Package Holidays To Thailand

Thailand is the most popular holiday destination in South-east Asia and 40% of all visitors are female. This means that there are plenty of package holidays to Thailand and plenty of people willing to take them. The reason for Thailand's popularity are it's unique blend of sunshine, beautiful beaches and countryside, the Thais legendary hospitality, the world-famous cuisine and the ease of access.

Package Holidays To Thailand

The number and variety of package holidays to Thailand make it easy to get to Thailand for the various holidays and festivals throughout the year.

The peak period for package holidays to Thailand starts in late October and continues until mid-January. This period in Thailand is dry, it may rain once or twice a month and the coolest, usually around 20-25c in the centre, which I will call Pattaya, Bangkok, Hua Hin, three of the most popular destinations for tourists on package holidays to Thailand.

However, you can find hotter and colder places in this peak season. Chiang Mai, the most popular destination in the north can be a lot cooler at 12-25c and Phuket in the south is warmer at 22-30c. So, there is plenty of choice temperature wise.

In this popular time of the year, you can expect several world-famous Thai festivals including Loi Krathong, the Surin Annual Elephant Roundup and the River Kwae Bridge Week. There are also two Bank Holidays, the King's Birthday and Constitution Day.

Christmas is also celebrated quite loudly by the holiday makers, the ex-pats and the younger Thais in the cities, although hardly anyone in the villages will notice Christmas Day unless you remind them.

New Year's Day is celebrated by everyone in Thailand with big parties and lots of fireworks. In the villages, you will often hear guns being fired into the air. Thais make a really big thing of the New Year with parties often going on all night.

Songkran - The Old Thai New Year

Songkran - The Old Thai New Year is one of the biggest and most popular festivals in Thailand. Some people call Songkran 'The Water Festival', but it is actually the old style Thai New Year, in the same way that China celebrates its own New Year in February. Songkran, the old Thai New Year is in the second week of April and often coincides with Easter. All Thais celebrate Songkran and hundreds of thousands of foreigners come to Thailand to join in and help them.

Loy Krathong

Loy Krathong is the Thais' romantic night of the year, very roughly the same idea as St. Valentine's Day. In fact, many Thai women dress up in traditional Thai costumes (some men do too) and couples go down to the sea or a river to launch boats resembling lily leaves. If the lovers' boats travel away together, the couple will stay together for another year and the wish made at the launch will come true. There are many candles and small fires and lots of places have mini-festivals.

This is a great time of the year to choose one of the many package holidays to Thailand to take part in Loy Krathong - 'Floating Boats'. The festival, like so many in Thailand, is tied to the old Thai lunar calendar. It takes place on the day of the first full moon in the 12th lunar month (November), which is the 21st in 2010.

Surin Elephant Roundup

The Surin Elephant Roundup is held in Surin on the third weekend in November. You will need to get to Surin before Friday or you will not find a hotel. This festival is extremely popular with tourists and Thais alike and goes on for about three days. This year, 2010, there is talk of co-ordinating it with the King's birthday, which is also Fathers' Day, on the 5th December.

If you want to get away from all the troubles of the west for a while, come to Thailand for a change by choosing one of the many package holidays to Thailand.

Vientiane Visa Run

I have not had to do a visa run abroad for five years, but this time my bank let me down badly and failed to transfer 400,000 Baht into my Thai bank account in time for me to qualify for a 12 months' 'married visa', so I decided to do my first Vientiane visa run, that is to Laos.

Dork Adchan And Thai Medicine

As we all know, the way that it works with medicine is: you get sick, you go to the GP, he/she gives you a prescription, you purchase that, take it and hopefully make a full recovery. In a way, it has always been like that. People went to the most skilled person in the village for advice on how to treat an ailment, a couple of herbs were prescribed and a donation received. Traditional herbal medicine is still alive and well in Thailand.

by Owen Jones