Thailand Tour Advice

For street food in Bangkok there are a plethora of guides that undertake group food tours particularly in Chinatown. I was at a restaurant in Chinatown a couple of weeks ago and I counted three separate tour groups that came for a quick sample of dishes. I took a guided tour on a boat through the canals of Bangkok and that was via GetYourGuide, there were a number of street food tours available on their website. I've used GetYourGuide on a number of occasions and always found the tours to be good.

You don't really need a guide for the beaches of Phuket. Just find your accommodation and explore on your own. I was in Khao Lak on my recent trip to Thailand and it's a beautiful location and more serene than Phuket. Most of the tours that I saw were focused on boat trips to the various islands surrounding that part of Thailand.

I'm not sure you can find a guide that will cover all the areas you're interested in in one trip as the locations are almost as far apart as can be. You'll have more success looking for a local guide for each particular location however if you're simply interested in the elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai I don't feel that you'll need a guide. FWIW there's a very good elephant sanctuary in Phuket where I went with my family and my youngest helped bathe the elephants so there's an option there if your only reason to visit Chiang Mai is for the elephant sanctuary.

You might look at Road Scholar’s tour, “Best of Thailand:An Exploration of the Culture and Kungdom.” It happens to include the locations you are interested in. I took a Road Scholar tour in India that was excellent and spared me having to figure everything out for myself. Here’s a link:
https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/22813/The-Best-of-Thailand-An-Exploration-of-the-Culture-and-Kingdom/itinerary/

You might also consider other good tour companies such as OAT or Odysseys Unlimited, and then add some time on your own for anything not included.

I was in Bangkok independently a few years ago. I took a food tour with Taste of Thailand:
https://tasteofthailand.org/

I also hired a guide for a private tour from Your Thai Guide: https://yourthaiguide.com/

As fantastic as Thailand is, particularly the food, it is recommended you get the jab for Hepatitis A and take some probiotics. I got severe food poisoning in Bangkok and had to go on a course of antibiotics for a month. Also anti malarial for Chang Mai. You shouldn’t need a tour for Bangkok as it is easy to get around on the skytrain - not tuk tuks. Can’t recommend tour company though Thailand is beautiful and so are the people. Enjoy.

We visited Thailand last December. We spent 3 days on our own in Bangkok to see the city and get adjusted to the time zone (12 hour time difference from our home city and about 20 hours of traveling). We then joined an Intrepid tour to see the beach areas in the south including Phuket. Check out Intrepid’s website to get some ideas. Chiang Mai is in the north and the beaches in the south. So depending how long you plan to stay in Thailand you may have to choose north or south.
We have used Intrepid several times and recommend them. All of their tours are only 12-16 people.
Please feel free to contact me directly if you want more details.
Good luck!

Thailand is very easy to get around by yourself, and I would suggest you would struggle to get one tour to cover all these areas, all of which are super popular with tourists and therefore very accessible. The best way to do it would be to fly into Bangkok, then either fly or train to Chiang Mai, back to Bangkok and flight to Phuket.

There are lots of guides for each individual location, so you can do a mix of self guided and guided day trips. For example, a day snorkeling in Phuket, or hire a driver to take you to old Phuket town. In Chiang Mai you can just hire a driver to take you to an elephant camp, or to Doi Suthep for the day - your don't need a guide for this. In Bangkok, there are plenty of drivers who will take you around, but public transport is good, and most people will just explore by themselves - your hotel concierge can give recommendations on food, markets etc.

Just a word of caution, you talk about the "beauty of Phuket beaches" - be aware Phuket is a budget destination. It is very busy and somewhat less attractive in some areas, particularly Patong (although Patong beach itself is decent). Pick your location carefully, and you'll have a great trip, though - we like Kamala.

"Also anti malarial for Chang Mai."

I would respectfully disagree with this. I lived in Chiang Mai, and travel there often, and it is a very low risk area for malaria - I certainly don't take anti malarials (there are potential side effects you need to be aware of as well). It's not recommended by travel health clinics, and the CDC describes the risk as "rare to few". Use anti mosquito spray, and cover up. Be aware the dengue risk as well.

It is worth getting a Hep A vaccination.

Thank you all for these great replies. They were very helpful. We know we can do this on our own but getting guided around is great too especially if you are older. We plan on possibly going with Asia Pioneer Travel who only does private tours so there are no buses and preset tours or menus etc.

Simon is right about Chang Mai and malaria risk if staying within urban areas but wasn’t sure where you wanted to go.

Personally I find Phuket over rated, but do love the resorts in Hua Hin (if that is your thing). Beaches not as nice as others if wanting to swim though. The resorts have shuttle buses which ferry you into town full of great eating places. There are also some day tours from Hua Hin itself (a two hour van trip from Bangkok )