Pre-Trip Planning

- Reserve hotels in Bangkok and Koh Samui

- Research tours and activities (You can check out my curated list for both Bangkok & Koh Samui here!)

- Pack smartly! My packing list is a great place to start.

- Book flights: Home Airport → Layover → Bangkok (outbound)

- Book internal flight: Bangkok → Koh Samui

- Book return flights: Koh Samui → Bangkok → Layover → Home Airport

This blog post contains affiliate links. For more informations, see my disclosures here.

Day 1-2: Travel to Bangkok

- Depart Home Airport & Arrive in Bangkok

- Check into hotel and freshen up. Call ahead of time to try to get early check in or ask if you can have access to the gym or other area to freshen up before your room is ready!

- Light exploration: Check out the neighborhood you are staying in! Remember - light + food + activity will help you stay awake

- Afternoon: Check out a canal tour or other low-energy option! The canal tour let us stay active without walking miles and got to get a good welcome to the city.

You can check out the Canal Tour we did here - Bangkok Longtail Boat Canal Tour

- Evening: Rest and room service. You will be ready to get to sleep!

Day 3: Bangkok Temples and Palace Tour

- Hotel Breakfast or other close option (You will want to save your steps for the day to come!)

- Book a full day private tour! This is a lot more accessible than I once thought. We booked our guide through Your Thai Guide. Not only can you tailor the tour to be what you want (or go with their recommendation!), your guide will give you great insight into cultural norms, local hotspots, transportation how-to’s and must-see sights that you weren’t able to make it to during your tour! We learned SO much information that helped us for the rest of our time in Bangkok (& Thailand overall).

We were taught how to manage the train & ferry system and got to see sites such as the Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun), Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho), Grand Palace, Queen Silk Museum, Grand Theatre, Bamrung Mueng market & the Jim Thompson Museum

- Evening: Relax at hotel pool or other casual spot. You will be needing to rest your legs after your day of sightseeing!

- Grab dinner & a drink in your hotel’s neighborhood to get more insight into the local life (without adding too many steps to your day!)

Day 4: Wildlife Sanctuary and Michelin Dining

- An early morning pick-up will mean that you will want to pre-plan your breakfast or bring it along for the drive.

- Full day at animal sanctuary (HIGHLY recommend Wildlife Friends Foundation)

- Make a dinner reservation at a recommended restaurant. You will want to book it for a later dinner in case your return trip hits any road delays! Your hotel concierge, online articles, or local yelp search can help you pick a spot for this!

Day 5: Relaxation and Chinatown Food Tour

- Morning Relaxation: Schedule a Thai massage and explore local malls or shops for souvenirs to remember your trip! After all of your adventure, this is a morning to take things slow.

- Evening: Chinatown Food Tour (15 courses!) We booked this food tour and cannot recommend more!

- Highlights: Pork stew, sukiyaki soup, Jok dumplings, dark soy ice cream, green curry, river prawns, mango sticky rice

- Nightcap at 008 hotel speakeasy (& a nice neighborhood walk to digest the food marathon we went on!)

Budget Break!

Save on transport with trains and public boats in Bangkok
Splurge on special dining experiences (Michelin-starred restaurant, beachfront dinner)
Worth the expense: guided tours, couples massage, airport lounges for long layovers
Free activities: beach time, resort amenities, temple grounds (entrance fees apply for inner areas)
Pre-plan activities: tours and events can be more reasonably priced ahead of time! See my recommended options here.

Day 6: Travel to Koh Samui

- Pack up & head to BKK for your flight to Koh Samui! There are flights between BKK & Koh Samui every 30 minutes or so, so there are plenty of times to choose from. We went for mid-morning to let ourselves get a little extra shut-eye!

- After a short flight to Koh Samui on Bangkok Airways, coordinate an airport pick up through your hotel for the smoothest arrival experience.

- Check in at beach resort (& if you’re lucky you will enjoy some welcome treats such as fresh coconut water, leis, a gift or two!)

- Explore resort grounds to get a lay of the land and plan out any activities (or massages!) you may want to do. The concierge is a great person to talk to about this if it wasn’t included in the welcome information!

- Evening: Get drinks & dinner at the resort or room service if you are feeling tired from the travel day.

Day 7: Beach Day in Koh Samui

You probably booked a wonderful resort, so enjoy it! Eat your meals at the resort, get poolside drinks, lounge at the beach, take out a kayak or paddle board… the options are endless! You are in paradise & it is worth a day to really enjoy and soak it all in. This is also a great day to get a massage in!

Day 8: Island Adventure Day

- Smaller breakfast at the resort to not get too shaken up on the activities to come!

- Full-day guided jungle tour! We did a 4x4 tour led by an Aussie and a number of local guides and could not have had a better time. Check out the trip we did here!

Our tour included a drive to highest point of island (temple with views), lunch at mountain top cafe and a vsit to waterfall

- Afternoon: relax at the resort after your day of adventure in the jungle.

- Evening: If your resort offers it, I highly recommend doing a private beach dinner. Napasai provided an intimate and delicious meal at their private beach. This ended up being a true highlight of our trip! If your resort does not offer this, plan an off-resort dinner to see more of the island.

Day 9: Resort Activities Day

- We were able to start our morning with yoga at the hotel’s Sky Deck followed by the hotel breakfast. If your resort doesn’t offer things like this, there are a number of yoga and meditation offerings around the island to help slow down your mind and appreciate the end of your trip.

- If you are up for more adventure, book a tour of the Angthong Marine Park! These islands are right off the coast of Koh Samui and are some of the most picturesque areas of Thailand. There are a number of tours tailored to the length of time and activities you want to do that you can check out here!

- Evening: Go off resort and enjoy your last sunset in Koh Samui. The western side of the island will offer breathtaking views and a wonderful farewell to the island. Whether you are bouncing between restaurants and bars or sticking to one, draw out your time with drinks, appetizers (or two!), main entrees, and dessert… followed by maybe another drink! There is something so refreshing to slow down at the end of your trip and take in all that you have experienced.

Day 10: Final Day and Departure

Depending on the time of your flight back to Bangkok (or off to your next destination), it is best to have pre-arranged a late checkout & transportation to the airport! Similar to the flight times from Bangkok, there are flights out about every 30 minutes if you are headed that direction. Enjoy the resort offerings, beach, gym, or pool and pack up in time for your departure.

Big Warning - The Koh Samui airport is small (and open air) and moves a lot of passengers through every day. You will want to plan for at least 2 hours before your flight - if not more. There are a lot of restaurants, bars, and shops once you make it through security, so there is no worry that you won’t have anything to help kill time before your flight.

Day 11-12: Return Journey

If you go East or West for your journey back to the United States, you will either land the same day or two days later. It really is a mind melting activity to try to figure out and plan! We went West to go back to Chicago and left Bangkok at 00:30 (midnight:30) and landed in Chicago at 12:15 (noon:15) the same day… a hard thing to wrap your head around!

If you want to add some days to your trip, I would recommend:

Add another day or two in Koh Samui (there is SO much to see in the neighboring islands)
Travel to Chang Mai before or after Bangkok (3-4 days would be perfect!)
Cambodia and Vietnam are two popular add-on countries that will expand your experience in Southeast Asia