Tour description
Dazzling Bangkok
We’ll meet in Bangkok and then visit the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Keow. But there are other temples you’d love too! You could immerse yourself in Chinatown or plunge into the capital’s booming nightlife. Or you could take a unique bicycle tour, along the green klongs and small roads, to experience the ‘real’ Bangkok.Stay at a floating hotel!
We’ll then travel to Kanchanaburi, stopping at the colourful floating market of Damnoen Saduak along the way. Kanchanaburi, on the river Kwai, is famous for its bridge and its impressive World War II museum. We’ll stay at the ‘Floatel’, a floating hotel on the River Kwai. On the next day you can go to the waterfalls at Erawan, go rafting, take a jungle hike or ride an elephant.Khao Yai National Park
On day 5 we’ll drive to Ayutthaya, the former capital of Siam, where we’ll admire the centuries’ old stupas and Buddha statues before continuing to Khao Yai National Park where we’ll stay one night (in a small resort just outside the park). There’ll be an opportunity to visit the park the next day to walk or to swim underneath a waterfall. And, if you’re lucky, you’ll see deer, monkeys, elephants (or one of the sixty tigers that live here before it sees you!).Thai boxing and massage-parlours
We’ll then board the comfortable night-train to Chiang Mai, an attractive town which has many temples, great shopping, bars, discos, Thai boxing and massage-parlours. We recommend you see the temple at Doi Suthep, located on top of a mountain, or that you go to the various handicraft centres that sell silver, woodcarvings and umbrellas. There’s also a pre-bookable three-day trek to meet the hill-dwelling tribes around Chiang Mai, during which we’ll hike, drift downstream on bamboo rafts, and ride elephants through the jungle. We’ll stay in tribal villages and learn about the traditional mountain-dweller’s way-of-life.Visit the Golden Triangle
This trek ends in Chiang Rai, where we’ll rejoin fellow trippers who decided to stay in Chiang Mai. Then we can visit the bustling border-town of Mae Sai and venture into neighbouring Myanmar on a day-pass to visit the Golden Triangle formerly notorious for its opium-trading.Ruins of Sukhothai
On day 12 we’ll drive through the mountains to Lahu, on the Mae Kok, passing villages populated by the Akha and Yao as well as the Chinese settlement on Doi Mae Salong. After a boat-trip on the Kok we’ll return to Chiang Mai then go to Pitsanulok for two nights, where we’ll visit the ruins of Sukhothai (another former capital of Siam).Paradise island of Koh Samet
On day 15 we’ll go by train to Bangkok, before continuing the following day by bus and boat to the paradise island of Koh Samet, where we’ll stay in a relaxing beach resort. You’ll be able to unwind under palm trees, dive, snorkel, sail or surf. There are several restaurants and bars with beach terraces, which will no doubt keep you entertained until we return to Bangkok on day 20.