first timers

new to this forum. fantastic information.

am planning a 15 to 17 day guided tour of thailand in oct.-nov.-08. would like to see bangkok,chaing mai,chaing rai, and phucket island. am interested in the best time to go in these two months.also, has anyone used any of the following tour companies for thailand.

gate 1 travel--have used for morocco

smartours

friendly planet travel.

or is there somewhere that i can get info on these tour companies.

i thank you in advance for your help.

first timers

The later the better for the weather, as for tour operators just enter TOUR OPERATOR in trip advisor search engine in each forum ie: phuket, or bangkok and you should see other peoples recommended operators.

Hope this helps. Tommy.

first timers

thanks, tommy

November is good time. Also check out Orientalescape.com for tours. I%26#39;ve used them in Bangkok, Chiangmai and Phuket to show some friends around. Outstanding in every respect.

Craig

thanks craig

We liked November. Rainy season is over, and the Christmastime rush hasn%26#39;t started. It%26#39;s plenty warm then. April is pretty hot!

We used Smartours (Feb. 2008--great month--lower temps and no rain) for their Thailand/Angkor Wat trip. It was fabulous but they do not use luxury hotels but the hotels are fine. What made the trip so great was our guide Nok and the itinerary. You really get to see a great deal and Nok was always able to answer questions and help you get to where you wanted to be. Also the group mix on Smar was great. The age range was 28 to 85. I think it appeals to younger people because the price is so amazing. The one drawback was the air flight. Air Korean is great but it is a long flight and to save money, Smar books the cheapest flights(connecting). Remember that Thailand is a Buddhist country and you get a great deal of history from the guides. I noticed on another post that the person didn%26#39;t like Nok but all 39 of us thought she was fabulous and we liked learning about the country and its people. We got alot of extra sights with Nok that were not mentioned in the Smar brochure. We had a great time. And Angkor Wat is not to be missed. It is struggling right now after the terror of Pol Pot but the people are fabulous and once again our guide was great.