Luxury Family Thailand Vacation Review: Phuket, Chiang Mai, Patera Elephant Experience, Scuba Diving

We would have planned more time for diving.  We had barely 2 days which was  not enough time.  This was not planned for us and we did a lot of juggling with local dive shops to make arrangements.  

We had planned half a day in Chaing Mai to shop, but were shuttled off by our guide to shops where the tour buses stop.  Not what we had in mind....I had mentioned our desire to go to small boutiques. The prices were exhorbitant and clearly our guide had some arrangement with these facilities.  We felt a bit like prey.  

Travel Company's Comments

We are pleased that there were so many enjoyable experiences on this last-minute Thailand adventure.

Since there were a couple of concerns noted in the review, we would like to address those:

DIVING: The travelers had chosen not to pre-book any scuba diving, which is why there was some juggling once in Phuket. We are certainly able to pre-book such activities, and typically recommend doing so when travelers have a limited amount of time in a location during high season.

CHIANG MAI: The travelers arrived at the hotel late in the afternoon at about 330pm, so their half-day city tour started later than normal. The tour ended at about 7:00pm at Waroros Market, so they could shop and make their way back to the hotel. We are sorry to hear that they were unhappy with the shopping location and guide service. We have addressed this with our ground operator and guide to ensure that this situation does not arise with other travelers in the future.

We also checked into the client complaint about accommodation availability during the booking process. When accommodations were proposed, they were available; however the itinerary was revised several times between mid-Dec and mid-Jan. By the time the clients made decisions, accommodations that had been proposed were no longer available and had to be changed. I’m not sure about the client comment that things weren’t overly booked once there, but availability is constantly changing.