chrishow

Hi,

I�m planning a trip to Asia next year and was looking for some advice/recommendations and thought I would post here.

I�m thinking of flying from London to Hong Kong and spending three nights staying with friends before flying on to Bangkok for two nights and then onto one of the Thai islands for a week or so.

Phuket is probably the favourite at the moment, based on recommendations from friends, but should I be considering others?

I will be travelling with my partner, no children and looking to stay in a spa resort/hotel when I�m in Thailand. Ideally a boutique/design style which is suited to a young couple. Any suggestions?

I�ll be flying BA To/From London, but looking for suggestions for a carrier for the Hong Kong � Bangkok and Bangkok � Phuket?

Many thanks in advance

yycworldtraveler

My partner and I stayed here (Phuket Pavilions) just after they opened a couple of years ago. We loved it...totally private...and no kids!

http://www.phuketpavilions.com/phuket/index.html

KosraeTV

I go to BKK about every other month for three weeks and am leaving in about 36 hours to go back. To answer your questions about BKK what are your goals, shopping? night life? culture? what?

Islands I can help on and the Thai Tourism board has offices in your neck of the woods as well. There are a ton of resorts and islands. But first step is BKK right? So what are your goals there? I've stayed at a lot of the hotels and serviced apartments there.

Aircoco

Maybe you can consider Koh Samui

Gus

chris
I have been to Koh Samet, Koh Tao and Koh Samui, all have different qualities.

You do not want to be spending too much time on aircraft or at airports.

Bangkok airways fly direct HKG-Koh Samui, although not every day.
There are some very fine reorts in Samui.
Koh Chang (Trat) is also very beautiful (Bangkok Air)
I believe that Krabi and Phi Phi are beautiful.

Wherever you go you will have a good time.

iancanton

whether phuket or samui is better will depend on time of year. phuket is best from november to april, while samui is best avoided in october and november.

cathay pacific and its subsidiary dragonair fly non-stop HKG-HKT. flights on both airlines earn ba miles, but neither are cheap options.

for HKG-BKK, there are often good non-stop deals on emirates or its associate srilankan.

BKK-HKT can be done on air asia (a ryanair-style budget airline), bangkok airways (an excellent full-service airline) or THAI. air asia and bangkok airways fly BKK-HKT, while THAI goes from BKK and DMK (don muang). avoid one-two-go, which uses very old planes from DMK.

ian.

chrishow

Thank you to all for your advice and suggestions, below are the answers to some of the questions.

We aim to stay in BKK for a couple of nights, so I guess we want to see some of the cities highlights. We are a young couple, interested in good food, wine and modern design amongst other things.

Any suggestions for a design hotel? I�ve been looking at The Metropolitan and The Dream Hotel.

Thanks for the Phuket Pavilions recommendation. I hadn�t come across this property and I�m waiting for them to release their Dec �08 rates. Phuket is currently my favorite based on the recommendations I've received from friends.

Because of the availability of the F reward seats exLondon, I am probably going to fly the following: LHR-HKG-BKK-HKT-HKG-LHR. So I�ll be looking for a carrier/s for the BKK-HKT-HKG flights. Not interested in the low cost guys, as I would ideally like J which will earn me OneWorld tier points. Doesn�t have to be OW, but would prefer to earn the tier points.

I�ll be leaving London mid December and returning very early January if that helps!

Thanks, Chris

KosraeTV

Many boutique hotels in Bangkok, but from the two you picked I like the location of Dream better then the Metropolitan.

tktk

In Phuket you can check also Katathani Beach Resort, what is very nice.

Wingnut

Honestly, I'd skip Bangkok completely (advice people gave me, but I ignored) and connect straight up to Chiang Mai for a couple of days in a nice city, before flying (direct) down to Phuket for the beach bit. In Chiang Mai, the hotel you'd be looking for is probably the D2.

MegatopLover

Well, for my two baht's worth, I'd skip Phuket. I love Thailand and love Bangkok but, despite staying at a fine resort, really did not care for Phuket because there really wasn't very much Thai about Phuket. A friend of mine felt the same way. Mr. Megatop (who is Thai and lives in Bangkok) has been a couple of times and liked it okay, but that was really just because it's a beachy-type place that's much cooler and calmer than Bangkok and it's easy to reach.

The one thing I did like was the longtail boat tour of Phang Nga Bay that we took. Spectacular. Not to be missed if you do stay in Phuket or nearby.

MegatopLover

Forgot to comment on food and wine....

For Thai food, most regard the best cuisine as that from street vendors and unpretentious neighborhood restaurants, with the possible addition of a handlful of destination restaurants. Mr. Megatop and his Thai friends have almost uniformly said that they find Thai food at restaurants catering to visitors too sweet and not spicy or flavorful enough-- i.e., altered to suit Western palates. I'll agree with that to an extent. I've certainly liked some of the Thai places that cater to Westerners, such as Baan Kanitha. But some of the best and freshest Thai I've had comes from food stalls, literally holes in the wall. Some wine will be on the list as the Westernized places, but most likely only beer will be available at the stalls and from street hawkers.

Several Western cuisine restaurants in Bangkok are very good. You'll find many, if not most, of those in the major hotels. A couple of them will have fairly good wine lists: Prime at the Millennium Hilton comes to mind as a surprisingly good restaurant with a solid wine selection. That said, I typically bring wine with me and either have it with room service or pay for corkage. It's usually cheaper that way (Thailand taxes wine heavily, like HK, Japan, and Singapore do), and I can be assured of a getting what I want.

You can either ship wine from home in your checked baggage (that's what I do) or try to pick something up from the duty free shops en route. If you wind up flying HKG-BKK, you're in luck. The duty free shops at HKG have a tremendous selection of fine wines, with a strong emphasis on Bordeaux and Champagne, at decent prices. I'm talking both current releases and amazing verticals of top chateaux.

mario33

I believe you are in the minority here considering the increasing number of international direct flights to HKT. While I cant say I hate Bangkok, the noise and pollution isnt exactly what I look forward to during each visit. Phuket on the other hand is almost my second home, I cant seem to stay away from the beaches and green hills. My only grouse about Phuket is that it is attracting too many low end european crowd (so does Bangkok), and when it rains it really does rain continuously for days !

ddrewboy

I am a Thai transplanted in SAV but I think I can offer some insights.

It looks like you'll have about 10 days or so in Thailand. I would spend 2-3 days each in BKK and CNX (Chiang Mai - Northern Thailand) and the rest in HKT area. Our Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are quite beautiful during the winter.

For that time of year, you will want to stay in the Andaman Sea (Phuket) side instead of Gulf of Thailand (koh Samui or koh Chang) since the sea will be clearer there. If you like deep sea fishing or snorkeling, I recommend chartering a boat for a couple of nights to go around Phi Phi island, Similan island, Tarutao, etc. Then spend the rest of time on Phuket.

Hit some of the major sites in BKK like Grand Palace, etc. Check some other threads. Get some fresh air in the northern mountains and lie on the southern beaches.

When I go to Phuket, I stay at Maiton Island since I have a deep discount. Its Website is down at the moment. It is a small privately owned island resort with villas off of Phuket that has some good snorkeling. It used to be just for renting before but I think they are selling some of the units now. So, I'm not sure if it is as private and quiet as it used to be.

I really dont have a suggestion for hotel for either BKK or CNX since the mother unit would kill me if I dont stay with her in BKK and I have bunch of friends in CNX.

Bring your own wines (or whiskeys) whereever you go. My friends and I do this. As Megatoplover said, the alcohol import tax is so high that most of the time the drinks can be more expensive than the food. For that matter, only the few good (read really expensive) restaurants carry good wine list. A bottle of Grange would be more than $1000 in a wine shop. I think the Customs limit is around 2 bottles but I always bring at least a dozen. I also bring an extra half bottle for Customs should they decide to look inside my bags.

Have fun.

Drew

sadeghi

If you want to hang out on the beach you may want to think about Ko Phi Phi. You can take a ferry there from Phuket. I didn't really think Patong beach in Phuket was too relaxing. Maybe the resorts in Phuket had better private beaches.