My husband and I met 23 years ago on a train platform in Thailand — both backpackers, waiting for the 12.45am departure from Surat Thani station. As the only people on the platform so late at night, we struck up a conversation, only to realise we were both aiming for the same tiny islands, almost a full day’s travel away. We got to know each other on the journey — by sleeper train, ferry, even moped-taxi at one point — before spending a week in (platonic*) paradise. (*He was just starting his year away, while mine was ending.)
Back then, we each travelled as cheaply as possible; taking overnight transport to avoid hostel fees was one of our ploys. My husband even started his cost-cutting gap year by flying to Asia on Kuwait Air, via a long layover in Kuwait City. No great hardship you might think, until you learn it was a smoking flight — and a dry one, at that.
So you could have knocked me over with a Thai baht note when I found Christmas holiday flights to Thailand for less than we paid almost a quarter of a century ago. No need for overland transfers or sleeping in airports, like we did in 1999. On this trip, now with our 11-year-old daughter, we could fly direct to Phuket, gateway to the spectacular Andaman Sea islands, on a shoestring.
How? Tui. As in, used-to-be-called-Thomson, Tui — the package-holiday company that the Waitrose set loves to reject. Tui’s long-haul focus is on popular holiday destinations rather than pricey city hubs — Phuket in Thailand, Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, Goa in India — and its sheer size (28 million customers worldwide) plus the fact it owns more than 150 aircraft means it can slash fares last-minute in order to fill planes. A month ahead of departure, one week’s B&B in Phuket last December cost £740pp. Click on “Deals” on tui.co.uk and say goodbye to your lunch hour. You’re welcome.
As diehard backpackers, we chose to buy flight-only (£640pp) and build the rest of the two-week trip ourselves, showing our daughter the best bits of our 1999 island-hopping circuit. That said, we did stay put in Phuket for the start of our escapade, which allowed us to decompress (parents, do note the seven-hour time difference) while distracting my 11-year-old with Thailand’s big-ticket attractions. Number one: Big Buddha. Our taxi driver Ahmad pointed him out from the bottom of the mountain when we could just glimpse the distinctive bobbles of his hair knots above the tree canopy. Then Buddha began to grow with each twist and turn through the jungle, disappearing then appearing suddenly and dwarfing the electric-pylon cables which looked like discarded shoelaces below him. As we climbed the final steps to stand beneath his nostrils — as cavernous as pizza ovens — we each went silent. Big Buddha is big. For drama and affordability, he was a formidable family-friendly sight to kick off with. The wild macaque monkeys that swing from the palms and then escort you out are a bonus.
Wat Mongkhon Nimit temple
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Incited by our enthusiasm, Ahmad asked if we wanted to feed elephants next as we passed them tied up by the side of the road on our descent. My daughter firmly shook her head and we politely declined. She’d been reading the tourist leaflets in Ahmad’s car — brochures from Tiger Land, Crocodile Land, Snake Land, Elephant Land, Monkey Land — and had been rattled by a promotional photo of a monkey lifting barbells. One flyer for an elephant park that professed to be “the most ethical in Thailand” showed a bikini-wearing woman sitting in the curve of a trunk, which we took as a red flag. Another note to parents: Phuket may teach your children much about Buddhism and spirituality, but precious little about animal conservation.
We stayed at Marriott Nai Yang Beach on a quiet bay in Phuket’s northwest; a chain hotel meant cheap rates for the olds and air-con and swimming pools for our daughter. Back in 1999, we’d have haggled over a hut on the beach with fan and mosquito net (costing around £8 a night) but on this trip we sought out unusual, picturesque hotels that came with creature comforts, but also a price tag around the £100 mark. That buys you a lot in 2024, since Thailand’s increasingly mainstream appeal has resulted in gorgeous seafront suites at competitive prices. That’s how we chose Nai Yang: the Lonely Planet travellers in us seeking out a luxury stay but also a location with beach cafés, Thai massages and £2 Chang beers. You’ll find more of my favourite bargain stays in Thailand at the end of this article.
After a spicy street-food lunch in Nai Yang, we developed what came to be known as our “Tom Yum Index”, where we found the most affordable version of my daughter’s new favourite broth everywhere we went (never paying more than £1.50 per dish). She was becoming a backpacker through and through.
Before moving on to the islands we made a pit stop at Phuket old town, whose main drag Soi Romanee we quickly renamed “Selfie Street”. Yes, it’s pretty — a little clutch of streets lined in colourful timber merchant buildings from the Sino-Portuguese period — but it’ll put you off smartphones for life. With gleaming gilt-roofed Wat Mongkhon Nimit at one end, and perfectly preserved wooden townhouses at the other, Soi Romanee surely contains the greatest number of Insta opportunities per square metre anywhere on Earth. We survived by shopping off the main thoroughfare in historic arcades, taken over by young designers who sell handmade jewellery and crochet bags. When we needed a breather, we escaped to one of the numerous stylish cafés — the upside of such social-media stardom — and ate mango and sticky rice.
For me and my husband, day four is when the true adventure began, on a bumpy speedboat out to Koh Yao Yai. We hadn’t heard of the island in 1999 and even now it’s barely touched by tourism, its mostly Muslim population instead making a living from fishing and rubber-tree farming, happy to let Phuket handle the hordes. We readjusted as our soundtrack changed from car traffic and Thai pop music to the muezzin’s call and the birdsong of the endangered hornbill. We took a longtail boat to Koh Hong, where a gap between two towering limestone karsts was just big enough for us to glide through to a fantasy lagoon, like a scene from Alex Garland’s backpacker classic The Beach.
Railay Beach in Krabi
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On another afternoon, we saw the island by songthaew — the open-air Thai buses with bench seats — and stopped to swim off Laem Haad, a stunning sand spit which regularly appears in world’s best beach lists, yet we were the only people there. There aren’t many places to stay on Koh Yao Yai, but the recent arrival of a Thai-designed Anantara resort meant we could enjoy a few nights of luxury at soft-opening rates (B&B doubles from £160 in 2024; anantara.com). We had our budget to consider, after all.
Next stop Krabi, a laid-back beach town back on the mainland that we spontaneously added to our itinerary to keep my daughter 100 per cent engaged. Just like us 20-plus years ago, we could see that she appreciated the quiet, contemplative stops, but that sometimes you also need streetside banana pancakes and Muay Thai boxing. She was amazed to watch her parents go into backpacker mode, checking ferry departures and finding somewhere to stay at a moment’s notice. Our days in Krabi mimicked those in 1999 exactly: a hot, hedonistic timetable of snorkelling and drinking coconuts under the sun, then whizzing to a night market by tuk-tuk where you can eat octopus tentacles on a stick while watching a man juggle with fire. My daughter was enraptured.
We ended our trip on Koh Lanta, an island that we hoped would tick every travel box. As the stop most difficult to reach from Phuket (a four-hour drive plus ferry), it’s incredibly serene and undeveloped, but it has more vim and vigour than Koh Yao Yai. For Gen X parents who fantasise about their backpacker past, Koh Lanta represents the sweet spot. We checked in to Pimalai (B&B doubles from £113; pimalai.com), an independent Thai-owned hotel which encapsulated this concept of grown-up gallivanting. (I think the travel industry calls it something cringy like “laid-back lux” or “flashpacking”, but I couldn’t possibly comment.)
Because of Pimalai’s setting on drop-dead gorgeous Kantiang Bay, we didn’t have to choose between the cosseted hotel experience and real island life. Just a few minutes’ walk along the beach, we could eat crab noodles in Kantiang village or hire a longtail for a day of snorkelling. From afar, Pimalai’s stilted wooden guest villas, enveloped in the hillside jungle, even looked like the huts we used to rent in 1999; it’s only when you’re close up that you see they have private infinity pools. An almost entirely Thai staff also means you can bank on a proper massage and a spicy tom yum soup (though this one didn’t make our price index). And wherever you stay, in a five-star resort or hostel dorm room, Koh Lanta sunsets are the best I’ve ever seen.
We explored the Koh Lanta archipelago over our last few days, one night eating in Shine Talay, a buzzing over-water seafood restaurant in Lanta Old Town. Lobster is a Koh Lanta speciality — local farms provide shellfish to posh hotels across the Andaman — so we knew we couldn’t leave without ordering lobster curry. My daughter visibly baulked at my menu choice, believing it to be far too expensive for our budget trip. At under £10 I told her not to worry, ordered her another banana pancake, and we partied like it was 1999.
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Katie Bowman travelled as a guest of Tui, Anantara and Pimalai. Seven nights’ B&B at Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa from £1,412pp including flights; return flights from £1,012 (tui.co.uk)
Four more bargain stays in Thailand
1. Phra Nang Lanta Vacation Village, Koh Lanta
This simple beachfront hotel is an upgrade from backpacker huts, as there’s air-con throughout and a pool as well as an open-air spa, but rates come in under £60. Every room has a sea view, some with terraces and hammocks. If you’re wondering about the huge beach totem pole, it’s the original from the French TV version of Survivor. In Thailand-obsessed France, the programme is simply known as Koh Lanta, because the first series was filmed here. This location is a proper castaway idyll.
Details B&B doubles from £56 (phrananglanta.vacationvillage.co.th)
2. Ao Nang Villa Resort, Krabi
Krabi is actually a vast region, and has many beach towns within it. Ao Nang is a great choice because it has the buzz of a backpacker hub (unlike famous but cut-off Railay Beach) but also a fabulous, natural backdrop of limestone stacks and sea views out to the longtail fishing boats. The key is to stay at its quiet southern end; that’s where Ao Nang Villas congregate, right on the beach, around a seafront pool and popular bar and restaurant, its tables within traditional thatched canopies.
Details Room-only doubles from £49 (aonangvilla.com)
3. Avani+ Koh Lanta, Krabi
This four-star on its own beach at the northern end of Koh Lanta (far from busy Lanta Old Town) would suit an influencer on a budget. It has the looks — clifftop cottages, swim-up bar, hip murals — and the Insta moments: open-sided electric cars, unique to the hotel, that ferry guests around the estate, plus a Sunset Bar with treehouse and swings. But you’re here for style over substance. For authentic Thai food or a social scene, you’ll need to take a cab to backpacker favourite Long Beach.
Details B&B doubles from £79 (avanihotels.com)
4. Sala Phuket Mai Kao Beach Resort
Any backpacker vibes deserted Phuket years, if not decades, ago. But mainstream favour means the island is home to the most luxurious hotels in Thailand. Sala Phuket emulates the look of such five-star domains — with private villa pools, sleek black stone architecture, “sala” dining (in open-air pavilions), outdoor showers — but comes in with a realistic starting room rate. It’s also on one of the few remaining quiet beaches in Phuket, Mai Khao.
Details B&B doubles from £126 (salahospitality.com)
Fly to Phuket for all these hotels
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