Air Travel

Relatively inexpensive flights depart daily from Bangkok for all the major beach destinations: Surat Thani, Trat, Koh Samui, and Pattaya. It's generally cheaper to fly to Surat Thani, mostly because the government owns the airport. There are some flights from Chiang Mai to the beaches. Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways have regular flights, as do the budget carriers Air Asia and Nok Air. All the airports in this region are small and much easier to deal with than Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi.