Four of us, one trip: Krabi to start, the Full Moon Party in the middle, and Sukhothai’s ruins near the end — with one travel agency along the way that deserves its own warning label.

At a glance

  • The route: Krabi (1 night) → Koh Phangan (2 nights) → Bangkok (day stop only) → Sukhothai (1.5 nights) → Bangkok (3 nights, with a day trip to Ayutthaya).
  • Best time to go: Broadly, November to February is the most comfortable window across Thailand. The Full Moon Party happens every month regardless of season, tied to the lunar calendar — for a trip built around it like ours, check the actual party date for your travel window first and plan the rest of the route around that.
  • Visa: As of a July 2026 policy update, Indian passport holders get 30 days visa-free entry to Thailand (reduced from an earlier 60-day allowance) — still requires completing the Thailand Digital Arrival Card online before you fly.
  • Who this was: A boys’ trip, four friends.

Why Krabi specifically

We chose to fly into Krabi rather than the more obvious Bangkok or Phuket for two reasons. IndiGo had just launched a new direct Mumbai-Krabi route, and ours was the only international flight landing at Krabi airport in a 4-hour window — which meant a genuinely fast immigration process, none of the usual queue behind three other wide-bodies. More importantly, Krabi to Koh Phangan turned out to be faster than routing through Bangkok or Phuket, and we needed to actually be on Koh Phangan the night of the Full Moon Party — that timing drove the whole route.

Krabi

One night was enough here, mostly as a landing point before heading to the islands. A quadruple room ran about THB 1,500 for the night, split four ways, and food and drinks were THB 150-250 per person per meal.

Getting to Koh Phangan

From Krabi, we took a bus to the Surat Thani ferry terminal, then an onward ferry to the island — booked as a single combined ticket for THB 700 per person. Once on Koh Phangan itself, we mostly just walked everywhere.

Koh Phangan and the Full Moon Party

Two nights here, timed around the party itself. Expect to pay noticeably more for accommodation during Full Moon Party nights specifically — two rooms at a basic beachside property cost us THB 10,500 total for the two nights, split between the four of us. Food and drinks ran a little higher than Krabi too, THB 250-350 per person per meal. Beyond the party itself, this stop was really just about the laid-back beach vibe.

A travel agency to actively avoid: Supthaweephol

This deserves its own section, not a passing mention. To get from Koh Phangan back toward Bangkok, we booked a combined ferry-and-bus ticket to Surat Thani through an agency called Supthaweephol Travels. Avoid them entirely if you can.

The woman running the counter was openly rude to every traveler in line, not just us. Luggage sizing for their “oversized bag” surcharge appeared to be decided purely by her own judgment on the spot — she’d simply declare a bag oversized, and when questioned, her response was to shout that she had 13 years of experience and could tell a bag’s size just by looking at it. We’d carried the exact same luggage through a different agency, Phantip, on an earlier leg without being charged anything extra; with Supthaweephol, we were told it was oversized and made to pay. On top of the base fare of roughly THB 500 per person, we ended up paying an extra THB 200 per person for this.

It gets worse operationally, too: the agency’s pickup point sits on the outskirts of Surat Thani, well away from the actual bus stand, which means once you’re there, you don’t really have another option but to do whatever you’re told. If you’re booking this leg of a similar trip, it’s worth specifically checking which agency you’re routed through before you pay.

The Bangkok stopover (day only)

We arrived in Bangkok around 4am, with nowhere to be until an evening bus onward to Sukhothai. We booked a few hours at a hostel just to crash and reset, around THB 250 per person, then caught a roughly 6-hour bus to Sukhothai that evening for THB 450 per person.

Sukhothai

We counted this as 1.5 nights, since we arrived around 3am on the first night — more a half-night than a full one. Our resort was near the historical park itself, not in the newer part of town, and ran THB 1,600 per night with breakfast included, for all four of us. The resort rented us a golf cart for a full day, which we used to explore the ruins properly rather than walking the whole site.

Getting to and from the resort had its own costs: a private vehicle transfer from the bus terminal to the resort at 3am ran THB 400, and the return transfer to Phitsanulok train station (Sukhothai’s own nearest station, about an hour away) cost THB 1,700.

Sukhothai Historical Park entry runs roughly 100 THB per zone for foreign visitors, across three paid zones (Central, Northern, Western) — about 300 THB total if you’re covering all three. The Central Zone, with the park’s major temples including Wat Mahathat, is generally worth prioritizing if you’re short on time.

Our return leg from Phitsanulok to Bangkok was by train, roughly THB 400 per person.

Back in Bangkok

Three nights here for the main event — the usual big sights, a couple of Michelin-starred restaurants, and some of the world’s better-regarded bars and clubs. We won’t spend much space on the famous tourist sights themselves; Bangkok has more written about it than any post here could add to, and it genuinely has something for every budget, from street food to some of Asia’s most expensive tasting menus.

Ayutthaya, as a day trip

We did this one entirely by private cab, booked through Bolt, both ways — when we actually worked out the cost of public transport for four people, it came out roughly equivalent to just booking a car directly, with far less hassle. Once in Ayutthaya itself, we got around by tuk-tuk.

Frequently asked questions

When’s the best time to do a trip like this? November to February is the most comfortable window generally, but if you’re building the trip around the Full Moon Party specifically, check the actual party date for your travel window first — it happens monthly on the lunar calendar regardless of season.

Do Indian citizens need a visa for Thailand? Not for short stays — as of a July 2026 update, Indian passport holders get 30 days visa-free (down from a previous 60-day allowance), but you still need to complete the Thailand Digital Arrival Card online before flying.

Is Krabi a good entry point instead of Bangkok or Phuket? It worked well for us specifically because of a new direct flight and faster onward travel to Koh Phangan — worth checking current flight routes and comparing against your own itinerary rather than assuming Bangkok is automatically the better entry point.

How much does Sukhothai Historical Park cost to enter? Roughly 100 THB per zone for foreign visitors, about 300 THB total for all three paid zones (Central, Northern, Western).

Is the Koh Phangan-to-Surat Thani leg worth booking through an agency? Be careful which one — our experience with Supthaweephol Travels was bad enough to actively warn against them specifically. We had a clean experience with Phantip on an earlier leg with the same luggage.