Bangkok on the river, a beach to land on, and Chiang Mai for whoever wants it. Four households, two departure cities, one shared spine with room to peel off. Sutira’s mother joins for the Bangkok days.
Three calls shape this trip: how many days we take, whether Chiang Mai happens and how, and whether Bangkok gets a third night. Here is where I land on each. The controls below let you play with all three, and the ballot at the bottom is where you overrule me.
Four if we want the north, three if we keep it simple. The days before break are the cheap ones, so this is a smaller ask than it sounds.
Whoever wants Chiang Mai peels off around the 8th, everyone else stays on the sand, and we all meet at Suvarnabhumi on the morning of the 11th. Nobody compromises, and it keeps the air-quality call open until we're already in the country.
I genuinely don't mind which. Three if people want the old capital — Ayutthaya deserves its own morning rather than being squeezed against the river temples. Two is fine and I won't argue.
Spring break is Mon Apr 5 – Fri Apr 9. Michelle's read is that the days before break are easy to take and the days after are not — the classroom coasts into the holiday and then restarts properly. That single observation reshapes the whole calendar, and improves it.
Fly home Sunday Apr 11 in every version, so the children are back in class Monday with nothing missed after break. Then take whatever days you want from the week of Mar 29, where they cost least.
Compare with the old plan. Out Thu Apr 1, back Mon Apr 12: nine nights for three school days, but one of those was after break — the expensive kind. Out Wed Mar 31, back Sun Apr 11: the same nine nights for the same three days, all of them before. Strictly better, same cost.
| Days off | Depart Seattle | Arrive Bangkok | Nights | What it buys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fri Apr 2 | Sun Apr 4 | 7 | Bangkok and one beach. Real, but the three-stop plans stop making sense — dropping Chiang Mai is the honest choice at this length. |
| 2 | Thu Apr 1 | Sat Apr 3 | 8 | Three stops become possible again, at a brisk pace. One night in hand over the old plan for one fewer school day. |
| 3 | Wed Mar 31 | Fri Apr 2 | 9 | Same as the old plan, better distributed. Full three-stop shape, nothing rushed, and no absence after break. |
| 4 | Tue Mar 30 | Thu Apr 1 | 10 | The one worth asking for. A genuine spare day — a weather day, a sick day, or simply a morning where nobody has to be anywhere. With a four-year-old that's worth more than any single activity on the list. |
| 5 | Mon Mar 29 | Wed Mar 31 | 11 | The whole week before break. This stops being a longer version of the same trip and becomes a different one — the beach leg gets long enough to actually rest. |
Use the ladder under the board at the top of the page to see any of these against the calendar, and the order toggle beside it to move the inland leg. Everything follows, including the costs.
With Chiang Mai: four or five days, and put the north last. Eleven nights, Chiang Mai Apr 8–11, and a beach leg long enough to matter.
Without it: three days is plenty, and spend the third Bangkok night on Ayutthaya instead — otherwise the trip has no history in it at all.
Which makes the ask to Andrew and Michelle a conditional rather than a number: three days if we keep it simple, five if we want the north — and the north is only worth it at five.
The obvious worry is that pushing departure back to Mar 29 drops you deeper into burning season. It does, if Chiang Mai sits in the middle of the trip: at three days off it falls Apr 4–7, at five days off it slides forward to Apr 2–5. Earlier is worse.
But the return is pinned to Apr 11. So if Chiang Mai is the last stop, it lands Apr 8–11 no matter how many days you take — the latest window available in any version of this trip, later even than the plan we started with. Every extra day goes to the beach in the middle, where it costs nothing.
Which inverts the recommendation. If you want Chiang Mai, take four or five days and put it at the end. Two weeks door to door, and the north gets the cleanest air this calendar allows.
Optionality. If Chiang Mai is stop two you commit to it before you leave home. If it's the final stop you can be in Thailand, watch the AQI for a week, and still swap it for more beach or a run down to Krabi. The decision moves from March to the day before you fly north, with far better information.
Two smaller arguments in the same direction: you land jetlagged and Bangkok temples on day two are wasted on you, whereas Chiang Mai on day eight gets a group that has adjusted. And the Bangkok Airways monopoly flight is the same single seat either way — Chiang Mai to Samui, or Samui to Chiang Mai.
What you give up: ending inland rather than on a beach. Some people want the last night horizontal by the sea before a twenty-hour flight. That is a real preference and not a wrong one.
Apr 13–15, the week after break. Covering it means missing Apr 12 through 16 — the exact days Michelle says the school restarts properly, and five of them. That isn't a stretch of the budget, it's a different ask. It stays an optional extension for households without a school calendar.
Thai New Year. Officially three days, but Chiang Mai's water fights typically start around April 12, and most Thai banks and government offices close April 10–18.
Chiang Mai is widely considered the best place in the country for it — Tha Phae Gate and the Old City moat become the main water-fight zone, with a temple-and-ceremony morning layer underneath the street chaos.
The plan takes it head-on: in Chiang Mai for the 13th and 14th, out on the 15th before exhaustion sets in, on a beach that afternoon.
Cost of that choice: Chiang Mai rates spike, three-night minimums apply in the Old City, roads close, and anything with an open window gets soaked — airport transfers included.
Roughly 70% of Chiang Mai's April PM2.5 comes from agricultural and forest burning, and the valley traps it under temperature inversions. Fire activity peaks in March and fades by May.
This past April was among the worst on record — PM2.5 hit 409 µg/m³ at Mae Rim on April 4, and much of the north stayed Very Unhealthy to Hazardous through mid-month. Nobody can forecast 2027.
Chiang Mai on free-cancellation rates only. Watch AQI daily from March 1. If the seven-day trailing average is above 150 on April 1, trigger the swap: the north leg becomes Krabi or Khao Sok. Losing Songkran in Chiang Mai is a real loss; three kids on inhalers is worse.
If you go anyway: N95 or KN95 for everyone — surgical masks are useless here — rooms with sealed windows and in-room purifiers, indoor mornings.
Bangkok and Ko Samui are in. Chiang Mai is the live question, and it turns almost entirely on two things: whether everyone wants it, and what the air is doing. These four are the only ways it plays. Anything beyond these three places is in other considerations below.
ForNobody chooses between mountains and sand on behalf of the group. The north lands Apr 8–11, the latest and cleanest window this calendar allows, and the decision stays open until we’re already in the country and can see the air.
AgainstThe group is apart for three nights, and the northern half books a second, smaller set of rooms.
ForSame clean-air window, same late decision point, and the whole group stays together the entire trip. Simplest to book.
AgainstAnyone who’d rather have three more beach days doesn’t get them, and you finish inland rather than by the sea before a twenty-hour flight.
ForThe classic shape, and ending horizontal by the sea before the flight home is a genuine argument. Cultural leg while everyone still has the energy for it.
AgainstThis is the earliest the north can fall, which in burning season is the wrong direction. It also commits us before we leave Seattle, with no way to reconsider once we can see what the air is doing.
ForFewest legs, no internal packing day, and the longest stretch in one place. With a four-year-old and two other children that is arguably the better holiday rather than the lesser one.
AgainstNo cultural leg beyond the Bangkok temples — which is precisely why the Ayutthaya day trip matters most under this shape.
If Chiang Mai happens in any form, the third Bangkok night is a nice-to-have and Sutira genuinely doesn't mind either way — Ayutthaya and Chiang Mai are different things, not substitutes, and doing both is entirely reasonable.
If Chiang Mai drops off, that changes. A Bangkok-and-beach trip has no historical leg at all beyond an afternoon of river temples, and the old capital is a short drive from a city we're already sleeping in. Under that shape Sutira recommends the third night firmly rather than as an option.
Figures from a 2019 trip Sutira and Khara took with two other friends — useful as a cost sanity check and nothing more. Different people, different month, no children, and a cheaper long-haul out of LAX. Nobody else on this trip has been asked to endorse that itinerary and the shapes above are open. The 2027 estimate includes international air, food and activities, which the 2019 land total did not.
Places that came up, got looked at properly, and didn't make the mainline — not because they're weak, but because three destinations in nine or ten nights is already the limit and Sutira has been narrowing. If you want to push for one of these, this section is the ammunition. Bring it up and it goes back on the table.
The single most photographed place in Thailand, and the reason it isn't here is geography rather than merit. Phi Phi sits in the Andaman off Krabi; Ko Samui is in the Gulf. There's a mountain range and a domestic flight between them, so this isn't a day trip — it's a decision to change coasts and drop Samui.
What it would take: replacing the Ko Samui leg with Krabi or Phuket. Everything downstream changes — hotels, the monopoly flight disappears, the north gets harder to reach.
Worth knowing: Maya Bay reopened under strict visitor limits after years of closure, so it's managed but you can't swim in the bay itself. The snorkelling around Bamboo Island is better than the famous beach anyway.
The strongest case of the three, and the one most likely to appeal to the Whitehills. Rainforest around 160 million years old, older than the Amazon. Cheow Lan Lake has limestone karsts rising three hundred metres straight out of the water, and you sleep on bamboo raft houses tethered to the cliffs with nothing but forest noise at night.
Why it's not mainline: it's a genuine alternative to Chiang Mai rather than an addition — both are the "inland leg" and there's only room for one. It's also rustic in a way Chiang Mai isn't, and a four-year-old on a platform with no railing over deep water is constant supervision.
Its one real advantage: it's south of the haze. If Chiang Mai's air looks bad in March, this is the swap that keeps a third destination alive.
More infrastructure than anywhere else on this list — direct international flights, the widest hotel range, the easiest logistics for eleven people, and the shortest hop to Phi Phi and Phang Nga Bay.
Why Ko Samui instead: Phuket in April is busier, hotter and more built-up, and the north-coast stretch on Samui that Sutira wants — Mae Nam, Bophut, Baan Tai — has no real equivalent there. Patong is what most people picture and it is not what anyone here is after.
The honest counter: if the group skews toward wanting more to do than a quiet beach offers, Phuket is a better answer than Samui and it's worth someone saying so.
None of these fits alongside the mainline — each one displaces something. So the useful move isn't "can we add it," it's naming what you'd give up. Phi Phi or Phuket means no Ko Samui. Khao Sok means no Chiang Mai. Say which trade you'd make and it becomes a real proposal rather than a wish.
The free-text box at the end of the ballot is the place for it, and if two or more people push the same one it goes back into the shapes above properly.
Change anything on the left and the number moves. Costs are per household, all-in, and deliberately rough — good enough to decide with, not to budget from. Tiers can be mixed: budget in Bangkok and elevated on the beach is a real and popular strategy.
There is no nonstop Seattle–Bangkok. Around 20 airlines fly it through 14 connecting points; the shortest is about 19h40 via Taipei. Ratings are Skytrax.
Songkran-peak estimates. Historically ~30% cheaper booked 4–6 months out, so lock international by mid-November 2026.
Twenty hours each way is where a cabin upgrade actually earns its money. Ranked below by how well each works for this group rather than by seat quality alone — a suite with a door is a worse buy than an open pair when one of your passengers is four.
| Carrier & product | Prem econ | Business | For this group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qatar Airways Qsuite | n/a | $4,500–6,000 | The family answer, with a catch. Qsuite's centre quad puts four seats in a 2×2 with the dividers down — the only true family suite in the sky, and the one configuration where Dion isn't alone behind a door. The catch is the routing: Doha is the long way round and adds six or seven hours each way. |
| ANA The Room | $2,600–3,000 | $5,500–7,000 | The best single business seat flying — enormous, full door. Also the most isolating for a small child. Book the pair of centre seats where the partition lowers, or put an adult beside him. |
| EVA Air Royal Laurel | $2,400–2,800 | $4,500–5,500 | Reverse herringbone, 1-2-1, no doors — which here is a feature. Shortest routing, best award availability of the five, usually the cheapest good business fare. The sensible pick. |
| Singapore Airlines Business | $2,500–2,900 | $5,500–6,500 | Widest seat in the sky and the centre pair converts to a double bed — genuinely good with a child. Bed mode needs a crew flip, so it's a faff on a short second leg. KrisFlyer is a direct Chase transfer. |
| Japan Airlines Sky Suite | $2,500–2,900 | $5,500–6,800 | Very good, slightly behind ANA. Haneda beats Narita for connections. Only reachable on Chase points via BA Avios, and the surcharges hurt. |
Premium economy is roughly twice economy. Business is four to five times. On a twenty-hour flight with a four-year-old, the extra recline and legroom is most of the benefit — Dion will sleep across a lap or a seat either way and won't use a lie-flat bed well. Premium economy for the families, business for whoever wants to spend it, is a defensible split. Nobody has to fly the same cabin.
Points change this maths completely. A business seat at 90–105k Aeroplan miles one-way is roughly double the economy rate for four to five times the cash value — so if you're transferring points at all, business is where they go furthest.
All of these got materially easier when the dates moved. Outside the holiday there is no tripled fare, no scramble, and the Bangkok Airways seat that worried me most becomes an ordinary booking.
| Leg | Date | Carriers | Time | Notes |
|---|
Flying to Surat Thani and ferrying to Samui saves $80–120 per person and adds 3–4 hours of bus-plus-boat at the end of a Songkran travel day with a 4-year-old. Pay for USM.
Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Ko Samui only — the three mainline places. Each city shows the tier you set for it individually, so budget in Bangkok and elevated on the beach is a real option and the list reflects it. Note the three properties you named sit in different classes: Peninsula ~$450–700, Napasai and Santiburi $250–400, De Chai $80–120.
“Sutira stayed 2019” is a record, not a recommendation — Napasai and De Chai are places he has actually slept, which makes the notes about them first-hand rather than researched. Napasai in particular has changed hands since. Neither is a decision.
“Sutira’s shortlist” is a preference and nothing more. Santiburi and the Peninsula are properties he would pick given the choice, and he has stayed at neither. Overrule freely.
Every card links out rather than hosting photos. The first link goes to Google Hotels, which is the one worth clicking — it shows Agoda, Booking, Expedia and the hotel's own rate side by side on one page, along with guest photos and reviews. Cheaper than opening five tabs.
For Thailand specifically, check Agoda in that comparison. It is Bangkok-based and consistently carries the best inventory and pricing in Southeast Asia, especially for smaller independents like De Chai, Rimping Village and Sirilanna, which the big Western sites sometimes list badly or not at all. Expedia is fine and rarely the cheapest here.
Two exceptions where you should book direct. The Hyatt, IHG and Marriott properties — an OTA booking earns no points and no status, which throws away the whole reason those are on the list. And the top tier: Peninsula, Four Seasons, Capella and the Ritz all offer better terms through Chase's luxury collection or direct than through any reseller.
The Bakers need a family suite or two rooms — Ethan going into 8th and Claire into 5th are past the one-room stage. Peninsula and Four Seasons handle connecting rooms well; De Chai and most Old City boutiques don't. This may drive the Chiang Mai pick more than the tier does.
Ground transport, boats and rentals are all quoted the way you'll actually be quoted them — in Thai baht, and per vehicle or per boat rather than per person. The toggle in the bar at the top of the page switches every figure on the site between baht and dollars at ฿33.5 to the dollar, which is roughly where it has sat for the past year.
Useful shorthand while you're there: ฿100 is about $3, ฿1,000 is about $30. Halve the baht and move the decimal two places for a fast rough answer.
Eleven people with luggage doesn't fit any single vehicle in Thailand. Every airport transfer assumes two Toyota Commuter vans, pre-booked. Grab works well for splinter groups of two to four.
| Movement | Recommended | Time | Est. cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BKK airport → riverside | Two private vans, or hotel limousine | 45–70 min | ฿1,800–2,500/van | Hotel car costs double and is worth it once, on arrival, jetlagged, at 6am. Peninsula and Capella both run river-boat arrivals from Sathorn pier. |
| Around Bangkok | Chao Phraya boats + BTS/MRT | — | ฿20–60/person | Do the temples by boat. IconSiam runs a free shuttle from Sathorn and Si Phraya. Wat Pho, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace are all river stops, and the boat is the best part of the day for a 4-year-old. |
| CNX airport → hotel | Pre-booked van | 15–25 min | ฿500–800/van | Short hop normally. During Songkran, book ahead and double the time. |
| Chiang Mai day trips | Private van + driver | 8 hrs | ฿2,000–3,000/day | Cheapest good decision on the trip. Songthaews don't work for eleven. |
| USM → Mae Nam | Hotel transfer | 20–25 min | ฿600–900, often free | Samui taxis are unmetered. Agree the fare first or pre-book. |
| Ang Thong Marine Park | Private charter or shared tour | Full day | ฿2,500–4,500 pp shared ฿35,000+ private | 42 islands, the Emerald Lake, kayaking. A private charter for eleven removes the 40-stranger boat problem and lets you turn back early if Dion is done. |
| Koh Tao / Koh Nangyuan | Lomprayah catamaran | 1h30 each way | ฿600–1,000 pp each way | Best snorkeling within reach. Long day for a 4-year-old — a good splinter day. |
Phi Phi is in the Andaman off Krabi; Samui is in the Gulf. There's a mountain range and a domestic flight between them. If Phi Phi is a must-have, the beach leg becomes Krabi — which also makes the burning-season contingency simpler, since you'd already be Andaman-side.
Priced per boat or per hour rather than per person, which changes the arithmetic entirely at this group size. Eleven seats on somebody else's tour usually costs more than the whole boat.
A traditional Thai junk-style yacht out of the north coast — wooden hull, sundeck, crew, lunch aboard — running Ang Thong for the day: snorkelling stops, the Emerald Lake at Talay Nai, and kayaks off the back among the bird's-nest islands. Whole boat, your own schedule, and you turn back when the four-year-old is done rather than when forty strangers are.
At ฿45,000–90,000 for eleven people that's roughly $120–245 each — comparable to a shared seat and a completely different day. Book direct from Bophut or Mae Nam pier rather than through a hotel, which typically adds 20–30%.
| What | Where | Price | Works out at | Notes |
|---|
Jet skis and scooters both come with well-documented problems on Samui and in Ao Nang — the damage-claim scam on one, genuine injury risk on the other. Both are covered properly in scams and safety, along with the six other things worth knowing before we land.
Santiburi, Napasai, Hansar and most of the Bophut properties include kayaks and often paddleboards in the rate. Ask before you pay for either. The north coast in April goes glassy before about 10am and picks up after, so the morning is the window on both.
Short answer: it's a Bangkok day trip and nothing else. Not reachable from Ko Samui, Krabi or Khao Sok in any useful way, and from Chiang Mai it's an overnight train. So the real question isn't how hard it is to get there — it's whether it's worth one of only two Bangkok days.
| How | Time each way | Cost | Verdict for eleven people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private van and driver | 1–1.5 hrs | ฿2,500–3,500 round trip per van | The obvious choice at our size. Two vans, door to door, air conditioning, and you set the pace. Roughly the same per head as a shared tour and infinitely more flexible with a four-year-old. |
| Train from Krung Thep Aphiwat | 1 hr express 1.5–2.5 hrs ordinary | ฿15–345 pp | Wonderfully cheap and a genuine experience — third class has open windows and no air conditioning, which in April is a decision rather than a detail. Delays are common. |
| Shared minivan from Mo Chit | 1.5 hrs | ฿70–250 pp | Cheap and frequent, but getting eleven of us plus Sutira’s mother and everyone’s bags to Mo Chit is its own errand. |
| Guided day tour | 9 hrs door to door | $16–45 pp | Hotel pickup, a guide who explains what you're looking at, often a river cruise on one leg. Worth it if nobody wants to organise anything. |
You have two Bangkok nights. Day one everyone has been awake thirty hours. That leaves exactly one usable day, and it's already carrying the river temples — Wat Pho, Wat Arun, the Grand Palace — plus the family dinner.
So Ayutthaya doesn't slot in. It replaces something. Three ways to make it work, in order of how much I'd recommend them.
If we do Chiang Mai in any form, this is genuinely optional. Ayutthaya and Chiang Mai are different things rather than substitutes — one is ruins, the other is a living city — and doing both is entirely reasonable if people want the extra day.
If Chiang Mai drops off, Sutira recommends it firmly. A Bangkok-and-beach trip has no historical leg beyond one afternoon of river temples, and the old capital of Siam is an hour up the road from a city we're already sleeping in. Skipping it under that shape would be the one real regret available on this itinerary.
Under the board at the top of the page you can switch Bangkok between two and three nights and watch what it costs. The arithmetic is exact: a third Bangkok night takes one beach night, and moving one rung up the days-off ladder puts that beach night straight back. Three days off with Ayutthaya gives the same beach leg as three days off without it, once you move to four.
So the real question isn't whether Ayutthaya fits. It's whether it's worth one more school day at the front — which, given Michelle's read that the pre-break days are the cheap ones, is a smaller ask than it sounds.
One more day off, or one fewer beach night. Cleanest solution, and it also gives the family gathering somewhere to breathe instead of competing with the temples.
If ruins beat working temples for this group, do Ayutthaya on the one full day and see Wat Arun from the boat instead. You'd be trading the single most famous sight in Thailand for something quieter and older. Defensible, but know that's the trade.
Vans at 6:30am, three temples — Wat Mahathat for the Buddha head in the tree roots, Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Chaiwatthanaram — back in Bangkok by two. Doable, and brutal. Which brings us to the real constraint.
The historical park is open ruins with essentially no shade, and April is the hottest month of the Thai year. The standard itinerary every guide recommends runs to a 4:30pm sunset at Wat Chaiwatthanaram, which is a cool-season plan. In April, anyone still walking those grounds at two in the afternoon is having a bad time, and a four-year-old will be finished by eleven.
If you go: out by 6:30am, temples until 11, long lunch somewhere with walls, and home. Treat the afternoon as unusable rather than trying to push through it.
The elephant kraal at Ayutthaya offers rides through the ruins. It's the most visible elephant attraction in the city and it isn't one of the ethical ones. Elephant Nature Park and Samui Elephant Sanctuary are the alternatives already on the activity list.
If your mother's relatives are up for it, Ayutthaya with family beats Ayutthaya with a guide. It's a normal Thai day out rather than a tourist circuit, somebody in the group will know which riverside place does the good river prawns, and it turns a sightseeing day into the family day at the same time.
None of this makes Thailand dangerous — it is one of the easier countries in Asia to travel with children. But the same handful of scams have run for thirty years in the same places, and two of them target things already on our itinerary. Ten minutes reading this is worth more than any amount of vigilance later.
| The scam | Where | How it runs | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| "The Grand Palace is closed today" | Grand Palace, Wat Pho | A well-dressed, friendly man near the entrance tells you the site is shut for a Buddhist holiday or a royal ceremony. A tuk-tuk appears with a cheap all-day tour. The tour is a circuit of gem and tailor shops that pay him commission, and the gems are worthless. | The Grand Palace is open every day. It has never closed for a holiday you haven't heard of. Walk past anyone who tells you otherwise and buy your ticket at the official window. This one is near-certain to happen to us on Apr 4. |
| Jet ski damage claims | Chaweng, Lamai, Ao Nang | You return the ski and the operator points to scratches that were there before. The demand runs to tens of thousands of baht, with several people appearing to make the point. Sometimes a "policeman" mediates a settlement. | Video every surface before you leave the sand, with the operator in frame. Never leave a passport as deposit. Or skip them — nobody comes home wishing they'd spent more time on a jet ski. |
| Scooter rentals | All islands | Same deposit-and-damage pattern, plus the genuine risk. Scooters are the largest single cause of serious injury to visitors in Thailand. | Most travel insurance voids without a motorcycle endorsement on your home licence, so a collarbone becomes a five-figure problem. With three children along, take the ฿2,000–3,000 day driver. |
| "Meter's broken" | Bangkok taxis | Driver quotes a flat fare, typically three to four times the meter. | Use Grab, which prices up front. In a street taxi say "meter, please" and get out if the answer is no — there's another one behind. At Suvarnabhumi use the official public taxi queue downstairs, never the touts inside arrivals. |
| Longtail and boat pricing | Railay, Ao Nang, Samui | No agreed price before departure, then a much higher number on the return leg, when you have no leverage. | Agree the round-trip fare and the wait time before anyone gets in. Write the number down if there's a language gap. |
| "Sanctuaries" that aren't | Chiang Mai, Samui, Krabi | Places offering riding, bathing programmes or performances, marketed as ethical rescues. Bathing in particular is now widely sold as the humane option and isn't. | Elephant Nature Park and Samui Elephant Sanctuary are the genuine ones on our list — observation only, no riding, no bathing with visitors. Book direct, and be sceptical of anything with "sanctuary" in the name and an elephant in the water on its homepage. |
| Adulterated spirits | Islands, cheap bars | Methanol in bottom-shelf or refilled spirits. Rare, and occasionally fatal. | Bottled beer, or spirits from a sealed bottle you watch opened. Skip the buckets. |
| Gem and tailor "deals" | Bangkok | The destination of the tuk-tuk scam above. Also arrives as a hotel recommendation or a helpful stranger. | Thailand has no duty-free gem export scheme worth chasing. If someone volunteers a shop, the answer is no. |
Road travel. Thailand's road fatality rate is among the highest in the world and the overwhelming majority involve motorcycles. Every plan here uses pre-booked vans and drivers, which is why. Insist on seatbelts for the children even when the van makes it awkward.
Heat. April is the hottest month of the Thai year, routinely 35–40°C with high humidity. This is a real risk for a four-year-old and for anyone over seventy — which now includes a member of the party. The itinerary front-loads mornings and empties the middle of every day on purpose. Water, shade, and a pool from one o'clock is not laziness, it's the plan.
ATMs charge a flat ฿220 per withdrawal regardless of amount, so take out a lot at once. Dual pricing at national parks is official and normal, not a rip-off. Tipping isn't expected but rounding up is kind. And bring a dry bag whatever the plan — the boats will soak everything you own.
Generated from whatever is selected above — change the shape, the days off or the Bangkok nights and these dates move with them. Split days are marked where the group is in two places.
One ballot, one deadline. Seven required questions decide which trip we take — about ten minutes. Everything after them is optional and makes the booking easier. You can't see anyone else's answers until you lock your own, which is deliberate: nobody should anchor on whoever voted first. Lock, and the whole board opens up. Reopening and changing your mind is fine and it'll show that you did.
Everything above this point is here so you can vote informed. The four plans, what each one costs, where you'd sleep, what there is to do. Read as much or as little as you like, then come back down.
You'll have seen Sutira's stamps on the reference sections above. There are deliberately none down here — an organiser's pick sitting beside a ballot option stops being information and starts being an instruction, and the sealed results only work if people answer for themselves.
Sutira's mother is in Bangkok for part of this but isn't on the ballot — every question here is about legs she isn't doing. Her dates are a separate conversation, not a group vote.
You picked your name when you arrived and the site remembers it on this device. That's the whole of it — no password, no account. It's the honour system, which for eight people who know each other is the right amount: it stops accidents like voting twice or overwriting someone else's ballot, and there is nobody here with a reason to do worse.
If you picked wrong, "Not you?" at the top of the page switches. Your ballot follows the name, not the device, so locking as yourself from a phone and a laptop is the same ballot.
Roughly in order of how much each unblocks. Several of these are now questions on the ballot above.