Thailand – beautiful country, fantastic sites, friendly people, a profound experience!

We went to Thailand; Bangkok, Ayutthaya, and northern Thailand, specifically. We were in a group of 4, three seniors and a niece in her 20s, also one of us was wheelchair bound.

Ms. Elly Do worked hard and imaginatively to help us design the perfect vacation. We would highly recommend Asia Pioneer Travels. Our itinerary met all our needs and our guides were totally reliable. Our group of 4 was able to split up to meet our different interests and abilities and reunite seamlessly. This, again, was due to the diligence of Ms. Elly Do.

We would especially like to reach out and thank Mr. Bigz who helped us out (twice!) in circumstances beyond Asia Pioneer’s control. It was wonderful to have backup in a faraway place!

Pros: We wanted to see the temples (wats), learn about Thai culture and history (particularly the hillside village tribes), and scenic views. We worked with Ms. Do – she was very responsive to our many emails to tailor our itinerary until it was just right! Our guides and drivers were always on time. Asia Pioneer used local guides who spoke English and were knowledgeable. Ms. Kanoon guided us every day while we were in Bangkok and also visited Ayutthaya. We also went out with her every night for dinner. She took us to the airport for our flight to Chiang Mai, which was perfectly smooth and without stress for us.

Mr. Poly was our local guide in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. He also met us at the airport and from there, we were in good hands. Mr. Poly spoke good English, was very personable. He related the history of the different hillside villages we visited. He was always on time. All our drivers were very competent and our rides were in beautiful vans with ample room, AC (wonderful!) and coolers of cold water.

To sum up: Asia Pioneer Travels worked with us, so to speak, from appetizers to entrees to dessert! We always had friendly and reliable guides, drivers, and transportation. The price we were quoted was the price we paid. There were no hidden fees. We had flexibility on our tours.

Cons: Asia Pioneer told us there were no handicapped rooms left in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. We found them online and booked our hotels ourselves. Often in Bangkok, we had dinners that were quite disappointing. Our guide will no doubt in the future know better dining options – it is a learning curve and she tried hard.

Tips: Research options if you are planning to use a guide service. We recommend Zicasso, who evaluated our expressed objectives and recommended two different services who would meet our needs. There are scammers out there, of course, but we felt very comfortable using Zicasso as our starting point.

Next, the more details we shared with Ms. Do, the better Asia Pioneer Travels could customize our trip and recommend options.

Handicapped accessibility: It is difficult to find any information concerning wheelchair accessibility online in Thailand. The information we read was often incorrect or conflicting in nature. The following is what we found in person…

Wheelchairs are not allowed inside many of the temples. Many boutiques or smaller hotels do not have accessible rooms. We did find wonderful rooms at the TK Palace and Bonovoy Marriott Hotel in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai. Although they were extremely nice, none had grab bars by the toilets or in the showers. Sidewalks are often rough or absent outside the main tourist areas. It was challenging or impossible to participate in some activities…the hillside villages and the elephant sanctuary were extremely hard on both myself and the wheelchair! It must be mentioned, however, that the guides wanted to be helpful but probably didn’t have experience with travelers with disabilities. This was just my personal opinion.

Finally: We drank bottled water and reused the bottles at safe refilling stops. Only use ice cubes with holes as they indicate manufactured with purified water. Always be polite, never loud or upset, be respectful. The Thai people we interacted with were kind and helpful. We will review our hotels separately elsewhere.