Hi Jacqui,

I am surprised that no one has picked this up before, but here goes.

Firstly, you have chosen just about the best time of the year - so one hurdle out of the way.

Although it is your first time in Thailand, you obviously are quite used to travelling. Nevertheless Bangkok can seem rather overwhelming on a first visit. In my experience, you can frequently get packaged deals as cheaply as DIY. Obviously if you want to shop around searching out the cheapest deals around, you will always find a way of saving a few pounds - but in the great scheme of things you will probably prefer the "safety" of a package.

My honest recommendation is to go to a specialist, who can both advise and put together an aggressively priced "bespoke" package.

Trailfinders immediately comes to mind - we frequently use them as they can get good flight only deals too! Premier Holidays are also worth a call, although their staff does not seem as "on the ball" as they used to be - or perhaps I am just getting picky. I am sure that others on this forum will have other ideas.

You don't say where you will be flying from, but there are several direct flights from LHR. I would particularly recommend Eva Air, good flight times, relatively low cost, 34" legroom in economy, and extremely competitive upgrade to Premium Economy. Many people also like Thai Airways - also 34" legroom, but older aircraft.

Another benefit of Eva Air is that they partner with Bangkok Airways for internal flights to Koh Samui - great for checking baggage all the way through if returning to UK from Samui.

If you are flying from another UK airport, there are several options, mainly via the Middle East if you want to avoid Heathrow. An appealing option, with the recent tax hikes for long haul flights, may be from a regional airport to, say Amsterdam (low tax) and then onward to Bangkok.

If you go to Samui (it has some beautiful beaches and scenery) you may want to consider a hotel that is outside of Chaweng, which can be rather noisy and in your face in the evenings.

There was a discussion on this forum, not long ago, about good locations to stay.

When in Bangkok, make sure that you get a hotel near to a Skytrain station - not only a very convenient means of travel, but also an air conditioned haven!

We love Thailand - I'm sure you will have a great time!

Peter

Peter, thank you for your reply. We are quite well travelled but as it would be our first time I think I will contact Trailfinders as you have sugested. Thanks again Jacqui

Do shop around, I've recently purchased flights to the Far East and Traifinders were coming out the most expensive of the quotes I got for the flights I wanted...to the tune of £120pp extra for exactly the same flights. Travelmood were coming out with the best price in this instance.

The time your travelling means you could consider the Andaman coast of Thailand as well (Phuket,Krabi, Khoa Lak, Ko Lanta etc)

Interesting Sunbear - and good advice

Only slightly due to destinations involved.

We have recently booked to Sabah via KL.

All, "packaged" stuff was rather OTT, but Trailfinders came in with the best price for the whole deal.

We eventually booked flights directly with MAS (TF were about £10 more) and hotels (Shangri-La again) and saved a good bit on the hotels (enough to tempt us to go direct). As a total package (not DIY) Trailfinders were well over £100 cheaper than others we tried.

There are so many options - it is always worth shopping around.

Cheers

Peter

Can I suggest that you think of doing the city days last? If you do it first, jetlag can be a major factor. As well as that, it will make your journey home a bit easier. As was said earlier on, the main thing to consider when looking for hotels in Bangkok is that it should be close to a skytrain. To get around Bangkok and see the sites, the best way is by tourist boat. Take the sky train to the end of the line(Taksin) The boat stop is just ahead of you. Most of the sites can be seen by using the boat. Its a daily ticket and hop on/hop off. If you are only there a couple of days then this is the best way for you. ( I would try for 3 days though as there is so much to see)

Or alternativly look for a hotel on the river which just has so much happening on it. Most river side hotels will have shuttle boats to the river boat stops and the skytrain. Many of the interesting tourist sites are acessible by the river so its a great way of avoiding the Bangkok traffic.