With Love,
Alliyah&Jasmineđź’•
Glamping in Phuket (review)
Phuket is a whole lot bigger than what we expected, especially for an island. Having beach access was, of course, a top priority, as well as being able to get around to shopping and nightlife efficiently. During our initial search for places to stay, we were set on staying at a resort or hotel, but tons of reviews of the island itself advised against it. One because you don't get private beach access, there are lots of tours of the island being done and boats are constantly docked along the shoreline, and Phi Phi (pee-pee) Island is crazy touristy and that's not our thing. We expanded our search to other areas in Phuket and decided an Airbnb was the best option while there. We also set out a goal to stay under 1000$ for all flights and places to stay (per person) while in Southeast Asia and so that was a huge factor in deciding as well. Most everything in Phuket is reasonably priced, almost underpriced in my opinion; so staying in the budget was not hard at all. We looked at Airbnb and it was one of the first options that came up under unique stays. The pictures immediately had me sold. It was located in Rawai, which is about 40 minutes from Phuket International airport. It seems far out but everything from where we were we could get to within 15-20 minutes by taxi or mo-ped. Vin was our host and he could not have been better, he arranged a pick up for us from the airport and everything that we wanted to do while in Phuket he took care of. We arrived early November 10 at about 8am and check-in was not until 3 pm, my fault for booking such an early flight, but we only had two days in Phuket and wanted to get the true two full days. When we arrived we were greeted by the sweetest woman Lena, she showed us around the property and told us what to expect during our stay. The area is pretty much a campground, it's secluded and secure behind a gate that guest have the passcode to. The campground houses about 8 tents right on the beach, 6 standard tents and 2 upgraded. Each tent has its own porch sitting area in front and swings made from bamboo. Behind the tents, directly on the beach, there is a swimming pool and 5 different penthouse suites. Those were more apartment-style and when booking I did not see them as an option. If you continue behind the penthouses there are 7-8 more tents on the back of the property all upgraded and with private bathrooms attached. The property also has a covered breakfast nook and a full bar. Our tent was perfect, it had two queen size beds, a floor-length mirror, refrigerator, and lots of shelving space to put everything. Also, it's hot as shit in Thailand so the fan in the room was a huge plus. Each tent is assigned a private bathroom as well; (toilet, sink, shower, bidet) my only complaint about the bathroom is the water was cold to shower which was nice at night after being hot and sticky, but at 5am before a flight, for sure not my favorite. We ate breakfast on site both days we were there and it was excellent. The menu available is pretty vast but we didn't get a chance to eat dinner there. Cocktails were my favorite. Lena made us probably the best margarita I have ever had, and I'm from Texas. We had about 8 each lol. Neither Alliyah or I am super outdoorsy so this was way out of our comfort zone, but we're willing to try anything once. Lena arranged all of our activities while there, elephant washing at the sanctuary, and the boat tour to Phi Phi island. The property is pretty quiet, even with the number of people that were staying there. They have kayaks available for free on the property, pool table, and lots of board games and stuff. The last night we made lanterns for Loy Krathong and everyone on the property was there. There are also cameras all around so safety was not a huge concern for me. Overall the experience was really nice and incredibly cost-effective. For two nights we paid a total of $133, with all the amenities an added service we got I would of for sure been willing to spend a little more. The staff was exceptional, the Rawai area isn't the prettiest, but really that's all of Phuket. In the description, it does say something about low tide and I didn't really pay attention to that in my excitement of being able to sleep outside on the beach. So the beach was kinda non-existent in our area, but that's not a deterrent really because there are tons of other beaches and islands that you can hop on over to and we weren't confined to this space. I thoroughly enjoyed staying here and would recommend it to anyone looking to do something different while staying in Phuket.
How We Traveled to Thailand Under $1000
When we first started planning this trip the original plan was to go only to Singapore. Our dates were set and we were going to travel from Lax to Singapore nonstop, mid-October and the total round trip airfare would be 750 dollars each. Super impressed with that price, compared to what we had been told it would cost we wanted to jump on that instantly. I had a hard time getting my dates approved at work, we were 3 months out from our travel dates, and nothing had really taken off. Watching youtube videos and doing tons of research we decided we were spending a lot of money to go to an already super expensive place and we should really look at revising our trip. For one, to make it more cost-effective and two because there were other places we wanted to see while in Southeast Asia and we knew traveling while abroad is so much cheaper. We both wanted to see Bangkok, of course, Phuket and the Phi Phi islands. We moved our dates to the first week in November and spent a night researching all the ways to get to Southeast Asia, the shortest route, best layovers, and the cheapest cities to fly in and out of. We also wanted to make the most of the 9 days we had available, factoring in the loss of a day due to travel.
I downloaded the sky scanner app, per lots of recommendations on travel blogs and Reddit threads. Some people said that they saw cheaper prices on Tuesday travel dates and most expensive dates were leaving or returning on a Sunday. I found that mid weekday travel and staying a minimum of 5 days proved to be the best way to find the lowest rates. Google Flights worked about the same as the Sky Scanner app, providing the cheapest routes with the ability to filter by stops, connection cities, and of course price. I found Google Flights a bit easier to navigate, I was able to quickly jump back and forth between departures and arrival, whereas in the Sky Scanner app you had to start new each time you wanted to go back to compare times. The first game plan was to fly into Singapore and then spend two days in the middle of our trip in Bangkok, a flight once in Singapore to Bangkok was pricing around 100$ which would have put our overall ticket cost at 850 dollars in total. 750 dollars from the states to Singapore and Singapore to Bangkok round trip at 100 dollars. After playing with the idea and again trying to figure out how to cut costs in an already expensive place, we decided to look up what the ticket price would be if we instead flew Lax to Bangkok instead of Singapore. 400 dollars cheaper yall! So, of course, we were sold! The only fear was the airline was not one either of us was familiar with. We did our research for two days nonstop reading review after review. Neither of us could be swayed one way or the other and the fact that we were saving 400 dollars and the travel time was no different from the ticket that was priced almost double, we decided to do it. We booked our tickets from Lax to Bangkok with China Eastern Airlines' total travel time from Lax to Bangkok with a 3-hour connection was 22h and 25m.
If traveling to Southeast Asia from the west coast I would advise morning or early afternoon flights so that with the travel time you only lose a day vs evening flights (everyone's preference so they can sleep) you could lose a day and a half or up to two days. So our trip changed and we set out on a challenge to each spend no more than 1000$ including all airfare and places to stay while abroad. Thailand is super inexpensive so doing those two cities first was smartest, while we knew we would spend a lot more money in Singapore. We were also going two weeks before high tourist time, but right after monsoon season so pricing was reflective of that as well. My biggest advice when trying to book a trip of this magnitude is to be flexible, play around with the dates and see what works best for you. Don’t be afraid to try something new or outside the box, such as flying a low cost carrier; we all wanna travel but everyone doesn’t have 1000$ to book a plan ticket on a whim. Also if you are not near a huge international airport I have found booking your ticket to the international airport separately from the actual international flight saves a lot of money as well so that’s a bonus tip.
I downloaded the sky scanner app, per lots of recommendations on travel blogs and Reddit threads. Some people said that they saw cheaper prices on Tuesday travel dates and most expensive dates were leaving or returning on a Sunday. I found that mid weekday travel and staying a minimum of 5 days proved to be the best way to find the lowest rates. Google Flights worked about the same as the Sky Scanner app, providing the cheapest routes with the ability to filter by stops, connection cities, and of course price. I found Google Flights a bit easier to navigate, I was able to quickly jump back and forth between departures and arrival, whereas in the Sky Scanner app you had to start new each time you wanted to go back to compare times. The first game plan was to fly into Singapore and then spend two days in the middle of our trip in Bangkok, a flight once in Singapore to Bangkok was pricing around 100$ which would have put our overall ticket cost at 850 dollars in total. 750 dollars from the states to Singapore and Singapore to Bangkok round trip at 100 dollars. After playing with the idea and again trying to figure out how to cut costs in an already expensive place, we decided to look up what the ticket price would be if we instead flew Lax to Bangkok instead of Singapore. 400 dollars cheaper yall! So, of course, we were sold! The only fear was the airline was not one either of us was familiar with. We did our research for two days nonstop reading review after review. Neither of us could be swayed one way or the other and the fact that we were saving 400 dollars and the travel time was no different from the ticket that was priced almost double, we decided to do it. We booked our tickets from Lax to Bangkok with China Eastern Airlines' total travel time from Lax to Bangkok with a 3-hour connection was 22h and 25m.
If traveling to Southeast Asia from the west coast I would advise morning or early afternoon flights so that with the travel time you only lose a day vs evening flights (everyone's preference so they can sleep) you could lose a day and a half or up to two days. So our trip changed and we set out on a challenge to each spend no more than 1000$ including all airfare and places to stay while abroad. Thailand is super inexpensive so doing those two cities first was smartest, while we knew we would spend a lot more money in Singapore. We were also going two weeks before high tourist time, but right after monsoon season so pricing was reflective of that as well. My biggest advice when trying to book a trip of this magnitude is to be flexible, play around with the dates and see what works best for you. Don’t be afraid to try something new or outside the box, such as flying a low cost carrier; we all wanna travel but everyone doesn’t have 1000$ to book a plan ticket on a whim. Also if you are not near a huge international airport I have found booking your ticket to the international airport separately from the actual international flight saves a lot of money as well so that’s a bonus tip.
Our Itinerary is as follows.
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