Simply Thailand (West)

The trip was a delight, good group, excellent leader (Danni) and a great way of seeing Thailand from busy Bangkok to the quiet beaches and islands further south.

Great trip highlighting Southern Thailand. Our Group guide, Mai, worked hard for us and is a great asset for Explore! Some comments though - Thailand continues to run largely on cash. Very few places accept card payments. This needs to be expressed more in the trip notes - so people can be better prepared. Accommodation - generally very good however we felt let down by the quality of the accommodation in Koh Lanta. Rooms were poorly maintained and felt tired and in some cases unclean. Towels and bedding were threadbare with old stains. General comment - may be one less day in Koh Lanta and one additional day in Krabi as we didn’t feel we got to know Krabi. For some of us it was only a few hours free time before meeting up for the final tour meal.

Absolutely brilliant, varied interesting itinerary. Professionally put together. I loved every minute.

This trip was an enjoyable introduction to Thailand. From exploring the cultural highlights of Bangkok, to the sobering visit to the River Quai, the national parks, and finally the many beach resorts as we headed south. Travelling in a small group of 4 was quite an unusual experience on an Explore trip, but meant things ran very smoothly. Train and bus transport was safe and efficient. Accommodation was mainly good, but there was a disappointing final stay in Ao Nang (a very busy and commercialised town) due to a change of hotel. Por, our leader, was a pleasant young man, and kept us informed via emails of the various activities each day. However, he was not up to the usual standard of guide we have experienced on other Explore trips.

This trip was once in a lifetime, we really felt like we saw a lot of Thailand. There was a lot of variety; city, history culture, waterfalls, rivers, railways, caves, wildlife and beaches. I would recommend staying an extra night before in Bangkok there is so much to do, we did a hidden Bangkok bike tour as well as the grand palace and wot pho, river cruise etc. The excursion to cheow lake is great, saw bats in cave, jungle walk, and scenery is beautiful. I would also recommend staying an extra night in Krabi so that you have time to do the 4 island boat tours. We extended out tour by going to Koh Yao Noi where we saw oriental pied hornbills for 4 nights, a perfected to a brilliant trip.