Sharing my Top Five Thailand Travel Tips to help you plan your next adventure to Asia!

Happy Friday and Happy National Donut Day! I ran past Dunkin Donuts this morning and the line was out the door! It cracks me up how people wait in line for a free donut on National Donut Day, it’s not because the donut is free (donuts cost like $1) it’s because today we (Americans) have an excuse to eat a donut guilt free! So embrace the opportunity, it seems everyone else is 🙂

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Having spent only a little less than 2 weeks in Thailand I am no expert, but I wanted to share a few tidbits of advice based off our experience in case you are planning a trip to Thailand in the near future!

Top Five Thailand Travel Tips

Visit between November – February – We did not pay much attention to what the weather would be like when we were traveling. All we knew was that it was still dry season and that it would be warm. It was not warm, it was HOT, HOT, HOT. April is the very end of dry season and you can definitely tell. Especially when we were in Chiang Mai, it was VERY dry. There were even some wildfires going on outside the city. You definitely want to go during dry season because you don’t want it raining every day of your vacation, but I would suggest going earlier in the dry season between November – February. We learned once we returned that while we were there Thailand had had the worst heatwave in 65 years, so we had an extraordinarily hot experience, but all the locals we talked to said April is always the hottest and driest month.

Be forewarned if you’re going to fly Air China – The photo above was taken before we boarded the plane at JFK, before we knew the misery that awaited us. Ok… so maybe I am being a little over dramatic, but it was a pretty terrible flying experience. The flight is LONG, we were traveling for over 24 hours with about 20 hours of air time both ways. Given the length of the flight, I just assumed we would have a little more space than on a normal plane, NOT! It felt smaller than a normal plane if that is possible. Don’t get me wrong we got an amazing deal on our tickets, but I guess you get what you pay for. We knew it would not be luxurious, but it was about as far from luxurious as you could get. The flight was fully booked, the food was terrible, overall the flight crew was not friendly and the inflight entertainment was limited. I’m not saying don’t fly Air China, if you are like us and you would rather spend your money on nicer hotels and activities then go for it, you will get it for a great price, but go prepared with snacks and your own entertainment and don’t say I didn’t warn you 🙂

Carry Toilet Paper – In public restrooms in Thailand there is a hose and a sign that says “do it Thai style”… “Thai style” means washing off after using the bathroom and then, if you are lucky, drying off with toilet paper. If you aren’t lucky it means air drying. I am all about immersing yourself in the culture, but traveling with a pack a tissues or small roll of toilet paper in your purse may not be a bad idea!

Eat, Eat, Eat – We did not have a bad meal in Thailand. All the food was wonderful and reasonably priced. We love Thai food and ate it for every meal, including breakfast. There is so much to try and it is not all that exotic, so I definitely suggest going out of your comfort zone and trying new things as much as you can! The whole fish pictured above was one of the more fun and delicious things we ate on our trip!

Spend Time with the Elephants – Everyone keeps asking me what my favorite part of the trip was, I immediately answer “the elephants”. The day we spent time with the elephants, riding them bare backed and bathing them was by far my favorite day. It was such an amazing experience that I could possibly never have again. They are such amazing animals you almost don’t think they are real. They are huge, but gentle and you can’t help but be in a good mood when you are around them!

A trip to Thailand is like nothing else I’d experienced. It was such a unique and amazing experience.  I hope you will have the chance to travel to Thailand and that some of my tips will serve you well on your trip.

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