Songkran Traffic 2015

[tullynagardy]

Me and the family will be flying out of Suvarnabhumi on Saturday 11th April, Songkran itself starts on Monday 13th two days later.

What day will traffic start to go nuts? Friday? Thursday even? As we are heading to Bangkok and not from it (coming from Koh Chang) would it probably miss the worst of it?

What day should we head back?

[WhizBang]

Traffic wil probably start Thursday evening, pick up on Friday and be totally nuts on Saturday and Sunday. But most traffic will be heading out of Bangkok. I expect there may be additional traffic north out of Rayong, Pattaya and Chonburi though.

How are you coming? By car/mini-van? With driver, or are you doing the driving? You might also ask at your hotel to see what they say.

You could also fly out of Trat. You pass the airport on the way to/from the ferry.

[tullynagardy]

Traffic wil probably start Thursday evening, pick up on Friday and be totally nuts on Saturday and Sunday. But most traffic will be heading out of Bangkok. I expect there may be additional traffic north out of Rayong, Pattaya and Chonburi though.

How are you coming? By car/mini-van? With driver, or are you doing the driving? You might also ask at your hotel to see what they say.

You could also fly out of Trat. You pass the airport on the way to/from the ferry.

Thanks for replying, You said what I was thinking - with so many Issan people in Pattaya alot will surely be joining the road then. Ill be driving a car btw.

As I`ve never been down that direction (or actually on the road at all around this time) I just want to know how bad Highway 7 or 3 will be if we left on Friday morning? (booking into an airport hotel then.) If it`s just heavy traffic and an extra hour or something that`s fine, but with 2 young kids the last thing I want is a 3 hour drive becoming a 12 hour one!

[WhizBang]

I would think that Friday morning would be ok. It will be busy for sure, that stretch of road is always busy.

There is some construction work around the 100km marker just before the Laem Chabang interchange on highway 7, but nothing that should be a major problem.

The unknown in all of this is should there be an accident...

Just expect heavy traffic, but I would not think standstill traffic, and a slowdown through the constriction area.

Good luck with the drive up.

[ToddinChonburi]

I would give myself more than just an extra hour. 2 hour before normal flight time I think I would add more.