Hi Claire. I went on the JY Thailand trip in Feb 2009 and it was amazing - in fact it got me hooked on exotic travel (I've just booked Vietnam with JY for next April plus Nepal with Travelsphere for November 2011!!). The Thailand tour was very well organised, we visited wonderful places, all food and hotels superb. I took some Thai Baht with me plus sterling, which was easy to change everywhere(and all the hotels had in-room safes) and I also used ATMs with no problems at all using my UK debit and credit cards. On the optional excursions, I took them all, and thought they were all excellent and good value. The most expensive was the full day River Kwai and so called 'Death Railway' - very moving but for me it was an incredible experience, I would not have missed it for the world. Also memorable was the elephant ride - very safe! Plus the boat ride on the Mekong River was exceptional - we got to pop over the border to Laos. So all in all, I fell in love with Thailand on this trip. I'm back there for 2 weeks in November. Incidentally, November is a good month to visit - the rainy season has ended, it's a comfortable temperature, although still hot of course. Hope that helps -have a great time!
Regards,
Nicola.