I'm going to BKK 11/5 through 11/16. I've narrowed down the cities I want to visit to Bangkok, Phuket, and Chiang Mai. During this trip I also wanted to make a 3 day trip out to Cambodia. Any suggestions on what the best route to take around Thailand is? It seems most flights revolve around Bangkok so I want to minimize any doubling-back as possible.

Thanks.

Bangkok Airways has a new flight from Chiang Mai to Siem Reap that might be useful for your trip.

http://www.bangkokair.com/en/index.php

thanks for the info. the fare is a bit high though.. $350USD all-in. i hate monopolies..

Bangkok Airways has a new flight from Chiang Mai to Siem Reap that might be useful for your trip.

http://www.bangkokair.com/en/index.php

Hint: Use PG's Discovery Pass

To elaborate on what YVR Cockroach wrote...

I railed about PG's monopoly on the Bangkok-Siem Reap route, which priced out at 12,000 baht per pax all-in earlier this year. Only after I returned did someone here explain that if you buy the Discovery Pass with three legs on it, it's cheaper than a BKK-REP r/t, even if you just throw away the last leg.

That's what the 'roach is getting at.

thanks for the info. the fare is a bit high though.. $350USD all-in. i hate monopolies..
If you want to do Cambodia, and if you want to do it first, here is what you can do. I just did an overland from Bangkok to Cambodia.
There is a bus from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport at 8:00 a.m. that will get you to Aranyaprathet or to the border with Cambodia, I am not sure which before 1:00 P.M. We did not know this when we did our trip, so we ended up taking a taxi to the Morchit (Northern Bus) Terminal, from where we took a 10:00 a.m. bus and were in Aranyaprathet by about 3:00 p.m.

An 80 Baht Tuk-Tuk ride took us to the border. We had already obtained e-visa to Cambodia before leaving the U.S. After exiting Thailand and entering Cambodia, we took a taxi for $45 that we shared with a young Korean couple to Siem Reap.We were in Siem reap by about 8:30 P.M. If you can catch the 8:00 a.m. bus from the airport, you can make it to Siem Reap by 6:00 P.M.

To catch the bus from the airport, you do the following.

1. AFter you leave the custom's area, exit the airport through gate 5 at the same level and catch the free Airport Shuttle to the Transportation Centre. There are two buses to the border. The first one leaves around 8:00 a.m. The second one leaves too late in the day to make it to Siem treap the same day. The fare, according to the sign at the transportation centre was 167 Baht. The sign might be old, as the fare from the Northern Terminal was 207 Baht.

Once you are done with Cambodia, make it back to the border in a raxi, for about $25 to 30. Take a tuk tuk to the bus station in Aranyaprathet from the Thai side of the border. The route from Khorat (Nakhon Ratchasima to Chiang Mai and Nongkhai is common upto Udon Thani, from where the two routes diverge. So your strategy should be to make it to Khorat, about 4 hours from Aranyaprathet, overnight in Khorat or take a night bus, if available to Chaing Mai. I have not done this part of the trip myself. You will have to do a bit of research yourself, but I think I am close to correct.
Chiang Mai is in the North and Phuket is in the Southwest. You might want to fly from Chiang Mai to Phuket to save the time and do the Phuket to Bangkok leg by land. Doing it all by land might take too much time travelling and make you rush through the sites. Siem Reap needs 2 or 3 days. There is Siem Reap thread . Check it out too. I paid next to nothing a night for a double room for an acceptable hotel. You might want to splurge and go with better hotels. The hotel I stayed in had A/C., hot water, attached bath and was fairly clean. Their going rate was $15 a night, but you can try to negotiate as I did.

If you need any more information

Thanks for the responses. The discovery pass ended up being a good option. The seats were very limited, but I was able to secure a few legs of my trip.. the most important, Chiang Mai to Siem Reap and Siem Reap to Bangkok. I was also able to get a Bangkok to Phuket leg. These 3 legs ended up costing $308 all-in (pretty substantial savings from my previous calculation). Now I just need to get tickets for the Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Phuket back to Bangkok.

Any suggestions for these legs?

Now I just need to get tickets for the Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Phuket back to Bangkok.

Any suggestions for these legs?

LCC? AirAsia or Nok Air would be my choice, but TG is sometimes pretty inexpensive on these routes too.

I would look at TG online. You can even fly Business Class for about 1000 baht extra per sector. Pretty large aircraft often operate on BKK-HKT (Mr. Megatop and I rode upstairs on a 747-400), so you can sometimes get decent seats (we got an older version, unfortunately).

How much time should I allow between my arrival flight to Bangkok and my departure flight to Chiang Mai? When I arrive in Bangkok, it will be from LAX-HKG so I will need to go through customs and then pick up my bags. I am scheduled to arrive at about 10:40AM. Thanks.

You might qualify for transit in BKK if you can get your bags checked through to CNX, such that you clear customs and immigration at CNX. I don't know the details, but it is a strange situation frequently discussed here and in the TG forum. Failing that, I'd leave a good three hours. You probably need less than two, but I put in extra time for delays. You may be best off booking a Business Class ticket on TG to CNX, as that will allow flexibility in case you clear immigration quickly in BKK or experience delays on arrival. For about 1000-baht one-way, why not? And you'll get lounge access out of it.

'Visit Thailand' airpass with Thai Airways.
in conjunction with any international ticket (even your PG airpass will work)
BKK-CNX-HKT-BKK for the 3 segment minimum. Chiang Mai to Phuket is an expensive flight if priced alone, making this route exceptional value. Caution, they fly CNX-HKT but not HKT-CNX.
Unlike the PG airpass, you can even purchase the TG product in Thailand.