Most people access the Andaman islands through Phuket or Krabi, but we found a great deal on Nok Air, the cutest budget airline in Thailand (owned by Air Asia). We flew from Bangkok's Don Mueang airport (not BKK) to Trang and arranged a driver from Lanta Info to shuttle us the rest of the way to Koh Lanta from there. Lanta Info also runs speed boat transfers Dec. - Feb., but the van was nice, comfortable and had air conditioning all for around 3,000 baht. All in all, we figure we saved around $40 per person taking the Trang / ground transfer option over the more popular Krabi / speedboat option. And, Trang is actually a great little town that is well-known for its breakfast culture (which is pretty non-existent in the rest of Thailand). We found Ruean Thai, one of the city's best dim sum spots, on this amazing Thai food blog and ended up sampling most of the restaurant's 40 steamed options and fried sides. Oh. My. Breakfast. Trang also has quality coffee shops and bakeries, if you're not into pork buns and crab dumplings for breakfast. After the meal, it's only a few hours' drive and two ferry crossings to Koh Lanta. Easy on your wallet, good for your tummy and off the tourist track.