Travelling to Thailand, (The North) Chiang Mai can be a great starting point when you are travelling to Thailand. You can start your vacation with a lot of activities like hiking, mountain biking or jungle trekking and relax on the beach by the time you reached the islands in the south.

Let’s get back to Chiang Mai first. Known as the ‘unofficial’ capital city of northern Thailand and also the second city of the country. Because of its geographic location, you can experience hot and humid temperatures here during the daytime in the ‘hot season’. During any of the ‘three ‘seasons’ in Chiang Mai the nights will mostly be cool, but can sometimes be freezing cold in the ‘cool season’ when temperatures can dip a degree or 2 below zero.

Shopping for handicrafts, sightseeing trips to temples, cultural traditions or visiting hillside tribal villages can be some of your daily activities here. If you are a nature lover and outdoor kind of person, for example if you like hiking or mountain-biking this might be an interesting destination for you. Once you travel to the north you see how diverse the countryside of Thailand really is. From the urban areas to the seemingly endless and lush green forests and jungles in the north and eastern part of the country. All the way to the idyllic white sandy beach islands in the south.

Talking about the south, the Southern part of Thailand is very popular amongst tourists. Here you find beautiful idyllic islands with stunning white sandy beaches against a background of waving coconut palms, the ones that you might see sometimes in those fancy tropical ads on your T.V. Travelling to Thailand is one thing. But after some days when you leave Bangkok behind you, and you enter Pattaya which is only an hour and a half south of Bangkok, you start to enter an area with a totally different vibe compared to Bangkok. It is easy to get in the holiday mood in this bustling and lively city.

A couple of hours further down the coast, near the Cambodian border you enter the province called ‘Trat’. The Capital of this province is also called Trat and it is located 315 kilometers (5hrs. drive) south-east of Bangkok. Trat is the entrance to the National Marine Park ‘Koh Chang’, this is an archipelago of 52 islands. Across the Thai Gulf at the entrance of the Bangkok Bay you find Hua Hin and Cha Am. Hua Hin is a place where a lot of the locals from Bangkok like to relax when there is a long weekend or national holiday coming up. Further south in the gulf you find a triangle of islands that go by the names of Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui. The last one is probably the most well known, but in my opinion Koh Tao is the most beautiful with awesome diving opportunities and striking coastlines. But hey, why don’t you go find that out yourself!

On the South-west side on the mainland you find Krabi although it is located on the mainland, has the ability to give you the feeling you are on an island. Somehow it has that same kind of attraction to me. In the Andaman Sea to the west of Krabi you find Phuket, the largest island of Thailand. Phuket has it all, any activity that you normally should be able to find or do on a holiday, it’s very likely you find it on Phuket The Andaman Sea is home to a lot of islands, the most well known are; The Similan Islands, a group of 9 uninhabited islands located to the North-West of Phuket famous for the fantastic diving opportunities.

Koh Lanta and the Phi phi islands which are located to the south-east of Phuket are very popular amongst tourists also for their beauty and tranquility.

Well… there you go, all these places can be considered the main holiday destinations in Thailand. I hope you found this article useful and that it can help you when making a choice from all the holidays to Thailand that you can choose from. As you can see there is a lot of choice for your city trip, beach side vacation or tour around this friendly and engaging country. Have a fantastic holiday in Thailand.

P.SYou know what they say right, the success of any undertaking is not in the end result. Because the end of your holiday is arriving home again. For you anything that you want to get out of your holiday will or can happen while “Travelling to Thailand, and through Thailand”.