I have always booked internal flights myself. It is just far cheaper. Not sure when the best time to book is. In the past I would have said the earlier the better but its difficult to say this year, with already expensive flight prices. Best thing to do is to check almost daily and you might find a good price. If you can a bit flexilble with dates( even a day or two either way) you might be surprised at the price difference. I am pricing possible flights for elsewhere at the moment and a difference of a day or two has added up to a couple of hundred pounds
We have both your hotels in our reviews here but unfortunately no recent reviews

Have you tried pricing flights via KL or Singapore?
Often they're cheaper than going via BKK, and you have the same mix of cheap onward airlines to Phuket.
For instance, in a few weeks going to Singapore on Emirates is £397 as opposed to £515 to Bangkok...and you can get a day flight home at 9.45am...instead of leaving your hotel at 2pm and hanging round for 12 hours til Bangkok flights leave?

oh forgot about that Have actually done Singapore to Koh Samui and flights were good.

Ok ok ;

Thanks for the help and feedback ,very much appreciated.

Think the only way to put a good holiday together is research research and ohh yehh research

Now been 5 days solid on the computer and absorbed more info than humanly possibly.
Woke up last night In a dream like state with beads of sweat running down the head and nudging the other half to see if karon or kata would be a better option than Patong or Tri-trang.
She said if i dont get a life i'll be lucky to see Llandudno

Holiday nearly all booked now and it goes something like this

Booked flight Manny to Singapore via Doha with Quatar air £533 on 09/01/10 cheap as chips

Booked Singapore accomodation for 3 nights sying at Marina Mandarin exec delux room
Twas a good deal on this "I say u buy 2 nights you gets one free"
Booked internal flights with Air Asia as all the other operators are on just plain old planet greedy.

Internal flight Singapore to Phuket one way for 2 £62.00
Internal flight Phuket to Bankok one way for 2 £58.00
Internal flight bankok to singapore for 2 one way £102.00

Now need accomodation for 11 nights in patong
strugling very hard between Merlin beach resort Holiday Inn or Amari coral beach resort
So come on what would you go for

Merlin beach top bannana but a little isolated
Holiday inn top draw but on a busy road
Amari coral beach very very very nice but rooms look a little sparton



Going to go for Landmark in Bankok For 4 nights unless any members know of any better
Would like to be as central as possible
Three days in Bangkok what shall I do any good suggestions
Restaurants what would be good middle of range place,relaxed atmos were you dont have to dress up like a penguin.

One day will be definatly taken up on river kwai trip

04.16 bed time

Thnks again
Taxi

have to laugh at your post as I recognise all too well the mild hysteria when you've spent all day trying to sort out what to book.
A quick note re Air Asia- check the luggage allowance if you haven't already done so.
Bangkok- I think a good first day would be take the Tourist Boat- get off at Taksin on the sky train. ( its actually the end of the skytrain route). You buy an all day ticket. It is more expensive than the regular boats but well worth it for helping you get your bearings and there are so many sites and places to see that you won't manage it on one day.
Some of the places along the way( and not in the right order)
Wat Arun( temple of the dawn)- well worth a stop
China Town- I love wandering around there
Little India- worth a stop
Khao San Road
and of course The Grand Palace- my advice would be to do this first and as early as possible as it gets very hot within the complex. As its so huge it might be worth leaving that till the second day and use a regular boat to get there.

For shopping and a bit of historical interest visit Jim Thompson's House
http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/

The River Kwai was one of my all time favourite trips. Its a long day but well worth it

The standard luggage Air Asia is 15k per person
Does give u the option to upgrade to 20k and upwards for pennies.
Thinking 30k of luggage for 2 of us will be fine.
Put it in perspective thats more than a sack of spuds in weight with some to spare.
Options too for naming seats ect.
Would appear to be Asias idea of Easyjet Ryanair ect.
A lot of the other carriers like bankokair and silk air were quoting £200 plus for each internal flight.

Some good ideas there for bankok,thanks Fiona.
Good tip too Chriss on the Singapore routes, a lot lot cheaper plus I get to experiance another country of free..
Imagining Bankok is the equivalant of 5 calangute roundabouts rolled into one, looking forward to it.

Now that I have put the trip together from here there and everywere i suppose it may be worth while getting insurance that covers airline failure as any one leg going down the pan could blow the holiday.

Anyone care to advise on insurance that specifically covers this or am I being paranoid.

Cheers

tAXI

Have a look at the insurance sticky on the General holiday enquiries thread. There are suggestions there

Hi Taxi

We have stayed at the Merlin Beach and Holiday Inn and I think the Holiday Inn is the best of the two.

Yes! the HI is in the middle of everything but inside the hotel grounds you wouldn't know it. Just step outside and and there are so many shops and restaurants you will be spoilt for choice. We prefer the Busakorn Wing... it is being closed from May-October for refurbishment so should be looking swisho not that there was anything wrong with it before.

Merlin Beach is isolated and for that reason I would not return there. You either have to get the infrequent hotel bus (bit like a cattle truck that also doubles as a personal carrier for hotel staff) or negotiate (or rather try to) with the tut tut mafia. The pools are lovely though. The beach is almost unswimmable due it being rocky. Last time I looked at the Merlin's prices they were skyrocketting and not worth the money.

We too are flying Air Asia from KL to Penang. Since I booked our flights the system has changed... it's great now we can select seats and 'supersize' (what a daft word) your luggage from the piddly 15kg.

Have a great holiday.

Cheers Geri

forgot to add a few restaurant suggestions. I haven't been since a year past December but the ones mentioned are unlikely to have changed in the meantime.
One of my favourites( we go every time ) is Lemongrass. It is an old Thai house and interesting in itself but the food is gorgeous. It is only 2 stops in the skytrain and 5 mins walk to it. Try the red curry chicken skewers as a starter. Their lemongrass chicken is obviously very good.
Harmonique- close to the Oriental. It is down an alleyway but it is signposted. Unfortunately it was closed for the few days we were there last- but food is always good there. Full of character.Get off at Saphin Taksin on the skytrain.
Tongue Thai- in the same area as Harmonique.
Cabbages and Condoms-short walk from your hotel- to be honest the food we had the last time was ok but not outstanding. But it is interesting
http://www.pda.or.th/restaurant/about.asp
Also close to the hotel is the Bedsupper Club- haven't been as I just didn't fancy it.
http://www.bedsupperclub.com/restaurant/
Mango Tree- superb food. Close to Patpong market so it might be worth booking there if you are taking the trip one night to the market

We always choose Thai restaurants so can't recommend any other types I'm afraid.

an absolute must get is Nancy Chandlers map of Bangkok. A map is essential anyway but this one has great additional info on it as well
http://www.nancychandler.net/product.asp?pId=11
I know you can get them there but its handy to order beforehand. Ours was very well worn.

Lemongrass sounds amazing.

Only there for 3 nights so time limited with all the recomendations.

Final piece of jigsaw now complete.
Went for Holiday Inn due to location and good feedback off tripadvisor

If patong gets a bit too hetic then a 400 baht tuk tuk trip to kata or somewere else peaceful is easy to hand.

Went to W H Smiths yesterday and got 2 AA guide books of singapore and bankok.
Good reading and both had a detachable plastic map of the cities so I am armed coiled and ready for action.

MUST SAY A BIG THANK YOU TO NETFLIGHTS.COM

Used them for 75% off trip make up as they consistently came out as best value for money and the staff have a willingness to please coupled with a profesional and friendly attitude.

It is however web sites like Holidaytruths that make holiday DIY totaly painless in every respect.
So many experianced travellers out there just willing to lend a hand.
Thanks a bunch.

Must have saved over a grand + mimimum on tour operators packaged prices

In order to assist other travellers and also for other travellers to point out to myself any room for improvement I willingly list my approx costings for 2 peeps for 20 day trip.

Manny singapore £ 1100.00
Internal flights as listed £ 220.00
MARINA MANDARIN 3nights £ 300.00
LANDMARK BANGKOK £ 300.00
HOLIDAY INN PHUKET 12 night £ 1100.00
RIVER KWAI TRIP £ 55.00

APPROX 3K

PLUS ANCILLARY ONLINE BOOKING EXPENSES

5 packs jaffa cakes
3 packs custard creams
47 brews of nescafe
3 battenburgs
2 CHERRY BAKEWELLS
and a 5 bottles of merlot

£40.00

Happy days

Taxi

I too got my flights through Netflights even had a call from them on Saturday to ensure everything was OK and to wish us a good trip. We are flying on Thursday. I too have booked it all myself, we are off to Bangkok, Hanoi, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Penang then back to Phuket for a few days then Bangkok for our last night. 28 days in all. Probably cost us about 3k in all but haven't as yet counted up. We are also staying at the Landmark for 3 night, pre ordered my currency from Crown Currency Exchange and got 1.9 dollars to the £, so asked the Landmark if we could pay in cash dollars as they quoted us in dollars (so we don't get done on the exchange rate by paying by card), this they agreed so have got Club Room deluxe for about £70 quid a night. Well happy with that

Hi Taxi

As you're staying at the Holiday Inn don't forget to give Sam's Steak restaurant a go... not cheap but the food, setting and staff are lovely.

Have great time... I'm jealous.

Geri

Hi gerib couldnt quite stretch to Busakorn wing
Spending bahts to consider in addition to new togs for raffles ect.

Good call in the end for Holiday Inn, sure we will have a great time there.

Re the insurance aspect mentioned earlier for failed airline cover

Not many insurers offer cover or include it,must be a sign of the times.

However I did find one and that is the post office travel insurance that included a full £1500 airline failure as standard.
Not worried with Quatar but more concerned with the low budjet carriers that appear to be more exposed to the prevailing conditions.

ONLY 300 SLEEPS TO GO