Chiang mai archives - Alyssa Prado Blog

Learn how to plan a trip to Thailand with this post! Documentation tips, tickets, expenses and sample itinerary!

How to plan a trip to Thailand – Tips and Itinerary

By Alyssa Prado Updated December 16, 2024 Thailand

I confess that when I invited Amanda to accompany me on a trip to Thailand at the beginning of May, I hadn't done any type of research. The opportunity arose on my flight back from Australia, and I grabbed it without thinking twice.

I knew it was a place with lots of parties, beautiful beaches and that somewhere you could spend the day with elephants in an ethical way. But just that.

I didn't know if May was a good time, if it was a cheap country same or if everyone exaggerated, if they needed a visa, if it was safe for two women alone…

This is not the best way to plan a trip.

The trip took shape over the following months, and we discovered some mistakes we made before even leaving home, such as going during the rainy season or buying a round trip via Phuket, in Amanda's case.

We were very lucky and the trip was incredible, but something could easily have gone wrong due to our lack of organization and research. before to buy tickets. I suggest you read everything you can in advance, and be a better traveler than me! haha

In this post I will tell you everything you need to know to plan a trip to Thailand, the tips I learned during my time in the country and comment on my itinerary.

Remembering that here on the blog there is a resources section full of websites and apps to help you plan your next adventure. It is worth taking a look!

Find out where to stay in Thailand in this post!

Where to stay in Thailand – Phuket, Railay, Chiang Mai and Bangkok

By Alyssa Prado Updated December 16, 2024 Thailand

Planning a trip to Thailand wasn't the easiest task in the world.

The difficulty started when choosing what places to visit. Phuket was our entry into the country, so it was a right part of the itinerary, as was Bangkok, where our plane back home left.

After a few days racking our brains, Amanda and I decided to add Railay Beach and Chiang Mai to our plans, and we stipulated the number of days for each part of the trip.

Thinking that the most complicated part had already passed, we went looking for hotels.

And I admit, figuring out where to stay in Thailand was more work than I expected.

It's easy to find out which travelers' favorite neighborhoods and hotels are in most destinations. In Thailand, however, tourism is so strong and there are so many options, that with each Google search we became more lost.

We rely a little on luck, a little more on the various blogs we read and We were right on target with our choices.

In this post I will share with you the best areas to stay in Phuket, Railay Beach, Chiang Mai and Bangkok, and suggest well-located hotels in various price ranges.

7 mistakes I made on my trip to Thailand

By Alyssa Prado Updated August 15th, 2018 Thailand

What I'm going to say will seem funny, but when I'm going to travel I already know that something will go wrong.

I already commented in another post that the perfect trip does not exist, and this is a lesson that I always carry in my bag.

When Amanda and I planned our trip to Thailand, we had many questions. Which islands to visit, which cities, what to do, what not to do, where to eat, how much money, security and so on…

And although I consider this trip a success, There were many mistakes we made.

(Apart from, of course, situations like being in a van at five in the morning just the two of us with a driver who didn't speak English. But you can't call it a mistake because the trip was incredible lol.)

In this post I'm going to tell you the biggest troubles and troubles we went through, to try to prevent you from going through the same situations on your visit to the country.

I also hope you can see that even the most experienced travelers make mistakes, sometimes even silly ones. It's part of traveling and there's nothing to be ashamed or afraid of.

Looking for an ethical elephant tour in Thailand? Then discover Elephant Nature Park, in Chiang Mai! Click on the link to read all about this incredible place!

Elephant Nature Park – Ethical elephant tour in Thailand

By Alyssa Prado Updated 2 July 2018 Thailand

I hit the button a lot responsible tourism here and on the blog's other social networks.

Maybe that's why I was so apprehensive on the way to the Elephant nature park.

Visit a elephant sanctuary it was the number one activity on my list when I thought about the trip to Thai. But I couldn't stop imagining that I would fall into one of those tourist traps, and end up in a place where animals would be subjected to mistreatment.

For a while I even I gave up on the idea and not included in the itinerary. Until Amanda, who accompanied me on this adventure, told me that she was also interested but that she wanted to go on an ethical tour with elephants in Thailand.. And that's when we started researching.

Several names came up, but most had complaints about the treatment of the animals, you just had to look a little deeper.

The only one that didn't have this problem was the Elephant nature park. Complaints about work?? Several. But nothing cruel.

We knew it was a serious company, as it ranked second on the list of tours of this type in the TripAdvisor (today it is #1), and we decided to reserve a date for May 10th.

I'll tell you everything about the place and my experience in the rest of this post, but I'll leave you with a spoiler: It was the best experience of the entire trip!