Thailand: Night Markets & Blue Waters

Customer Reviews

• KL

  Katharina

  · April 5th, 2024
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  Schöne Einblicke in die Kultur Thailand, vor allen in den Norden und die traditionall lebenden Dörfer. Super netter Tour Guide, der immer Empfelungen geben und bei Problemen helfen konnte. Gut organisiert, man muss sich wirklich nur Gedanken machen was man heute Essen möchte und wie man die "freien" Tage gestalten will. Kann die Tour nur empfehlen!
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  G Adventures commented on this review

  Danke schön, Katharina! Unsere Welt braucht mehr Dich!
  Trip date: April 2024
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  Madeleine

  · July 18th, 2023
  The tour was absolutely fantastic. It was a trip of a Lifetime. It was great to meet so many like-minded people. The tour was perfect for what I wanted to do. It was authentic and culturally immersive, and also provided a great balance of active activities like hiking and snorkeling in conjunction with relaxing by the beaches. I had Audrey - she was an amazing tour guide. She was incredibly positive and fun but also very caring and supportive. She went above and beyond in the tour. In periods of spare time she would offer activities for anyone interested and take us out- something I really appreciated. Audrey was nothing but the best. Everyone on the tour group spoke so highly of her. We all loved her so much and we're so sad to leave.
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  G Adventures commented on this review

  Hi Madeleine, Thanks for the incredible feedback about Audrey! We can't wait to have you back.
  
  Trip date: July 2023
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  Oliver Bailey

  · June 3rd, 2022
  My G-Adventures tour around Thailand was an incredible way to explore the ins and outs of the country without having to worry about all the admin. It was a great way to make close friends that I have gone on to travel with after my tour. The CEO was absolutely impeccable and did an amazing job to make sure we all had a worthwhile and memorable time.
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  Trip date: May 2022

  Review collected by G Adventures
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  Sarah Mcclay

  · June 3rd, 2022
  I really enjoyed this trip and would recommend to others. Some areas it would of been good to stay 2 nights rather just 1, but it was so much fun anyway
  Trip date: May 2022

  Review collected by G Adventures
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  Aaron Quinn

  · June 3rd, 2022
  As a first time solo traveler I felt at ease from the minute I landed in Bangkok having everything planned for you, Pentor our CEO was great, brought us to some local bars and restaurants which you wouldn?t find while travelling alone, the sleep trains were a great experience and staying in the jungle with the group would probably be the highlight of the trip. So many good things to say and couldn?t recommend Gadventures enough!
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  Trip date: May 2022

  Review collected by G Adventures
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  Daisy Mckenna

  · June 10th, 2022
  The best adventure, met some amazing people and explored the best parts of Thailand! big shout out to our CEO Pentor for making it an unforgettable experience!
  Trip date: May 2022

  Review collected by G Adventures
• JK

  Jonathan

  · January 3rd, 2020
  I decided to write a full review here for the whole 15 day trip as the g adventure website only encourages 1 paragraph review, the lack of review for this trip on tour radar and the somewhat lack of clarity on the itineraries. Note I went on this trip in December 2019 and ended on 24th Dec. We had the half moon party while we were in Koh Phaghan as opposed to the full moon. My number 1 advice is, DO NOT purchase any optional activities in your home currency. you'll be able to purchase it while you're there much cheaper in Baht. My number 2 advice is, Bring all the cash you need in advance, there's a high fixed cost to get cash out of ATMs in Thailand and absolute nowhere you're going will accept cards. you'll need them for the optional activities, food, massage and alcohol. While food is cheap (40-80Baht for a plate of food), they are generally in smaller sizes compared to a normal meal) A beer cost 40 Baht (1 pound) up north and 80 Baht down south, cocktails down south were 150 Bahts). In Bangkok (Khao San Road), it is London prices (literally). Overall, the trip is separated to first 7 days (northern Thailand) and last 7 days (southern islands). The first 7 days consists of three groups of people - ones doing the whole 15 days, ones doing just first 7 days and one group heading to Malaysia and Singapore (21 days trip) afterwards. There'll be people joining on the last 7 days. Our group started with 13 people, average age of 25.23 and range from 18 to 31, 5 guys and 8 girls. Previous groups had a more balanced gender split, but our group had a few girls travelling together. In the last 7 days, we had 4 guys/9 girls with an average age of 23.8 and range of 18-28. Our tour guide was a local from Chaing Raj who has worked in the industry for over 16 years. She's extremely knowledgeable and offered us orientation tours in Bangkok (500Baht) and Koh Phaghan (500Baht). The cost mainly go towards transport (private boat in Bangkok going through all major tourist attractions, entry to Wat po, private vehicle for round island tour). She also bought us food in the night market in Chaing Mai, street food in Bangkok and fruits (Watermelon and Pineapples) almost everywhere. We tried fried bananas, frogs, crickets, flies, caterpillars, chicken liver/heart/ass as well as A LOT of amazing food. She was very outgoing and comes with us for every night out. One of the girl in our group had to go to a local hospital and her local knowledge and Thai language skills really shone then. Her Instagram handle is travel_go_local. Heres my day to day experiences of the trip: I first arrived in the morning on the first day and was able to meet up with other tour members using the g adventure app. We went to the grand palace, had some street food before heading back for the 6pm meeting. The optional dinner was at a local restaurant nearby with reasonable price. (note we stayed at Bangkokians City Garden home, rather than the Bankok centre hotel that is a few stars better). Few went to Khao San road for a night out, since we're returning to Bangkok in 7 days time and most of the group only just arrived. The next day, an organised tour in the morning followed by free time untill 5pm, as train is at 7pm (13h journey) We arrived Chaing Mai in the morning to a great hotel and went on to do a walking tour(Free) before heading to an elephants sanctuary (most of them are ethical in Chaing Mai and are the best place to do them. cost are 1500, 1pm-4:30pm, lunch included.) Note this is not part of the tour and g adventure policies prevented our tour guide to recommend any tours, I think they should at least allow tour guides to discourage certain tours so people know what to avoid, In the evening, we met our jungle tour guide at 6 for an hour long briefing before heading for street food and the night market (note weekend night /market/street food is a different beast) There were optional activities like Muay Thai fight and lady boys show (both with free transport). Me and 1 friend went to the fight and it was an experience. We start heading to the jungle the next day, but before we start the trekking we went to a waterfall for a swim and it was amazing. The trekking is 3km on the first day, 8.8km on the second day. The third day we bamboo raft from the village back to civilization. Things to note are : temperature dropped to 2 degree in the evening, from 28 degree during the day. So bring your sleeping bag. you can bring sleeping bag liners, but you'll need to rent sleeping bag for a $$. This part of the journey is when you'll taste some of the best food in infinite quantity, cooked by our tour guide + jungle tour guide + local chef. Fishing isn't actually an option due to local conservation effort, so we did basket knitting, rolling spring rolls and a village tour. At night we built bon fires and played games around it. Back into Chaing Mai, we visited the weekend night market/street food before heading for the "Big Night Out" in Chaing Mai, in the words of our tour guide. It was my favorite night out in the whole trip, because alcohol is dirt cheap and there's no absolutely no pressure to drink / party, so people are all very chilled rather than off their face. The next day we had to catch the train at 5 (met at 3:30 ) and most used the opportunity to get a massage / cooking class (which you buy the ingredients yourself with your teacher at the local markets), or get on a cycling tour. Back in Bangkok in the morning, most headed to the pool but some went to rooftop bars (Marriott hotel happy hour is 5 pound for a cokctail and a live DJ / other tourist attractions. ) In the evening we met our new joiners, dinner at 6 before another big nightout / farewell) The next day we travel down south in an overnight train, meet at 5:45pm (13h train). During the day our tour guide was unable to offer any tour due to unexpected late arrival from a two girls. we just hang around the pool / walked around some attractions. We arrived at Surat Thani and headed towards a local community (rubber farm) for breakfast and demonstrations before taking a boat tour around Lake Cheow Lan, (think Hoi Lam Bay), where we went kayaking, swimming and tubing as well as monkey spotting. We stayed at a hotel near Khao Sok National Park. G adventure includes a free ticket to the park, it's worth going (waterfalls are lame) but beware of leeches after rain. For the same reason, i don't recommend the water slide at front of the hotel reception to the river. The next two days were spent at koh phangan, goodtime hostel. Note the travelling time is extensive and you get there around 3pm. The party scene is heavy (think Fresher week at uni), free shots every hour, lots of board games on the table. Few of us went as the half moon party is expensive (1400baht) and to and back takes 1.5hrs already. So going essentially means you can't do anything the next day and we wanted to do an island tour and snorkel. Next island is koh tao( turtle island), we left at 7am in the morning, getthere around 10 and started the 6 hour snorkeling tour ( free) straight away. Scuba diving the next day is a bit hit and miss, as your experience is entirely dependent on who you pair up with. But the experience is amazing if you ended up able to scuba dive.
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  G Adventures commented on this review

  Thank you very much for your positive feedback. We are very glad you enjoyed your trip and we hope to see you soon in a new Adventure!
  
  Trip date: December 2019
• DL

  Dana

  · March 8th, 2019
  Better communication from tour company about accommodations prior to trip purchase explicitly explain that you will be staying in separate male and female dorms at hostels
  

  G Adventures commented on this review

  Thanks Dana.
  Trip date: February 2019
• C

  Chase

  · October 28th, 2016
  Our guide was second to none, transportation was suitable and the accommodation was great but be prepared for the whole experience to cost a lot more than quoted. But all in all, it was definitely worth it.
  Trip date: October 2016
• MG

  Michael

  · June 21st, 2016
  The trip was superb. I met amazing people from around the world and experienced all facets of Thai culture. Guide was knowledgeable and professional.
  Trip date: June 2016