Thailand - Worth 240k Miles?

My wife would like to use our 240k US miles on a trip to Thailand March 2013. The catch, she will only use part of her vacation time giving us six full days in-country (3 BKK & 3 at some beach).

Is six full days worth a trip? If not what is a your length recommendation for a first time trip?

Looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks FT.

I just finished reading a great TR, where the paxs arrived at a destination at 10pm had a walk, slept and the next morning they were up early and on their way to the airport. At one stage they said, don't think too much of this place, and I laughed. 4 days will be tremendous. Personally I like 2/3 days in a place, I get restless, bored and have the need to move on, or go home.

I admire the Northern europeans who flock to Bali and each morning they are up at 5am and leave towels as markers on the sunlounges. After breakfast they take up residence until sunset and they do this for 30 days. Now if I could do it, I reckon that must be a brilliant relaxing holiday, but not for me.

However you have 6 days, to me that is the perfect escape and that will be lovely in March. March is not the hottest month, I say April is, usually with storms at 5-6pm. 3 days in Bangkok you will see all the palaces and the must sees. The hotels are 5+ star at Holiday Inn prices, so it is wise to buy the best and just let it all wash over you. I love Chiang Mai and the areas that border Cambodia rather than the beaches which are everwhere., I can spend days wandering around walled cities, stupas, padodas. I enjoy the elephants, I wonder at their water management schemes, fossik about old war ravaged areas, and sit in coffee shops eating fresh fruit, watching the world go by.

Very poetic, great response. Thanks BKK.

Personally, I believe it should be two weeks minimum. That's my "rule".

Since you're spending 240k miles to get those tickets/hotels, I would make sure to stay over a month. It's taken me years to accrue 240k miles, and I wouldn't want to blow them for a 6 day trip.

The round trip travel time from NYC to BKK probably will be between 44 to 48 hours. As for those "6 full days" in Thailand, subtract 48 hours for sleeping and that leaves only 96 awake (if a bit jet-lagged) hours. Schlepping to and from Bangkok and a beach location will eat up an additional few hours. So, particularly since the OP & wife will be traveling 12 time zones, I agree that it would be much better use of those valuable miles and travel time to wait until the OP and wife had a bit more time (IMO 10 days absolute minimum, 2+ weeks better) to enjoy Thailand.

I suppose it depends on your style of travel to a degree. Personally if I am going (literally) halfway around the world I want to spend at least 3 weeks. But I know not everyone can do that. Presumably you are traveling "up front" with that many miles which makes the flight more pleasant. And if you are able to sleep on planes and time things right your jet lag should be minimal. I prefer arriving in BKK late at night so I can just go to the hotel, get to bed and then wake up the next day more or less on local time.

If those are all the miles you have I think I would use them for a longer, more special trip. But if there's plenty more where those came from then I would say go ahead and spend them.

Splitting your time between BKK and the beach also means you have to account for travel time between the two which will kill a chunk of a day. I am not a beach fan, so it would not be my choice. With just 6 days I would spend the time in BKK and take day trips out of the city for a few of the days to see a bit more.

For only six days in country it seems a bit foolish to travel so far unless you'll never have another opportunity and/or that's your typical vacation stay.

OP here. I'm tending to agree with you all. Six full nights in-country isn't enough. Need to get my wife to commit to a longer trip. Thanks all.

OP here. I'm tending to agree with you all. Six full nights in-country isn't enough.

I've done five days in PI, though it wasn't my trip. I did it in coach and was sore pretty quick, and the last flight I was really sore :( (HNL-IAH on a CO 767 :td: ).

I have done Thailand for about 9 days, but that too wasn't my first trip. Spent five days in BKK alone on my first trip before venturing to the beach.

EmailKid

Know the FT comm has been following this thread and dying to know what happened... Got her to committ to three weeks. Breathing easy, had to commit to Hong Kong over the Lunar New Year, but I'll deal with the chaos for three weeks in Asia.

Thanks FT!

Know the FT comm has been following this thread and dying to know what happened...

Thanks for the update, it's nice to know our advice was useful :)

EmailKid