Unlikely to be something which many HFPs would stay at as no points or status but we loved the personal touch from the owners. Did trips to one of the elephant sanctuaries and a boat trip. Spent the rest of the time lazing around on the beach etc.
Back to Singapore for one last night – thought I was too risk averse to fly back to Singapore on the same day as the flight home but in retrospect I would have stayed another night in Phuket. We stayed on points at the Hotel Indigo and really liked this hotel. Breakfast was at the discounted rate of £18pp – which at Singapore prices is great value.Tried the absolutely amazing Qatar lounge – we were one of only 7 people there so had our own bartender for most of the time. We popped our head into the BA lounge en route to the gate and were amazed at the difference.
Used Airalo and Grab which both worked seamlessly. Flew internal flights with Nok airways, Scoot and ThaiAirasia with prebooked extra legroom seats for a few pounds extra. All were fine and I’d fly on them again. Oh – and we didn’t prebook seats on the BA flights but were seated together on both legs.
In summary, we had a fantastic trip – thanks in no small part to the tips and suggestions on here – thank you ☺️. Needless to say we are hooked and I’ll be back at some point seeking suggestions on another trip in the future .
Sounds fab, Keely – had my eye on the Indigo Singapore a few times!
The Indigo Singapore is in an interesting area with more trendy local shops and restaurants in the old shophouses.
We wanted to stay for a couple of days last time we were there but it was still being used by the government as a covid quarantine hotel.
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