Ayutthaya

[Almondtree]

We are going on HAL cruise in late January 2012. We arrive early on the 1st day but the ship leaves at 5 pm on the 2nd day. Assuming we stay at a hotel in Bangkok overnight, do we really have enough time to do all the main sights in the city as well as go to Ayutthaya? Would love to go there but worried we'll miss the city sights.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[John Bull]

We are going on HAL cruise in late January 2012. We arrive early on the 1st day but the ship leaves at 5 pm on the 2nd day. Assuming we stay at a hotel in Bangkok overnight, do we really have enough time to do all the main sights in the city as well as go to Ayutthaya? Would love to go there but worried we'll miss the city sights.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

Can be done with an early start. The summer palace at Bang-Pa-In, and Ayutthaya, and a cruise down the river to Bangkok, though that'd take you to mid/late afternoon on day 1.

Post your port (Laem Chabang?) and time you can be off the ship & I can possibly tell you how you can do it pretty cheaply too.

 

JB :)

[newfarmers]

we booked a private Ayutthaya tour with Bangkok Day Tours for the first day of our Laem Chabang (Bangkok) overnighter. We then stayed at Pattaya. We'd been to Bangkok previously so didn't need to stay in the city again.

 

Ayutthaya was wonderful but Pattaya was awful with a capital A. The skankiest place we've ever visited and we've visited some skanky places :eek:

 

If you click on the Travelpod link in my sig and then select the 'Legendary cruise...' blog there's a full description of our overnighter with plenty of pics.

 

Pete

[celoplyr]

What do you consider to be the "main sites" of Bangkok? My husband and I did a week long trip to Bangkok about a year and a half ago and I thought that the main sites could fill up a day and a half quite well (in all fairness I wasn't that impressed with Ayutthaya).

 

If you go to Bangkok and don't go to the Grand Palace, Wat Pho or Wat Arun I think you're crazy. We took the train to Ayutthaya and it took about 2 hours in each direction so it's going to take a whole day. That would leave the 2nd day for Bangkok which would be extremely rushed. imo

[John Bull]

in all fairness I wasn't that impressed with Ayutthaya

 

I live a few miles from Stonehenge. A world heritage site, but does nothing for me.

Ayuttaya has way way more to see, shades of Angkor Wat.

But each to their own ;)

 

We took the train to Ayutthaya and it took about 2 hours in each direction so it's going to take a whole day.

 

44 miles, one hour by road. But certainly it'll take a big bite out of a day.

JB :)

[Almondtree]

Thank you all for your replies. Lots of food for thought.

 

John, our port is Laem Chabang. In an ideal world, we could get off the ship at 8 when it docks. But based on my experiences with cruise ships, this isn't likely, particularly since they tend to disembark passengers taking the ship's excursions first.

[John Bull]

Thank you all for your replies. Lots of food for thought.

 

John, our port is Laem Chabang. In an ideal world, we could get off the ship at 8 when it docks. But based on my experiences with cruise ships, this isn't likely, particularly since they tend to disembark passengers taking the ship's excursions first.

 

 

To get the best out of your time ashore, if you want to visit Ayutthaya you should do so from Laem Chabang, then from Ayutthaya to Bangkok. Do include the summer palace at Bang Pa In, close to Ayuttaya.

 

Over the internet you can fix up a private road tour/transfer from Laem Chabang via summer palace & Ayutthaya to Bangkok. Or, as we did, meet up with a tour/cruise.

 

If you want to consider doing what we did, try to get more precise info about when the ship docks - it will probably arrive in the wee small hours, with disembarkation at 8am. Since it's not a tender port, I see no reason you can't get off at the same time as those on ship's excursions.

 

I had a few years earlier spent a few days in Bangkok, and had taken an extremely good day trip from there with River Sun Cruises.

http://www.riversuncruise.co.th/indexe.htm

This involved a long & boring coach from Bangkok hotel, to Bang-Pa In (summer palace) close to Ayutthaya. Then three stops in Ayuttaya, then coach to the river, & cruise down the river to River City pier in the heart of Bangkok (excellent buffet-lunch on the way). Cost from memory about 3500 baht.

 

Last year my new lady & I cruised SE Asia, including Bangkok (ported at Laem Chabang). As you know, the big problem with cruising is the limited time in port.

So I arranged by e-mail with River Sun Cruises to meet their tour at Bang Pa In. We left Laem Chabang by taxi about 7.30, we were at Bang Pa In coach/car park before 9am.

It's 108 miles, all by fast divided highway, google rates it 2 hours but it took us 90 minutes. We waited in the car/coach park, the coach arrived, the coach guide was expecting us & had our seats reserved. We then joined the tour to go round the summer palace & on to Ayutthaya & the cruise down to Bangkok, arriving late afternoon.Had we arrived late at Bang Pa In (a risk), the tour was at the summer palace for an hour, giving us that leeway tho' we'd have missed the summer palace, or at least have had to pay the small entrance fee ourselves. Had we been even later, we could have continued in the taxi the short distance to catch up at a stop in Ayutthaya.

We paid the regular tour price, though River Sun were happy to take our booking without a deposit & we paid the guide on the day.

It all worked out very well, though you can see that there's leeway if it doesn't.

 

Similar trip also by http://www.cruise-thailand.com/Grand_Pearl/

 

We then made our own way from River City pier to our hotel, after hiring a long-tail boat from River City pier for a ride through the klongs (an hour, about $30).

 

We returned to the ship from Bangkok next afternoon, about 90 minutes but allow 2.5 hours.

 

Whatever you do, fix up your transportation from Laem Chabang in advance over the 'net. Whether that's to meet the river tour at Bang-Pa In, or a full road tour, or a simple transfer to Bangkok. This will avoid the taxi cartel at Laem Chabang, who will fleece you (eg 4000baht to Bangkok, which you can pre-book at around 2500 baht) :(

But for your return to Laem Chabang, get your Bangkok hotel to fix up a car when you arrive - that way it's only about 1600 baht.:)

 

Give it some thought

 

JB :)

[John Bull]

Ooops. My memory not-too-good.

tour/cruise about 1700 baht, not 3500 :rolleyes:

JB :)