Young couple travelling overseas for the first time, going to Phuket for my mum's wedding. We only have 10 spare days before the wedding and have no idea where to spend them! Help!
Hi, we are a young couple travelling overseas for the first time, we are going to Phuket for my mum's wedding and staying in a villa for a week. Budget is not a big issue however time is! We have just 10 spare days before the wedding and have no idea where to spend them. I have started doing my own research but am overwhelmed with the amount of destinations and things i want to do/see eg Halong Bay, Angkor Wat, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Sapa, Hoi An, Bangkok, KL, Langkawi, Hanoi, Dalat, Phnom Penh!! These are all destinations that have taken my interest but obviously we will only be able to travel to 1 or 2 places in 10 days 😞 We are both not big drinkers so nightlife isn't that important to us, we are also not adrenalin junkies. I am not good with insects/spiders so don't know how i would go in the jungle! Things that are important to us/we would like to see/do are:
- Legit animal sanctuaries
- Relaxing leisure activities/tours eg cruises, kayaking, waterfalls
- Iddylic beach settings
- Temples & culture eg hill tribes in Vietnam...
- Traditional food & food markets! (I am vegetarian, will that be a problem in anywhere in SE Asia?)
As i already said i am just overwhelmed with the amount of info out there, and it's hard to know where to start! I realise 10 days isn't that long and we may not be able to experience much in that time.. Any advice would be highly appreciated!
Reply to this A suggestion to start would be to narrow down the country. Do you want to spend the 10 days in Thailand or see another country as well? With such a short time I would suggest exploring more of what Thailand has to offer.
With 10 more days in Thailand you could go Chiang Mai and do some trekking around the hill tribe villages and bamboo rafting and perhaps work with some elephants on a mahout training course (you learn to take care of the elephants). There are temples in Chiang Mai to see and then you could stop off at Sukhuthai and/or Ayuttaya on the way back to Bangkok to see some older temples. Spend a couple of days in Bangkok and do trip to the floating markets and see the Grand Palace and Wat Po and Wat Arun. There are beaches of course in Phuket, but you could also go over to Ko Phi Phi which is quite close.
Sound any good?
Reply to this Where are you from? may help narrow down options. If you are from Aus you could always do Phuket as this is a great traveller friendly place with beaches and shopping if that is what you are after and as Kris mentioned close to Phi Phi or Samui. You could combine this with a 5 day jaunt up to Siem Reap in Cambodia to see the temples of Ankhor Wat as there is a direct flight from Bangkok but it will mean doubling back to phuket unless you can fly home from Phuket. Other options Krabi province in Thailand and what about Malaysia - Kota Kinabalu if you are a nature person, Kuala Lumper if you are a city person. I agree narrowing down to one or two countries would be the best place to start.
Reply to this Thanks for your reply. I guess the reason we haven't even narrowed it down to a specific country is because we just want the best destination, don't mind what country it's in! Every country has caught our eye in some way. What i would love to know is: What would be the ultimate destination for us? I know you probably can't answer that though..
I have heard that out of the big capitals KL is the best - and also much cleaner than Bangkok? Would you agree? Chiang Mai sounds really good and is probably one of my favourite places out of the big list i listed in my original post, not that i have done a stack of research on every place but from first impressions!
We are defintely going on a day trip to Phi Phi whilst we are staying at Phuket, can you recommend any other towns nearby that would be worth visiting in a day trip?
By the way - we do plan to go back to SE Asia next year so we can see more as i realise we won't be able to see much in this trip!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply to this I am from Aus 😊 We are flying directly to Singapore (got REALLY cheap flights and know that AirAsia flights to wherever we want will be cheap from there) we then have 10 spare days... Then will be staying in Phuket for 7 days and flying direct back to Aus from Phuket.
Also, i have been told by a few people not to bother staying in Singapore, especially since we only have 10 days.... wuold you tend to agree?
Reply to this Ok :-) thought you may have been from Aus - me too - the air asia routes are familiar! Phuket is going to give you beaches, easy travelling, the thais in Phuket are very tourist friendly and the whole island of Phuket is tourist focused. You can lie on beaches or go to the Fantasea Cabaret if that is your type of thing, and I hear it is impressive you can get your pic taken with a baby tiger, have a meal and watch a spectacular show. Check out the madness and colour and human circus of Bangla Road one night just for the fun of it and its so far removed from what we see in Aus its will open your eyes...wide!.
Why not split your time in Phuket up with a trip through to Krabi Province and the beautiful Railay Beach for a couple of days spoil yourselves time. You can get there via Phi Phi or take a bus/taxi/mini van depending on your budget to Ao Nang in Krabi which will take about 3 hours, depending on if your driver thinks he is Mark Webber. A taxi cost us about 2000bht. Go via Taxi and back via Phi Phi for something different, the land and sea scenery is spectacular.
I find Kuala Lumper a very ugly and polluted city but then other people love it for the shopping. From Singapore Air Asia offer direct flights which would be best given your time constraints to Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, KL, Langkawai in Malaysia which may give you the best bang for your buck so to speak without having to lose days with connecting flights to vietnam or the other destinations you have in mind.
I have a blog about Phuket and Krabi that may give you an idea if you like the look of that part of thailand or want to head elsewhere..and I cant offer you any advise on singapore sorry as I havent left the airport there. Enjoy your planning 😊
Reply to this If you are going to Thailand why not visit Bangkok and Chiang Mai and save other countries for a longer holiday. You got a lot of beaches in Australia anyway. If you can, check out northern Thailand, ride some elephants, visit some villages. But don't skip Bangkok. When you go back home you will probably have more friends ask about Bangkok than other places.
Reply to this I'm going to second Cindy's idea of suggestions relating to Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia. If you base yourself in Bangkok, you can make side trips: One to the temples in Siem Reap, but you will need at least two full days (or three part days) to see the best parts. For the elephant sanctuary, try the one I visited in Western Thailand:
Falling Off An Elephant. Another blogger from this site went there with his two children after reading my blog and enjoyed it equally as much. Try to stay overnight. Whilst in that part of Thailand, try to visit Hellfire Pass.
Heading to Langkawi Island is a great idea - and I believe you can head there directly from Bangkok. But for beaches (as Sir Halberd mentioned) we have a lot of them in Australia - see if you can do something a bit different. You won't be able to view the glorious Angkor Temples or ride atop an elephant to wash them in a river in Australia!
Reply to this Heya, i agree very much with Cindy and have done a similar route to what she has mentioned from phuket to krabi - phuket is probably a good first for tourists as it is very australian friendly 😊 Krabi is a lot smaller (and cheaper) and feels like youre getting more into what thailand has to offer. From there if you head up to chang mai there is a great elephant orphanage you can go too (although you can do elephant tours from both phuket and krabi) and it is a lot more inland so a great jungle atmosphere.
As the others have mentioned if you have 10 days i'd probably stick to 2 or 3 destinations tops or you'll be so busy you wont have a chance to enjoy yourself. I love singapore and it is one of my favourite cities. We have stayed in Orchard Road a couple of times which is where all the shopping centres are and the last 3 times we've stayed on Sentosa Island (10 min cab ride from airport). It is more a holiday destination with heaps to do - google sentosa island and you'll find it has its own website.
I think i have blogged a couple of the phuket, krabi, singapore trips since we had kids so have a read. As we're dragging along kids we're not looking for nightclubs or extreme sports either 😊 but we generally do the standard tourist stuff and try to do at least one culturally different thing and eat lots of yummy asian food while away 😊) Oh, another idea is there is a cruise ship (virgo i thing?) that goes from singapore and stops each day at the major locations along the mallaca strait - i think its pretty cheap like AUD$300 for 4 nights and will stop in penang, phuket, kuala lumper etc - might be worth checking out just to see where you like and then go back for more on your next trip 😊
let us know where you decide and we'll try and give you some more localised ideas!
Reply to this Hi Cindy, i like the idea of Railay beach. Could we do this as a day trip from Phuket or is it too far in one day?
Reply to this Hi Shane, thanks for the link to the elephant sanctuary you visited. This sounds great, and sounds like the animals are really cared for properly! I will definitely be heading there.
I know we have a lot of beaches in Aus, but i am from Tasmania where it is mainly cold and we don't have many beaches, so somewhere tropical with pretty beaches is a really nice holiday for me 😊 I want to have a part of the time relaxing at a nice beach and part of the time experiencing the culture etc.
Where is the prettiest beach/location you have come across in Thailand/Malaysia?
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