Advice for a Christmas dive trip to Thailand

[divemaster86]

Yeah, we booked all our domestic flights with Thai Airways:
Dec 18 - Dec 20 - Bangkok
Dec 20 - Dec 23 - Chiang Mai
Dec 23 - Dec 26 - Phuket
Dec 26 - Jan 4 - Khao Lak
Jan 4 - Jan 8 - Bangkok

I have found a lot of hotels in Phuket around 4,000 Baht a night that are a little off the beach. Not sure which is the one to go with. A nicer one would be nice, but with a 3 week trip the price is starting to snowball We weren't aware that things were 3-5X the price during "Peak Season."

I misspoke (or typed?):

Dec 18 - Dec 20 - Bangkok
Dec 20 - Dec 23 - Chiang Mai
Dec 23 - Dec 31 - Khao Lak
Dec 31 - Jan 4 - Phuket
Jan 4 - Jan 8 - Bangkok

 

[shoturtle]

Yeah, we booked all our domestic flights with Thai Airways:
Dec 18 - Dec 20 - Bangkok
Dec 20 - Dec 23 - Chiang Mai
Dec 23 - Dec 26 - Phuket
Dec 26 - Jan 4 - Khao Lak
Jan 4 - Jan 8 - Bangkok

I have found a lot of hotels in Phuket around 4,000 Baht a night that are a little off the beach. Not sure which is the one to go with. A nicer one would be nice, but with a 3 week trip the price is starting to snowball We weren't aware that things were 3-5X the price during "Peak Season."

My wife works for an airline, even with our discounts we avoid peak season in thailand, it does cost allot more. When we go to thailand, we normally stay between 2.5 and 3 weeks, and it does balloon up so we tend to go in Feb at the tail end of the season. But I a pretty sure the NYE week is even more expensive in Phuket. It does not help that the Europeans are on holiday for half of December. So they flee the cold.

Pretty much all the hotels have AC in phuket and at least a queens size bed. If you have a list of hotels, I would check out tripadvisor.com they do do a pretty good job at rating and I have found them very useful in areas that do not have big name hotels.

The international flight is where thai airways really shin. The top 4 airlines in customer service is Singapore, Eremites, Thai and Cathy Pacific when it comes to international flights. They are above 5 stars.

Khao Lak is very relaxing.

 

[shoturtle]

I see you are spending 4 day in bangkok at the end of you trip, you know you can sneak in on more dive in bangkok, it is a bit pricey, buy you can dive in a shark tank in the aquarium in siam square at the paragon mall I think. There is like 5 malls in that area. The dive is a little pricey, but you get to dive with sharks and feed them.

just some tourist to tourist advice

In bangkok, the palace and the big temple is worth a visit, but be warn. Avoid the tuktuk and anyone saying they are officials. They will try to make you believe that you are getting a deal with a tuktuk tour for 20 bht. But shops pay them to get tourist to their shops. So you will get hijack into shopping instead of seeing the sites. I did use the water taxies to get to the palace, it was only a short walk form the entrance of the palace, iAs a female bring something that covers the knees and shoulder as they have rules. You can get a loner form the palace. but the thing the lend out do not breath well and gets wicked warm. Enjoy your trip.


If you are spending anytime in Bangkok, and want to high end evening go to the Scirocco it is a great bar in a high rise hotel, There are 4 bars and restaurants in that high rise, they do have a dress code. no sandals and dressed well. Go just before sunset, and it is an incredible view. It is at the end of silom road by the river.

 

[stevenl]

Watch out with Tripadvisor. Lots of ratings there at least on the Phuket forum, both excursions and hotels, are done by interested parties, and not very trustworthy.

 

[divemaster86]

Watch out with Tripadvisor. Lots of ratings there at least on the Phuket forum, both excursions and hotels, are done by interested parties, and not very trustworthy.

We figured that when the reviews were all written in a similar writing style-- seem like to owner got on there and made a bunch of accounts from around the world!

 

[shoturtle]

yeah, you kinda can tell when it is hype, I have notice that.

 

[Apecks]

Thanks everyone for your fantastic advice!! I really appreciate it!! We decided we are not opposed to increasing our time in Thailand to 3 weeks. My next question is what would you recommend to see the best sites on the Andaman Coast (as that seems to be the consensus on best sites). Do you recommend staying in one location for the dive portion of the trip or hopping around? Where should I look for affordable accommodations (It doesn't have to be super fancy)? Are my dives something I want to arrange ahead of time or is it better to figure out there? Similarly, what are some good liveabords tours and where would they nicely fit into the trip?

We did a liveaboard to the Similan & Surin Islands in January on the MV Scubacat Adventurer - Can well recomend it

Phuket Scuba Diving Liveaboards, PADI Courses, IDC Thailand

 

[Apecks]

I have found a lot of hotels in Phuket around 4,000 Baht a night that are a little off the beach. Not sure which is the one to go with. A nicer one would be nice, but with a 3 week trip the price is starting to snowball We weren't aware that things were 3-5X the price during "Peak Season."

Keep looking :shocked2: That is a lot of money for a hotel in Thailand, even in Phuket (expensive tourist resort). Must be 5 star + for that sort of money