Your Thailand Trip SUCKS! Here’s Why
Thailand is a land of stunning temples, incredible nature, and amazing experiences, but many people miss out on all this because they make a few simple mistakes.
The biggest mistake most people make when planning a trip to Thailand is trying to eat the whole country at once.
Why Overplanning Can Ruin a Thailand Trip
To explain it, we’re going to need some cheesecake. This is the Thailand cheesecake. Now I want you to imagine that this cheesecake represents Thailand: this slice is the beaches of Phuket, this slice is the jungles of Khao Sok, and this slice is the temples of Chiang Mai.
Each slice is a delicious part of what makes Thailand amazing, and most people can’t wait to try the next slice.
But here’s the problem: most people get overexcited and try to eat the whole cheesecake at once. What happens when you do? Each bite gets less and less enjoyable and more difficult to swallow. After two or three slices, you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and regretting it. Frankly, it’ll probably give you diarrhea.
So what does this mean for you and your trip? When you try to pack too much into your Thailand itinerary, it can quickly become a logistical nightmare. You’ll end up spending more time switching hotels, sitting in airports, or stuck in traffic than actually enjoying your trip.
You’ll also end up having surface-level experiences as you rush through the country, only really scratching the surface of what makes this country truly special. This kind of trip will leave you needing a holiday after your holiday.
Trust me, I completely understand the impulse to plan this kind of trip. Thailand is an amazing country, and almost anywhere you research will give you serious FOMO, especially if you only plan to visit the country once. When I’ve worked with people planning their dream trips to Thailand, the first thing we need to do is narrow down the list of places they want to visit. By doing that, I’ve come up with four simple tips that will not only simplify your trip planning but also give you a much better trip.
Tip 1: Spend at Least Two Full Days in Each Place
Tip one may seem obvious to some, but so many people overlook this Golden Rule. When you arrive in a new destination, it takes time to settle in your hotel, get your bearings, and start exploring. This usually takes more time than you expect. That’s why tip one is to make sure you spend at least two full days in any location that you choose.
The mistake here is thinking that I mean booking two nights in a hotel, but what I’m actually saying is to make sure you’re spending at least 48 hours exploring and enjoying the area that you’re visiting. Two nights in a hotel could mean you arrive late, spend one full day, and leave the next morning, which is probably too short. Even if you’re on a short trip, I’d still look at spending three nights in a hotel, which would then give you the full 48 hours to explore.
Tip 2: Use Chiang Mai as Your Northern Thailand Base
It’s the trips to Northern Thailand where most trips start to fall apart. Should you visit Chiang Rai or Pai, or the mountains of Chiang Mai? There’s so much to see and do here that it can quickly become a logistical nightmare as you try to figure out bus timetables and research remote homestays. That’s why tip two is to use Chiang Mai as a base to explore the rest of Northern Thailand.
From there, there are some amazing places that you can visit that are less than two hours’ drive away, so you can spend the bulk of your Northern Thailand trip in Chiang Mai while using it to explore the wider area. Personally, I could spend a few weeks in Chiang Mai and still do something new every day.
Some of the best day trips that you can take from the city are to the highest point in Thailand at Doi Inthanon, to explore the stunning temples and mountain sunsets of Chiang Rai, or to relax in the coffee-growing town of Mae Kampong.
The city itself is home to ancient temples, a beautiful river, a number of different hiking spots, and some of the best food in the country. If you have a longer trip or the focus of your trip is on the north of Thailand, by all means spend a few nights in the towns of Pai or Chiang Rai. They’re a bit too far away for a day trip, but honestly, it’s still best to use Chiang Mai as a base to explore them from.
Tip 3: Stay Within One Thailand Island Group
If there’s one thing that will give you a mega case of FOMO, it’s looking at Thailand’s stunning tropical islands. A quick search on YouTube or Instagram for Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, or Phuket will leave you ready to book your ticket right away. But there’s no way you’re going to fit all of Thailand’s islands into one trip unless you’re travelling for months on end.
That’s why choosing the right islands is key, but luckily, with my third tip, it’s still possible to cover quite a lot of ground. Do you want to party on Koh Phangan, escape on Koh Tao, or eat street food on Phuket? If you look at Thailand on a map, you’ll see that most major islands are actually grouped together. On the western side of Thailand, you have the Andaman Sea islands, including Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, and the beach town of Krabi. In the east, you have the Gulf islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao. Finally, far away in the northeastern corner near Cambodia, you have the Trat islands of Koh Chang, Koh Mak, and Koh Kood.
Tip three is to travel within these groups of islands and avoid travelling across the country to the other groups. Let me give you an example. Two of the most famous islands in Thailand are Phuket and Koh Samui, and usually when people start putting their trips together, they have these two islands in mind.
It is possible to catch a flight between these two destinations, but once you factor in getting to the airport, checking in with time to spare, the flight itself, getting off the plane, getting in a taxi, and checking into your hotel, you’re talking about a half-day trip. Sometimes these flights get booked or can be surprisingly expensive, so a lot of people end up catching a bus the whole way across the country and then a boat, and this is going to end up taking you a whole day. Whereas if you choose to travel from Phuket to Krabi, this can probably be done door to door in about three hours, or the boat from Koh Samui to Koh Phangan only takes about half an hour.
If you’re spending less than three weeks in Thailand, I suggest sticking to one group of islands and just travelling in between them. This will allow you to see more and spend more time actually enjoying yourself. Trying to visit multiple groups of islands will just burn days in transit and leave you exhausted. Pick one and enjoy it fully.
Tip 4: Plan Downtime Into Your Thailand Itinerary
My next tip is the one that took me a long time to learn, but now it’s one of the most important aspects of my travel planning. It’s the number one way to make sure that I take time to enjoy the trip and make sure that I don’t end up completely burnt out.
Although I’m giving you all these tips, I’ve actually made all these mistakes before. Especially when I was younger, I had no problem running around, taking overnight buses and boats, and trying to do as much as possible during the day. But as I’ve gotten older, and especially now that I have a child, I’ve realized that I no longer want to do that style of travel. The best way to avoid it is to actually plan for downtime in my trip.
Admittedly, that sounds counterintuitive. How can you plan for downtime? When planning out a major trip, you can have a tendency to fill every day with things to do, but maybe you should just leave a space and not have a plan. For most people, that usually means a few days towards the end of the trip on the beach.
Usually when I’m helping people put their Thailand trips together, I encourage them to do Bangkok and then the north of Thailand first because it’s generally a more active part of the holiday, where you’ll be filling each day with things to see and do, running around, and exploring. But there’s only so long you can do that for, so by the time you get to the beach, it can be time to unwind a little bit with no need to plan each day.
Perhaps you want to book a boat trip in advance, but most days you can go at whatever pace you feel. This doesn’t mean just doing nothing. You can still get out and explore, and the irony is that by not having a plan and just going with the flow, you might actually end up having a better time and a more unique experience.
