What this journey is for
A first trip to Thailand, arranged so that each third of it feels different. Bangkok gives you the royal temples and a river that still works for a living. The north, ruled for centuries from Chiang Mai as the Lanna kingdom, is cooler, slower and built of teak and brick. Phuket takes the last four days, when the only decisions left are which beach and what time to eat.
Sightseeing is front-loaded on purpose. The guided half days sit early, before the heat and the coach parties, and the afternoons stay open. Two domestic flights carry you north and then south, which costs more than the train and buys back two days. Guide, driver and dates are yours; the shared parts are flagged where they occur.
Day by day
Day 1
You are met at Suvarnabhumi and driven into town, anything from forty minutes to an hour and a half depending on when you land. The evening is free. With energy left, take the public boat along the river at dusk and eat where it drops you; without, the pool and an early night are wiser.
Day 2
An early guided half day at the Grand Palace and the temple of the Emerald Buddha, the small jade figure in royal robes that a king changes with the seasons. Shoulders and knees must be covered. You are out before the midday heat, with the afternoon free for the river, a market or a massage.
Day 3
Morning transfer to the airport for the flight north to Chiang Rai, a little over an hour. The town is small and easy to walk. Your driver takes you to the hotel and nothing more is fixed: the clock tower changes colour after dark, and the night bazaar is a calm place to eat noodles and look at textiles.
Day 4
A full day north to the border. You visit a Kayan settlement, the community known for the brass coils worn by the women, and we will tell you beforehand what the visit involves so you can swap it for a hill farm or a tea estate. Lunch, then the Golden Triangle, where the Mekong divides Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
Day 5
A half day in Chiang Rai itself, which is where the modern temple architecture is: white glass mosaic in one place, blue and gold in another, both built by artists rather than committees. After lunch you drive to Chiang Mai, three hours through rice country. Night in the old town.
Day 6
Morning at a cooking school: a walk round the market first to learn the ingredients, then pounding curry paste in a stone mortar and cooking four dishes you get to eat. In the afternoon you climb to the temples on Doi Suthep, where the view runs down the valley and the bells do not stop.
Day 7
Nothing is scheduled. Chiang Mai rewards a day of wandering: coffee in a teak shophouse, a hundred small temples, a bicycle round the moat. If you would rather be busy, we can add an ethical elephant sanctuary, a massage course or the craft villages. Your guide books whatever you decide the night before.
Day 8
Fly south to Phuket, roughly two hours, and transfer to your hotel on the west coast, another hour. The change is abrupt: from cool teak streets to heat off the sea. The afternoon is for the beach or the pool, and dinner is a grill on the sand.
Day 9
A day out in Phang Nga Bay, the drowned karst north of the island, on a large boat shared with other travellers. You pass limestone stacks rising straight out of green water, go by canoe into the sea caves beneath them, and stop to swim. Lunch is on board, and you are back by late afternoon.
Day 10
Your last full day, left deliberately empty. Some people do nothing but swim and read. Others take a boat to the smaller islands, a diving lesson or a drive to the old Sino-Portuguese shophouses of Phuket Town, which look nothing like the beach resorts. Tell your guide in advance and the car is at the door.
Day 11
Breakfast, then a transfer to Phuket airport, about an hour from the west coast beaches. We allow more time than the map suggests because the one road north fills up. For a late flight we arrange a room until the afternoon so you are not sitting in the lobby with wet swimming things in your bag.
What the price covers
- Ten nights in hotels chosen with you in Bangkok, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Phuket, breakfast included
- Domestic flights from Bangkok to Chiang Rai and from Chiang Mai to Phuket
- Private car and driver on every sightseeing and transfer day
- English-speaking local guides in Bangkok, Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai
- Entrance fees at the Grand Palace, Doi Suthep and the sites on the Golden Triangle day
- The Chiang Mai cooking class with market visit and lunch
- The Phang Nga Bay excursion with canoes and lunch on board
- Airport transfers at both ends and water in the car
Not included
- International flights and a Thai visa if your passport needs one
- Travel insurance, which we ask every traveller to hold
- Meals and drinks other than those listed above
- Optional activities on the free days in Chiang Mai and Phuket
- Tips for guides, drivers and boat crew
- The single supplement for a room of your own
Good to know
This is an easy trip physically. The hardest thing you do is climb the stairway at Doi Suthep, and there is a funicular instead. Heat is the real work: Bangkok in April sits near forty degrees and the temples give little shade.
- Temple dress code is enforced at the Grand Palace, with covered shoulders and long trousers or a skirt below the knee
- November to February is the cooler, drier stretch nationwide and the busiest time to travel
- Phuket's west coast gets the monsoon from May to October, with rougher seas and boat trips sometimes cancelled
- The Phang Nga day uses a shared boat and the bay is popular, so expect company at the anchorages
- Domestic baggage allowances are tight, and extra kilos are cheaper bought online than at the desk
- Children do well on this route, and the free days can absorb an afternoon nap without breaking anything
Plan this trip
- Days
- 11
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