Total Thailand

The trip itinerary was amazing. I loved the trip content. Felt like such an adventure and I met so many cool people on the tour. Loved Chiang Mai, Pai, Khao Sok and Phuket. The accommodation was nice and varied too - from 4-star city hotel to staying on an exciting jungle river raft. I would recommend to anyone who likes being on the move the majority of the time with some time to relax. The optional activities were great but it's a shame they weren't included. Best optional was Perm's Cooking Class - everyone had so much fun and we received our own cookbook at the end to take away with us. Also had so much fun on the Vespa tour zooming around Chiang Mai trying out Thai foods and making papaya salad. There were opportunities to get blessed by a monk and also get your fortune told! Visiting the temples and the grand palace are an experience allowing you to fully immerse yourself into the culture. Phuket was amazing and I will be going back there as I felt I needed more time there! There was a variety of needs met in terms of what people wanted to get out of the trip - I.E. History, Culture, Food, Art and active adventure. Erawan Falls was fantastic as was river-tubing. The local guides were helpful and full of character. Plenty of massage/spa places, I went for 3 different massages plus a facial - cannot go to Thailand and not have a Thai massage! The night markets are a great experience where you can try all sorts of food and drink from coconuts, you can also do some shopping and utilize your bartering skills! And afterwards, enjoy the nightlife. I particularly loved Pai’s night markets and nightlife. The group were wonderful people – no problems amongst peers, everyone was welcoming of each other and very approachable – and you learn so much from each other. We all played lots of games – just so much fun. However... The reason I rated this trip 4 stars and not 5 is because of our trip manager. I do not feel that she was fit to take on this particular tour at this time. I felt she took a dislike to me very much so due to how she spoke to me every time I tried to have a conversation with her. I would recognize that she would have fun, upbeat conversations with my other tour peers and when I tried to join in, she would be dismissive and rude towards me. I thought she was intimidating, unapproachable and unhelpful. I felt all of this from day 3 when I asked her a simple question where she shut me down and made me feel very dumb for asking a reasonable question... I mean she is our guide and generally, guides are there to be ASKED QUESTIONS. As a tourist, I am going to ask questions because I am in a foreign country and I'm wanting to learn, and my tour manager/guide should be happy to answer them and not make paying customers feel inferior. I wasn’t going to let this ruin my vacation and there were 27 of us - I didn’t need to speak to her unless there was an emergency. Later on, majority of the other people in the group had left as they were on the Northern Thailand tour and 7 of us carried on to the South where we met 5 new people to join the group. One evening the whole group had a meal together at a beach bar/restaurant and we watched the sunset and afterwards, we were going to go out to some bars. It was a lovely evening until our bill arrived. Unfortunately, the restaurant would not give out individual bills and we had to pay as a group. The bill went around everyone and when it got back to our tour manager it was unfortunately under… There was a bit of a drama about this coming from the tour manager. It got to the point where she started accusing and pointing fingers at the group speaking to us as if we were all children at school. I started throwing money her way just to get her to stop raising her voice at the group because other customers on tables around us were staring as well as the restaurant staff - we were all so embarrassed and quite frankly infuriated that she felt she had the right to speak to us all like that. We were a group in the age range of 23-33… I think we’ve grown out of lectures like this and not one person in the group is as dishonest as she made out - no one meant to come up short on the bill. No one went out for drinks after that… I think everyone was a bit put out and didn’t feel like having fun after that massive downer. This event wasn’t spoken about again and I think it left a bitter taste for everyone. Overall, despite the problems with the tour manager, I loved my total Thailand trip. It’s an amazing trip to be part of and it allows you to get a taster of each spot around Thailand. You meet people from all walks of life and even make the best of friends. The food is the best, the people of Thailand are wonderful, and the sights are breathtaking. Definitely an experience I will look back on with a smile even if someone did put a downer on it a bit sometimes. I will consider travelling with Contiki again and look forward to meeting more people from around the world (and hopefully a pleasant tour manager too).