Cruise or Thailand land only?

[richele]

Good morning,

My husband and I have booked our air JFK- BKK with Thai Air for June 18-30.

Originally we were plannning to stay in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket and tour around the country independently.

I recently saw this cruise posted on the Costa Allegra ship:

Sat, Jun 23 Singapore 7:00 P

2 Sun, Jun 24 At Sea

3 Mon, Jun 25 Ho Chi Minh City 8:00 A 4:00 P

4 Tue, Jun 26 At Sea

5 Wed, Jun 27 Da Nang 8:00 A 7:00 P

6 Thu, Jun 28 Sanya 8:00 A 3:00 P

7 Fri, Jun 29 Hong Kong 1:00 P

8 Sat, Jun 30 Hong Kong

Now we are considering taking the Costa cruise. We would fly into BKK as planned and spend 3 nights in Bkk then fly to Singapore Friday. We would board the Allegra and then see if we could fly back to JFK from HKG.

We thought it would give us a great sampling of different Asaian cultures.

It is our first trip to Asia and we would like to see as much as possible.

We would appreciate your opinions. Would this be a feasible itinerary or is it a bad season (monsoon) to be cruising South Asia?

We welcome any suggestions. We are both teachers in our fifties so this is the only time we could take this trip.

Thanks

[deck 9 001]

Hi richele,

 

To me your idea of combining a short land stay and cruise sounds perfect. You will absolutely see more of Asia if you take the cruise. The Costa Allegra has been recently refurbished and carries quite a number of Asian staff. If you can reschedule your air flights and fly from Hong Kong to back home, I would definitely go for it. It will give you a wonderful holiday in my opinion.

Hope it works out for you.

[Spikesgirl]

We flew in three days early to Bangkok for our cruise and absolutely loved the city and the people. They are so warm and outgoing (with the exception of the street peddlers. They aren't as bad as the ones on China and I never saw any until we went to the Royal Palace. Still we were able to walk through various markets without being hassled - a definite high note in my book.

 

I found the Gold Buddha a little crowded and over-rated, but loved the Nong Nooch tropical gardens. My regret is that we didn't stay there longer.

 

If you'd like more of an idea of what we did, you can read the review we did on the Ship Reviews (Pacific Princess - 7/06). We also stopped at most of the ports that you are considering.

 

Have a great cruise - it was certainly a cruise of a lifetime for us.

 

Charlie

[Verystormy]

The only problem i see is that you wont really get a feel for Asia with this itinary. A lot of the ports are fairly short periods in port and asia doesnt really come alive untill after dark. While you will get the feel of BKK in three days, you will miss a lot.

I would probably recomend the land tour, but skip Phuket and head for Samui or Hua Hin (The beach isnt as nice in Hua Hin, but the town is MUCH nicer)

[bentho]

Sounds like a great plan to me. One that i wish i had found before :(

[giggster11]

We just backpacked in Asia. We would definitely take the land tour if it included Phuket! Bangkok itself was amazing and in our 3 days there feel like it wasn't enough time. Phuket was another 3 days and we could spend 2 weeks there! Our beach was the nicest and most accessible of the ones we saw (Karon Beach). Plus we took day trips to Phi Phi Islands (heaven on earth!) and islands and beaches near Krabi which were also perfection. Plus the banana pancakes are one of the greatest concoctions known. We wanted to go to Chiang Mai but it didn't fit in our plans. The only downside to June is the monsoons but it looks like they cover much of southeast Asia anyway for the cruise as well.