Luxury Thailand Family Travel Review: Bangkok, Patong Beach, Racha & Coral Islands, Phang Nga Bay, Catamaran Trip, Food Tour

Review by traveler

Steve L.

1.5.2023

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Thailand

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

The trip and destination was fantastic. This travel company was a decent agency but there were some hiccups along the way. Charles, the owner, was helpful in getting a last minute trip to Thailand planned and executed. Most of the activities planned and companies chosen were exemplary. However, after payment was made, we didn't hear back from him regarding trip details and vouchers until I reached out to him 2 days prior to departure. I felt like that was cutting it a little close, and I was the one doing the reminding.
When we landed in Bangkok, we could not locate our guide and went on a wild goose chase to find him rather than sending the guide to find us in this foreign airport. The local contact in Thailand was not that local- he resided in Cambodia (where payment was shipped to). There was also a lot of mixups with morning transfer times and boat departure times. The local guides would tell us one time and our contact would tell us a different time. We implored our contact to call our guides on several occasions. The owner, who resides in Canada, had to get involved on some occasions too.
Out of the 6 guides we had, 3 were good to excellent while the others were pedestrian to below average. We indicated the importance to us of having exceptional guides in advance too, especially with 3 teenagers in tow.
One of the best advantages of using this agency was they allowed us to book our own accommodations since we have a lot of hotel loyalty points.
Overall, we had an incredible experience we got to share with our three kids, and the sights and activities experienced were extraordinary.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

The Elephant Farm comes to mind as a once-in-a-lifetime experience with one's own elephant for the day. The kids felt that this experience was unique and life-changing.
Spending New Years in Patong Beach was very memorable and a highlight, lighting lanterns in the sky and watching fireworks.
The Bangkok food tour was great, especially with our guide.
The catamaran tours to Racha and Coral Islands as well as to the Phang Nga Bay were incredible experiences on luxurious boats.
Everything was very inexpensive, especially the food. That was a bonus.

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

I may have cut out going to Chang Rai, or at least cut it down to one night instead of two nights. Even though I was looking forward to going to the the Opium Museum, I thought it was worthless and a waste of time. We bailed on the planned excursion to see the KMT villages and offering to the monks on horseback since we were told it is mostly a staged event.
Even though we enjoyed Phuket, it felt like a big, crowded, very spread-apart bustling city rather than an island. Next time, we might venture to Ko Samui, or another island. On Phuket, we would have made plans to go to Ko Phi Phi also.
Overall, we would have left more time to have daily massages ($6-10).

Travel Company Comments:

Thank you very much for your feedback. We are glad to hear that you enjoyed the trip to Thailand, especially the elephant experience, the 2 days private catamaran trip to Phang Nga Bay and the Racha Island, the food tour and the new year eve celebration.
I also want to thank you for letting us know the hiccups along the way and we will improve our service in the future. As the headquarters of our travel company located in Cambodia, we have our main tour operation from our head office. All the trip will have a major tour operator from the head office who is responsible for overall booking and this person will also be the main contact while clients are traveling in Asia. I now reside in Canada so the time difference for me is an advantage to be able to back up when clients need to communicate during the night time in Asia. That's why when clients want to add services or make changes while traveling, they always have one person to speak with and make the communication smoother.
Our main goal is to offer unique experiences for our travelers, but some great activity organizers can't provide a good overall service that meets our service standard, that's why we have to arrange services from multiple suppliers. The catamaran trip is such an amazing experience but the boat company failed to arrange decent transportation except local taxi, that's why we arranged transportation from local contracted transportation company. Sometimes what happens during the Christmas and New Year peak season is drivers try to squeeze as many pick ups as possible into their schedule and tell clients a different pick up time, if that happens, it is our job to correct it.
Thank you again with us and we appreciate your detailed feedback. We look forward to assisting your family with another amazing trip to SE Asia in the near future.