Herb and Lolo showing off their yoga skillsHerb and I have always planned our own trips, and they have always been centered around lots of physical activity in places of natural beauty - the more remote, pristine, and lacking of crowds the better.

So, you can imagine my surprise when Herb asked me what I thought about doing a 13- Day Classic guided tour of Thailand offered by Gate1. “You mean the kind where you elbow your way through crowds trying to keep us with a guide holding up a little flag? The form of travel you said you would only consider when you were too old and feeble to travel on your own? ” I asked, demonstrating my open-mindedness to the suggestion.

Once I got over my initial shock and we delved deeper into the extremely robust itinerary, we realized that we could in no way do this as thoroughly and reasonably-priced on our own. We further rationalized it by saying we would only consider doing a guided tour in places like Asia or Africa, where we were a bit more out of our comfort zone, in terms of language, culture, food, etc.

Enjoying being kayaked around beautiful Phang Nga BayWe decided to go for it. At the very least, it would be a learning experience, both in terms of experiencing the culture of Thailand, as well as seeing whether a group tour was for us. Plus the price was really incredible. The 13 Day Classic Tour of Thailand cost $3,278 for the two of us. That included airfare, transfers, great hotels (fancier than anything we are used to), 18 meals, plus 5 additional tours that we selected (including bathing elephants).

Prices and discounts are offered all the time, but this is the link to the tour we chose:
https://www.gate1travel.com/asia-pacific/southeast-asia/2018-19/thailand...

Wanting to do a little planning and traveling on our own, we added three days on the island of Phuket at the end. The idea of a guided tour started feeling even better when we realized how many hours we spent searching for flights, hotels, things to do, etc. just for those 3 days. Maybe following the “little flag” has its advantages.

After doing the final accounting for the trip, including the Gate1 part, extra meals we had to pay for, and our Phuket excursion, we came up with a total of approximately $4,500 for the two of us for 16 days.

How could we not do it?

One final comment before I delve into the trip, if you have to choose a guided tour, I would definitely recommend looking at Gate1. They are phenomenal!