Firstly, ignore other reviews about montanatrip trying to rip people off, I’ll explain how it went for us.
10PM pick up, Hua Hin to Krabi bus, change over at Surat Thani to minivan. We got picked up at the pickup point on time along with 3 other couples. The pick up point in hua hin isn’t a bus stop, it’s simply coordinates where the bus will stop in between a junction at the side of a road by the clock tower, 12GoAsia booking confirmation explains it exactly as it is. Seemed a bit odd at first but the bus turned up and waited until the departure time so everyone was picked up. The buses origin was Bangkok so already had lots of people on board, you cannot select your seat in advance.
Bus was very comfortable, seemed fairly new. We were in the downstairs compartment which only had 8 seats so very spacious and we’re sat together, seats reclined lots. A/C very cold so bring warm clothes, a blanket is supplied but still felt cold. Water and crisps were given to us when we sat down by bus conductor. Bus had a toilet but wasn’t that pleasant, felt to myself it’s a ‘for use in an emergency only’ kind of toilet! No flusher, typical bucket of water and pan to use to pour water down it, was a bit messy.
We had a 30 minute dinner and toilet stop about 2 hours into the drive at a roadside cafe, toilets there are holes in ground, typical no tissue so bring your own. We didn’t eat as was late anyway for us but other people food looked ok.
Got to the office in Surat Thani early, not a bus stop, just the montantrip office, unloaded the bus and bags and had to wait until the correct minivan arrived.
Note: this point is where the bad reviews come from. Depending on the ticket you’ve purchased depends where you get dropped off, our ticket said Krabi Vichit tour, (the bus station in Krabi as per 12GoAsia ticket) When waiting in the office in Surat Thani, they offer onward travel from there to your location for a little bit extra, for example we are staying in AoNang. So they offered to take us from the Krabi bus stop to AoNang for an additional 200baht, 2 people, 25 minute drive. We denied it as we thought we’d use local transport from Krabi. It didn’t affect us at all getting on the minivan and we left the office about 30 minutes after we got off the main bus once the Krabi minivan arrived.
However when the minivan got to Krabi, there wasn’t a great deal of choice of onwards travel at 8 AM so the driver offered us the onward travel again which we then accepted, same price, 100 baht per person. Took us to the beech where agreed.
Everything was as described and acceptable. I would recommend it.
The bus was 45 minutes late and no one warned us. Then we stopped during the trip, and people started asking us where we were going, the name of our hotels and asked us for 200b to take us there. I said I’d get a taxi directly from the bus station but they said it was not possible to do so. So we all had to pay around 200 (which btw was 2x the price of a grab) and couldn’t explain to them that it wasn’t planned.
The fisrt part of the trip between Hua Hin and Prachuap Khiri Khan was ok except the bus was late 1h15. At the office of Prachuap Khiri Khan, a lady asked us 200tbh/person to joint Ao Nang. Second part was very uncomfortable, old van, no space for legs and the driver drove us the the office in Krabi city.And a lady ask us 150tbh/person to join Ao Nang - second time! No way to discuss! I'm sdispapointed that the trip operators are not honnest!
