Tour guide or self guide for Thailand?

Travel Info
I am planning to go to Thailand next year and I was wondering whether it's cheaper to go with a tour group or on your own?

Travel Tips

I go to Thailand many times. It is my favoritest vacation destination. I suggest both self guide and tour guide. It depends on where you go.

No need to join the tour guide organized oversea. It is much cheaper to get local guide in Thailand.

There are many local travel agents there. You can get cheaper packages to Ko Samui, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Krabi, Hue Hin,....etc. Many of those package can have local tour guide also.

Another option is to hire the cab driver as tour guide for you in each city you visit. Again, you don't just get any on the street. Get it from the hotel. The staffs in the hotel can recommend some. But, do some studies first so that you can design you itineraries. If there are many places you want to visit in the same province, you can hire the driver for a few days. He can pick you up from the hotel each morning.

BKK has sky train and very easy to get around now for self tour. Source(s): http://www.thailandfans.com/
http://thaisala.com/index.html
http://www.bangkoklifestyle.com/travel.p...
Other Travel Tips

We went a few years ago and had a private tour guide. She took us to many different places that I don't think a traditional agency would. She even introduced us to her family and took us to all the malls in the area because we requested it!
depending on the type of tour you have in mind, for shopping, nightlife, drifting, etc, go on your own, for culture, eco, adventure, etc with a tour group
been there 7-8 times all on my own!!
If you want cheap travel. I think you should backpacker to thailand & find new friends in travel forum. I have information for fist time in Bangkok. Where 're you stay. http://travelbackpacker.blogspot.com/sea...
For cost, the cheapest way is to go independently and arrange flights and hotels on the internet after doing a lot of research. If you haven't time to do this then a tour group arranged by a travel agency in your home country would be the way to go, but nothing comes for free and the tour group package price will contain a mark-up to cover the ease of putting a vacation togther this way.

For sightseeing when in Thailand there are three main ways:
-- Lonely planet + map - very cheap but you will have to work everything out solo so you probably won't see much if the vacation is only for a week or two. I have met people who have used this approach successfully but they had 2 or 3 months in Thailand and so had time to take it slow and work it all out as they went along.
-- Joint tours - also very cheap - going in a tour bus with some other travelers. Its a good way to see the main sightseeing sights for not very much money. Joint tours can be booked on the internet of locally. Joint tours are normally the tours included in tour group packages booked back home (as per first part of my answer). The choice of places to go is limited. For example in Bangkok there are about twenty sites to go to on joint tours, but this should be more than enough for a first time visitor to Thailand coming for a week or two. Joint tours are very popular with students/economy travelers who just a tour to give them transport to and from the place of interest and their hotel; especially for tours going to places that are hard to get to independently outside Bangkok.
-- Private tours - I think maybe what the first answerer above is talking about - you book an individual guide for a half-day or full day tour and can select for the tour to be with or without a car/driver. This is a more expensive option but you get individual attention, better quality transport and you have more choice to select what you want to see and do. Guides often become friends with their customers, introducing them to family, showing them many local places a foreign visitor wouldn't be able to find by themselves, etc. - basically becoming the 'best friend you never knew you had'.