Thailand/ Laos for 3 weeks- route suggestions

so many qs

Hi, as the title says I'd really apprecitate any suggestions as to how to go about this. We are heading at the start of August for 3 weeks.

We are thinking of spending 3 days in Bangkok and then travelling north on the overnight train to Chiang Mai to do some trekking. From reading posts on this forum, treks seem to be from 1- 4 days. As we aren't athletes we'd probably go for 1 or 2 nights.:) Then head over to Laos (and this is where we are really clueless), travel down a bit and do the tubing and somehow get to the Thai islands and fly back home from Bangkok. I've read lots of the posts but still not sure of some things.

Is this the best route to take or would anticlockwise up through Laos, over to Chiang Mai and down to Bangkok be better?

If we go with route one, how much time should we spend in Chiang Mai? Is there more to do there than use it as a base for trekking?

How do you get to Laos? Bus or train? And where should we aim for? Luang Prabang? Where should we try to take in apart from the tubing?

Fly to the islands (not cheap)- Which islands should we aim for?

Thanks for reading

In Chiang Mai, I'd advise the slow boat option to Luang Prabang.. You first get the bus to Chang Khong, cross the border and then onto the boat. It takes 2 days but it's really good fun and very beautiful. The bus is meant to be horrific aswell.
Spend 2 days there I guess.. Then bus it down to Vang Vieng for tubing, spend a few days there and then organise a bus back to Bangkok and then the islands. You'll miss Vientiane and 4000 islands unfortunately.
Fly to Phuket if you like, then do Koh Phi Phi.. Then over to Koh Pha Ngan on the east coast. You'll just miss the full moon party there though.. It'll be on the 14th.

so many qs

Thanks Ads. I'd be all on for the slow boat but my boyfriend thinks it's not the best use of time (!). Anyway, do you just arrive and do the tubing? Does it take a day and hang around that night? Would like to head down to Vientiane if it's worth it. So would it be a bus from there to Bangkok and then down to the islands?

Sorry but I've been reading forums and can't find information on Laos at all.

lesserspottedchloe

would recommend the slow boat for sure-I was the only one in my group to choose this option over the crazy speedboat and it paid off. Had a great time in the over night stop off village dancing at an open air festival and drinking the night away sitting on cardboard boxes on the street

beagle001

Slow boat must have changed we did it 6 yrs ago and it was a torturous journey,uncomfortable seats the skankiest little town we stopped of in to break up the journey and we were not allowed on the roof.
I would fly in with that sort of travel time you have,it's ok if you have months to travel around but your time will fly,don't try to do too much and enjoy the countries.
Laos is great,rent a moped and tour around vang vien,Vientiane is suited better to solo travelers bit worth a stop.
+1 beer lao

Vientiane was one of my favourite places but I spent 11 days there.. Don't bother with it if you have 3 weeks.

beagle001

Could break it up on the way down from vang vien,stay one day and next day cross the border bus to udan where airasia fly back to bangkok.
Plenty to do round Vientiane for a day,kop chai deu has some of the best food a little pricier than most but good place to hangout.
Plenty of bars,the odd niteclub or just chill by the Mekong.
Lovely little waterfall outside the city and I reckon worth a trip.

Bruz82

in relation to taking the boat or bus from the border to Luang Prabang, i went on the bus last October and I can easily say it was one of the worst journeys ive been on.I didnt do the boat cos i done a 4 day boat trip in northern peru, If you have never done a boat trip before then do this cos the bus is shocking. In chang mai i stayed in "A little bird guesthouse". It was class,very relaxing, cheap, friendly and meet a loads others. Done a day trip trekking with elephants , was 1800baht, very good experience ,they treated the elephants very well where others dont, (what ive heard) i recommend it.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=634656923&sk=info

Have a look at this guy.

so many qs

Thanks very much everybody.

Good to know Laos is worth doing. Still haven't got much further with this part of the hol but beagle that seems like a great idea to fly from Udon. Flights so much cheaper to Phuket than from Vientiene. Wonder is it easy to get from Vientiene to Udon. Thanks for that one.

beagle001

so many qs wrote: »

Thanks very much everybody.

Good to know Laos is worth doing. Still haven't got much further with this part of the hol but beagle that seems like a great idea to fly from Udon. Flights so much cheaper to Phuket than from Vientiene. Wonder is it easy to get from Vientiene to Udon. Thanks for that one.

Getting from Udon to Vientiane is an hour by his and a 5 min Tuk Tuk to the border,same both ways and plenty of buses.
Actually a bus leaves direct every hour from the Market in Vientiane behind the main shopping plaza about 5 mins down town.
4euro 1 way if I remember correctly.

jadie

guys am also interested in Laos information- apart from tubing (did it before elsewhere, don't want to do it again) is there much to do in Luang Prabang?

Regarding the slow boat, is this just an open boat, how long does it take?? The reason I ask is cos I am very fairskinned and couldn't manage sitting out in the sun for hours on end without any shade. thanks

Todd Gack

jadie wrote: »

guys am also interested in Laos information- apart from tubing (did it before elsewhere, don't want to do it again) is there much to do in Luang Prabang?

Vang Vieng is where the tubing is. Luang Prabang is where the slow boat finishes (Vang Vieng is further South). LP is a nice little laid back town with a lot of French Colonial architecture. It's a good spot to chill out for a few days, it's quite small so there's not too much "to do" specifically just wander round and enjoy the atmosphere, there's caves and a waterfall a bit outside the town (a car journey away, not walking distance). Plenty restaurants there and a good night market.

jadie wrote: »

Regarding the slow boat, is this just an open boat, how long does it take?? The reason I ask is cos I am very fairskinned and couldn't manage sitting out in the sun for hours on end without any shade. thanks

The slow boat is open in that it's not enclosed but they do have roofs so you'll have no sunburn worries. It takes 3 days 2 nights from Chiang Mai, or 2 days 1 night from Chiang Kong which is on the Thai side of the border with Laos. (from CM you'd travel by bus/minivan to there which takes 4-5 hours and spend the night there) The next day you cross the Mekong to Laos, pass immigration and start the trip from Huay Xai. It's about 6-7 hours each day on the boat with an overnight stop in Pakbeng (where there's nothing much to do and the power does or at least did shut off at 10 so the place is in complete darkness).

so many qs

Hi everybody, thanks for your help. Back from the hol now. We ended up not going to Laos as we didn't feel like we could do it properly. Instead we went to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Phi Phi and back to Bangkok. Had a great holiday. Really enjoyed Chiang Mai, plenty to do there, trekking, ziplining, elephant park. Thanks for all the info!

Hollowstarz

Hi,

Just wondering where you stayed in Phuket and Phi Phi, would you recommend them, heading that way in a couple of weeks! Thanks!

so many qs

We didn't stay in Phuket city. We stayed in Karon, on the west coast in a hotel called Bauman Casa. It's new- so new it's not all finished, nice, typical 3 star but about a 10 min walk to the roundabout which is town centre. http://www.baumancasa.com/
In Phi Phi we actually found it hard to get decent accomodation as people started snapping it up the minute we landed off the ferry. We were aiming for a bungalow for the novelty but wanted to be near the town centre. This place was booked out but seemed central and decent http://ppcasita.com/. In the end we stayed in here http://www.andamanbeachresort.com/rooms.htm It's on the Ao Ton Sai side. At first I thought it was a bit far (just over 10 min walk to town) when I saw the other side of the town Loh Dalam I was glad we'd stayed on the Ton Sai side. We splashed out and had the lux semi de bungalow and it was lovely. Their standard bungalows are grand too.