Pre-Trip to Thailand

 

                        Thailand October 2026

                Bangkok-Chiang Mai-Phuket 

Hello! I'm Nicole, travel advisor, mom, wife, and apparently... now a travel blogger! 😂 Welcome to my little corner of the internet.

Please be warned: I am not a writer, and I definitely do not claim to be one, so bear with me. This is going to be a raw, honest blog about my own personal travel experiences. No fancy travel writer language, no pretending I have all the answers, just me sharing the good, the bad, the exciting, and probably the things I completely mess up along the way.

So, Why Did I Decide to Start a Blog?

Honestly, it came down to one thing: I forget things. 😂

I'll go on vacation and think, "Oh, I'll remember this forever!" And then a year later I'm trying to remember what hotel we stayed at, which excursion we did, or which port we were even in.

I've cruised all over the Caribbean and couldn't tell you which excursion I did in which port. And honestly, I wish I had started doing this years ago so I could look back and remember all those little details.

So that's what I'm hoping this blog will become for me. A place to document my travels so I can look back and remember them... and hopefully, a place where you can come along for the ride too!

Now, Let's Talk About Thailand

So why did I choose Thailand for my first true international trip?

Well... honestly, it came down to what I could afford, how much I could get for my money, and the experiences I wanted to have.

Thailand kept checking a lot of boxes for me. The food, the culture, the scenery, the experiences, and the fact that I could get a LOT of adventure for my travel budget.

And let's be honest, if I'm going to travel that far, I want to make it count!

So here we are.

I'm about to embark on a pretty big adventure, and I thought, why not document the whole thing?

The planning, the packing, the long flights, the excitement, the things that don't go according to plan, and hopefully a whole lot of amazing memories.

So, welcome to the beginning of my Thailand adventure.

Let's see how this goes. 😂

What have I done to prepare? 

I've done so much research, from watching TikTok's and following so many content creators that LIVE in Thailand to learn a thing or two and reading blogs/thailand articles. I'm to the point when I see a blog or video of "what not to do" or "can't miss" I don't even have to keep reading because I already know the most important things in Thailand..... cover your knees and shoulders in temples, get the pink bug spray from 7-11, fill out the TDAC 3 days prior to arriving in Thailand, take the train to avoid the traffic and wear linen because it's so hot. 

Flights- I live in the Pacific Northwest, so the flight is going to be long, 22hrs long. I told my husband that if we are flying for that long, I HAVE to do business class because I'm unable to sleep sitting up in a chair and honestly, I'm too old to fold myself in half and sleep on his lap like we use to. So, we are going to be enjoying our first international trip in first/business class. This will also be my first time experiencing first/business class so I'm ALMOST just excited for the airplane experience as I am for Thailand because I know this is most likely a one-time experience. 

Packing-  My husband and I decided to not use our luggage and to bring our Travel Backpack instead. Everything I read was everything is so cheap over in Thailand that there is no need to pack anything except for essentials because you can purchase beauty supplies and clothes there so that is what we are doing. What am I actually bringing? 

1 linen skirt

2 linen pants

couple of tops

1 pair of jean shorts

2 nice dresses for dinner

and of course, all my undergarments. 🤣

Some other things I'm packing is I Toilet seat covers and hand sanitizer. 

If you have gotten this far, thank you for reading and hope it wasn't too painful. What I plan on doing is blogging our travels on the flight to the next city! Follow along! 

Thank you, 

~Nicole