mileslover

Can someone recommend a reasonably priced tour company ?

I am planning to spend 21 days in Thailand in total

Arriving in Bangkok on 11/23 --- 10 nights before flying to Phuket


Flying to Phuket on the 11th day -- 8 nights there

Another 2 nights in Bangkok

Need recommendations for itinerary especially for the first 10 days.

So far, I only booked the international flights.
Thank you in advance !

dtsm

Thailand, including Bkk is an easy DIY city.

How many are in your group, are you interested in personal guide 24/7?
Every hotel has day trips with reputable tours. Interested in side trips eg Angkor Wat?

Hotels - what's your budget? With passing of King, good/better deals available even though Nov is start of high season.

Tchiowa

Agree completely. You don't need a tour guide. First time visitor I'd recommend taking an AOT or other car from the airport to your hotel (as opposed to a taxi). I use Bangkok Limo https://www.limousine.in.th/ but there are other good groups.

Once at your hotel get guidance from them and take a taxi or sky train around the city.

Also as far as a hotel, what kind of things do you like to do? That will help determine the location in the city for a hotel rec.

SK AAR

First of all, I think you are spending too much time in BKK. With 3 weeks, you can easily do a week in BKK (in total), 5-6 days in Chiang Mai and the rest relaxing at the pool/beaches in Phuket (after extensive sightseing for 2 weeks you will need it).

Secondly, you don't need a tour guide. Plenty of tours with local guides are available at the tourist locations and you sign up and pay once you get there (far cheaper and easier than trying to organise this from overseas) - this also provides maximum flexibility which should also be taken into account.

I suggest that you buy or download a Thailand tour quide and visit the local tourist information for suggestions on what to do/see in Thailand. Tripadvisor.com will also provide all the information that you need/look for.

Good luck and enjoy your time i Thailand.

CJKatl

I agree with @SK AAR, but would add....

Get a local SIM card for your unlocked smartphone or bring a cheap phone with you for that purpose. You can research how to do this, but essentially, after you land in BKK and go through customs, turn right, find a phone company booth, hand them your phone and less than $20 bucks and you're set for fifteen days. If you use too much data you may need to purchase more, but I've never had that problem. Now that your phone has Internet access, you can go to most tourist sites, pull up information about wherever you are and listen to a tour guide through your headphones.

Try to book a hotel near a BTS station. A daily pass runs 140 Baht, which is around $3US. It's the easiest way to get around. If you do take a taxi, make sure the driver turns on the meter. Do not negotiate a rate. You'll pay too much. A rule of thumb: a taxi waiting on the street will likely mean a driver trying to negotiate a rate. A taxi you pull over or from a hotel will more likely use the meter, all though it's a good idea at a hotel to have the bellman ask that the meter be used.

Hotels have the best maps for tourists. The maps are free. If you are staying in one of the chains, ask at the Concierge desk. If you are staying elsewhere, just stop in a Marriott/Hilton/Sheraton/etc and ask for a map. Nobody will ask your room number. The maps are free and plentiful.

For tourist stuff within Bangkok, you don't need a tour guide. For excursions outside the city, you may want to either arrange for a guide or sign up for the tour. One risk is if not enough people sign up, a group tour will be canceled at the last minute.

Early during your BKK trip plan to ride the Tourist Boat up and down the Chao Phraya river. These boats have blue flags. The ticket costs a couple bucks US. You will get a small guide book with your ticket. Ride the boat the entire route. A worker on the boat will tell you basic tourist information over a PA system which will give you a sense of where and what. The last stop north is N13, the Phra Arthit Pier. You will have to get off the boat and board a different boat to go back south. Wander over to the Khoasan Road area. You'll probably want to go back at night, but sit at one of the cafes and come up with a plan of what you want to see the rest of the day. Return to the boat and as you go south, hop on and off where you want to go that day. Many of the sites most tourists want to see are within walking distance of a Pier, including the Remember, you can split up the sight seeing over a couple days if you want. After you've taken the Tourist Boat once, you might want to switch to one of the local boats, like Orange Flagged boats, or you may decide to continue purchasing Tourist Boat tickets, because they're not that expensive and the boats are nicer and less crowded. Personally, I think you need to take the local boat at least once to experience it. If there is anything that you visited which you think would benefit from having a tour guide, you can arrange that and go back, but that's not likely going to happen, IME.

Another fun thing to do in Bangkok is to take a cooking class. My favorite is Cooking with Poo. (That's her name.) You go to the food market, where you will see things that will amaze you. Her story is inspiring... She lived in a slum (that's where the class will be taught) and cooked for the people who lived there. The price of rice went up, it was no longer economically feasible to cook and she asked a relief worker what she should do. The relief worker suggested teaching cooking to tourists. Poo pointed out she didn't speak English. The relief worker pointed out she was a smart woman and could learn. She now is a published author, world traveler and inspiration. She has pulled herself and others in that slum out of poverty. The class sessions are limited to a dozen people and you walk away being able to actually prepare a few meals.

Another thing I'd recommend is a street food tour. If you are not familiar with ordering/eating street food, this will quickly give you the ins and outs. Do this early in your trip and you will be ordering/eating like a pro afterwards. My first trip in Bangkok, I met a friend who is an Army Chaplain who had been there several times before. He was already a street food pro. Had it not been for him, I might have wasted the entire trip not enjoying the best of street food because I just didn't know stuff and the vendors don't speak English.

Plan to spend Sat or Sun at the Chatuchak Weekend Market. Read up ahead of time so you know where you want to go. Even if you are not planning to buy anything, you need to experience this place. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world. Again, no tour guide required, just take the BTS to the Chatuchak stop and follow everyone else to the market.

Enjoy.

goodeats21

If you are really interested in a tour guide, "tour with tong" gets high marks.

http://tourwithtong.com/

I used their service on my first trip to Bangkok (years ago) and was very satisfied.

As others have noted, BKK is pretty easy for Do-It-Yourself activities, but I did find having a tour guide for the first day made my life much easier. We hit some of the major sites and traveled by public transport. After that first day, it was very easy to get around after being "shown the ropes". Could have done it all on my own, but was less stressful and more enjoyable that way.

Good luck. Bangkok is a vibrant, fun city.

glennaa11

I completely agree. For a first time visitor Bangkok can seem overwhelming. Having a guide for the first day or two is worth doing.

CJKatl

One more suggestion... be careful what you plan the first day. With such a big time difference, you should probably go light the first day on plans, especially anything like a tour guide. I have fond memories of expensive plans - boats in Amsterdam, a food tour in Bangkok, a bike tour in Prague - being disrupted because someone in our party needed sleep. Jet lag going to Bangkok can be surprisingly easy to bypass if everything works out for you, but if anything goes wrong, it can be very difficult to adjust to an eleven or twelve hour difference.

Most US flights get in very late at night. My usual plan is to stay awake as much as possible flying over, so that I'm ready to sleep a full night when I land. If everything works out, I'm up at six, eating breakfast, and stay on Asian time after that. If things don't go as planned, I can wind up sleeping half the day for the first couple of days. In dozens of trips, I've probably had everything go as planned all but two or three times.

RustyC

I have a very strong circadian rhythm and if flying straight through to BKK (usually taking 3 segments) I'll get the jet-lag crashes around 7 p.m.-ish the first day regardless of what I do and even if I slept some after arrival. Jet-lag crashes can be strong things. I might push it another 60-90 minutes before the crash on the next day (say, at 8:30 p.m.) and then the same amount the day after that. Any evening plans are what usually suffer. Usually takes 4 days to get completely out of the woods. Melatonin has just given headaches. YMMV, of course.

RustyC

Yep. Thais are wonderful people generally, but the ones many people saw first were exceptions in that they'd take advantage of "asymmetries of information" to get you to some taxi option that cost 4X the going rate (or had a driver that wouldn't use the meter even if you stood in line). Not to mention the "Grand palace is closed" bit seguing into being shown around jewelry stores so you can buy low and sell high back at home just like Tom Shane I see too many people who haven't done enough due diligence and are too ripe for this kind of stuff. Though, to be fair, things are generally better than they used to be.

CJKatl

I can usually cheat jet lag on the way over to Asia. My most recent trip was my longest. Upon return to ATL, I had the worst jet lag I've ever experienced. It took two weeks until I could get back to Eastern Time Zone rhythm. Even if I could sleep through the night, by noon I was practically comatose. Dinner plans were destroyed when I would have to get home to fall asleep in the evening, but I was up by midnight and couldn't get back to sleep, even with medicinal help.

eccentricfusion

+1 for Tong with Tong. Very good guides and having a private tour in a private car is well worth it.

bwiadca

I also wouldn't go with a tour guide in BKK. Started going there 2 years ago and seen all the sites on my own. One thing I don't do in BKK anymore is to take taxis (unless you are very close to the airport). I take Uber every time from the airport. For example during my previous trip, from BKK airport I took taxi to Hilton Millennium. The fare on the meter was almost 600 Bahts + tolls. This time I took Uber and the fare was 299 Bahts INCLUDING tolls. The drive took 1 hour, and in heavy traffic. I'm sure that in a taxi it would cost a lot more.
BUT when going to the airport from a location 15 minutes away, Uber quoted me 300-350 Bahts. While I paid 100 Bahts for a regular taxi from the street.
It happened around BKK airport and DMK as well.

If OP has Tmobile plan in US then the data and text will be free in Thailand. I don't use local SIMs.

The boat tours are nice and very cheap. My Hilton have private boats which take you to few different locations. Last week we took a boat to Asiatique night market. Decent selection of restaurants / street food carts and you can shop there for souvenirs.

As for the jetlag going to Thailand. I was ok flying from DC via China, Japan etc. But this time I flew via Europe and by 5pm I was zombe. Landed in Phuket at 10am, 11am I took 5 hours energy and was good till 5pm. Couldn't stay up much longer. Because of that I woke up at 3am and had nothing to do The next day I didn't have jetlag anymore.
But now I'm almost one week back home, and I still have terrible jetlag. I never had such a bad jetlag before. I fall asleep by 5-6pm and wake up at 4am. I've tried many things, even not sleeping one full night, and sleeping 12 hours the next one. It didn't work

Whatever OP chooses, enjoy Thailand. Lovely country and amazing food.

SK AAR

I have no idea how you cope with jetlag when coming from the US, but coming from Europe the trick is to stay awake the first day (and resist the urge to take a nap during the day in particular if you arrive early in the morning on one of the many TG flights from Europe). You will sleep until late morning on the first night in Thailand but then you should do fairly well

However, some friends told me that they actually find the second night the most dreadful as you are no longer really tired and it will be difficult to fall asleep in the evening (thai time) or you will wake up during the night. I can't recall experiencing this but I also go partying in BKK and do not go to bed until 2-3 AM - then you have no problems falling asleep

CJKatl

Which is what I try to do when going from the US to Europe. Unfortunately, a couple times I've fallen asleep in public due to forcing myself to stay up and out all day. Once, three of us fell asleep on the boat tour in Amsterdam.