The exchange rate has done us no favours re Thailand but its still a value for money destination. We were on holiday there in January for nine nights b & B and spent under £200 pounds excluding trips. Evening meals with drinks for two ranged from £9 - 12.

Trips can be expensive, but the Simba one you mention is priced more than most - its possible to get similar trips for maybe two thirds of their price. Phuket is an international resort with higher prices to match, one of the most expensive area in Thailand. Its possible to do Bangkok very cheaply using public transport - skytrain, underground, riverboats even metered taxis.

with 4 nights in Bangkok you have plenty time to see most of the sites under your own steam. Take the tourist boat as that stops at a lot of the places you would want to go to anyway. Sky train is also easy to use. For skytrain buy a day ticket at the counter- cheap and far easier. Get yourself a good guidebook. Nancy Chandlers maps are also really worth buying.
http://www.nancychandler.net/

Having just come back from Phuket (Patong) I can confirm a couple of things -

General prices are pretty cheap, we were eating a nice two course meal with drinks for less than £10 each. Beers are between 60-90 baht a bottle, so about £1.20 - £1.90, not dirt cheap but not extortionate either.

Trip wise, there are so many people doing them, it depends who you choose and what you want. We wanted to do a trip to James Bond Island (Phang Nga Bay) and we saw trips ranging from 799 baht to 3100 baht. We eventually booked through our rep in our hotel, which I wouldn't normally do but I liked the sopund of what it included - it cost us 2500 baht each (about £50) but the trip was an all dayer, transfers to and from Phuket to the boat pier at the north east end of the island, a comfortable large boat, plenty of free water and soft drinks on board, lunch on the boat (which was very good), 45 stop on James bond Island, then back to the boat and on to Hong Island where you go by sea canoe into the interior of the island through bat caves - amazing! Then you go on to Lawai, sea canoe to the beach and sunbathe/swim for an hour then monkey island by sea canoe, where you see lots of monkeys (loads of babies at the moment, very cute). Then back to the pier. It's one of the best trips we've ever done and more than worth it. Talking to other people on the boat, they got the same trip for 1600 baht by bartering with the people selling it so you can do it cheaper. It was called 'James Bond Island Eco Tours'

I can't speak highly enough of Thailand, fantastic and friendly people, great food, cheap, great weather (over 100 degrees each day in our second week, mid 90's first week)....I can't wait to go back!!

Cheers,

TC

aww you guys are brilliant. thank you for the reassurances.
bangkok we will do under our own steam.
We will shop around for a cheaper tour in phuket. am looking forward to meals only costing £9 how fabulous is that.
many,many thanks

I've been to Thailand 5 times now and my experience is that it is not really that cheap at main tourist places. You will be suprised how much you can save by venturing out to some local places.

In Bangkok Suan Lum Night Market is not to be missed - high night market plus large beer garden and loads of food stalls. Again it's a very touristy place and prices are not that cheap, but still reasonable.