Two Weeks in Thailand: Two Itineraries, One Decision

A fortnight in Thailand is a comfortable amount of time and an easy thing to plan badly. The mistake is not choosing the wrong places. It is choosing the right places in the wrong month, because this country has two coasts keeping opposite seasons and no single itinerary works across the whole year.

Why there are two itineraries and not one

The Andaman coast on the west is dry from December to March and takes over 300mm of rain in October. The Gulf on the east is dry from January to September and takes over 300mm in November. Those two facts, measured rather than repeated, are why the fortnight that is perfect in February is a poor plan in July.

Everything below follows from them. Pick the route from your dates rather than picking the dates from a route somebody else wrote.

The winter fortnight: November to March

Three centres, two internal flights, and the classic shape of a first trip.

Days 1 to 4: Bangkok

Arrive, and give yourself the first day to do nothing in particular; a twelve-hour flight and a seven-hour time difference are worth respecting. The Grand Palace and Wat Pho are a morning, best started early before the heat and the coaches. Wat Arun is across the river and is better in the late afternoon. Chinatown after dark is the best eating in the city and one of the best in Asia.

Use the BTS and the MRT rather than taxis. They are air-conditioned and immune to the traffic, and the river boats cover the corner of the old city they do not reach.

Days 5 to 8: Chiang Mai

Take the overnight sleeper. It is the one route in Thailand where the slow option is clearly the better one: a second-class berth is about a thousand baht, it replaces a hotel night, and it puts you in Chiang Mai at breakfast. Eleven to thirteen hours, leaving Krung Thep Aphiwat in the evening. Book weeks ahead in high season.

Chiang Mai in the cool season is the part of Thailand that surprises people: 11mm of rain in January and genuinely cool at dawn. The old city inside its moat is walkable, Doi Suthep is a half day, and the north is where the food changes completely.

One caution on timing. The northern burning season runs from February to April and the haze can be heavy enough to remove the mountain views entirely. If Chiang Mai is the point of the trip, November to January is the window.

Days 9 to 14: the Andaman coast

Fly. Chiang Mai to Phuket or Krabi is a connection through Bangkok and takes most of a day the long way round. Then stop moving.

Which beach depends on what you want the last week to be. Phuket has the range, the nightlife and the west-coast sand everybody has seen. Krabi has the limestone, the car-free bays at Railay reached only by boat, and by some distance the calmest water: the Krabi bays never average more than about 0.43 metres of wave height in any month, against 1.34 metres on Phuket’s west coast in July.

Fly home from Phuket or Krabi rather than backtracking to Bangkok. Both have international connections and the alternative wastes a day.

The summer fortnight: May to September

Two centres rather than three, because the Gulf is far enough from everything else that a third move is expensive in time.

Days 1 to 4: Bangkok

The same four days, with one difference: Bangkok in the northern summer is wet in the afternoons rather than wet all day. Plan the outdoor half in the morning and the markets, the malls and the museums for three o’clock onwards, and the rain stops being a problem.

Days 5 to 14: the Gulf islands

An hour’s flight to Koh Samui, or a cheaper flight to Surat Thani and a boat. Ten nights on one island sounds like a lot until you have done it; the Gulf in July and August averages 90mm of rain and wave heights around 0.35 metres, which is calmer than the Andaman gets in any month of its year.

Koh Samui is the developed one, with the airport, the range of hotels and Chaweng’s seven kilometres of beach. Koh Phangan next door is quieter except at the full moon. Koh Tao is the diving island and the cheapest of the three. Ferries between them take under an hour, so splitting the ten nights across two of them costs almost nothing.

If ten nights on a beach is more than you want, the substitution is Khao Sok national park on the way: jungle, a lake among limestone karsts, and a three-hour transfer from Surat Thani.

April and October, which fit neither

April is the hottest month everywhere and the month the Andaman turns. Phuket goes from 93mm in March to 152mm. The Gulf is still dry at 99mm, so an April fortnight leans towards the Gulf route. Songkran on the 13th to the 15th is the largest event in the Thai year and books out transport weeks ahead.

October is the hardest month in the country. The Andaman is at its annual peak, the Gulf has turned, and there is no dry coast. Chiang Mai is the exception, coming down from 269mm in September to 132mm, so an October fortnight is best spent north: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai or Pai rather than a beach.

What each move actually costs

• Bangkok to Chiang Mai: 11 to 13 hours overnight by sleeper, or an hour by air.
• Bangkok to Phuket: 1h 30m by air, about 150 departures a week.
• Bangkok to Koh Samui: about an hour by air, or 12 to 15 hours by coach and ferry.
• Phuket to Krabi: 2h 30m to 3h by road, or 1h 30m by ferry across the bay.
• Phuket to Koh Samui: under an hour by air, or six to ten hours by road and ferry. This is the one that catches people out.

Three rules that hold in either season

1. Three places, not four. Half a day per move, every time.
2. Finish on the beach. A fortnight that ends on sand feels longer than one that ends in a city.
3. Work backwards from the last boat. Island ferries mostly stop in the early afternoon, and a late arrival at the airport means a night you had not planned on the mainland.