I am heading to Thailand and want to make the most out of the 11 days there. Looking for the best elephant sanctuary where you don’t ride the elephants, cooking classes, and the best B&B’s and/or best accommodations(hotels, hostels) for responsible prices. Will start in Bangkok for two days then travel to chang Mai for 4-5 days then visit the islands to the south. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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We just got back from Thailand and absolutely loved Chiang Mai! The Nature Boutique hotel was in a wonderful location a close walk to everything! Very safe and relaxing. It was 35$ a night. Just a basic clean hotel, which was all we needed.

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I stayed at Sleep Guesthouse in Chiang Mai. A cute room, a lovely breakfast included and the sweetest, most helpful couple running it. Also a great location! Was about $40 Cdn a night.

Bhum Thai cooking school and happy elephant home!

In chaing mai - go to fatara coffee/ spa ! It was the best restaurant for our whole trip, do not miss their mango sticky rice or amazing back garden eatery with working water wheel feature. Seriously the best

‘A lot of Thai’ cooking classes in Chiang Mai. It was one of my favorite things I did on my trip!
http://www.alotofthai.com

Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai. Most amazing, caring place for elephants. Highly recommend! Elephant conservation in action!
https://www.pataraelephantfarm.com/

Hi I am from Sri Lanka. would you like to travel to Sri Lanka ?Sri Lanka offers beautiful beaches,fantastic hotels, gourmet foods ,cultural sites to visit ,and historic places built by the Portuguese and British I am leaving for Sri Lanka very soon and I will be touring the south east and also northwest I shall send photographs of hotels and places we visited you could: contact the tourist Board of Sri Lanka or call the Embassy in your country or jet wings travel.com for further information contact me

Check out Elephant Nature Park, it’s in chiang mai. we did a day volunteer so what we did were bathing and feeding the elephants and of course listening to the horrible stories that the rescued elephants went through! They have other volunteer options that you can do with them. I believe that they are legit. I saw how they treat the elephants and how free they were.

I would recommend as well! Great place

Cresisab my friend was there for 2 weeks in January .... excellent sanctuary... they also have a dog rescue, cat rescue and few other animals

Highly recommend...most amazing experience

Cathy Lowe perhaps you can give some recommendations.

I second Elephant Nature Park. Thai Farm Cooking School is amazing with a market tour. Be sure to be there for the Sunday Walking Market from Thae Pha Gate. So many great places to stay. Try Hostelworld. Also www.travelfish.org for places in SE Asia

We stayed in two neighborhoods while in Bangkok. Sukhumvit 7, which lies under the transit system, I don’t recommend it at all
Pretty much accidentally booked a hotel in the middle of the red light district, oops. Our next hotel was W22 By Busari in the Chinatown district. We LOVED IT! Great neighborhood, very accessible to everything and the hotel itself was very affordable with a hip boutique aesthetic.

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Also, when I have a min I’ll add all my first timer tips and places to see! Brb!

Tips: I read a lot about dressing conservatively, and I still packed short jean shorts and tanks. I felt SO out of place, and ended up not wearing most of what I packed. In Bangkok the locals wear pants/skirts at least at the knee and cover their shoulders. Also, the temples require modest clothes to enter.
EAT. THE. FOOD!!! don’t be afraid of the food, it’s the best you’ll ever have but there are rules to street food. Only eat hot food that you see being prepared fresh in front of you, if the skewers have been sitting out, skip them. Same goes for fruit, it’s safer to eat fruit that’s peeled when you buy it, or that you can peel yourself. DEF try fresh durian! You might hate it, you might love it, but at least you can say you tried it. Skip the straws! We saw a street vendor soaking and re-using plastic straws in dirty water. HARD pass! One of my must-packs was alcohol wipes. I used it mostly for cleaning any questionable cutlery. Obviously do not drink the tap water. Restaurants will automatically serve you bottled but if you don’t see them pour it from a bottle feel free to ask for it. The ice is safe. Restaurants and hotels have it delivered from a purified water company. But if the ice looks sketch (like from a street vendor) skip it. Always trust your gut. Do not eat cockles! A local friend told us that cockles are responsible for a lot of food sickness for foreigners.
Practice your haggling skills now! You’ll need those skills for the vendors at all the amazing markets. The first price they give you is NEVER the price you should settle for.
Download the Grab app. It’s like Uber for Thailand. Super convenient because taxi drivers will try to scam you.