Thailand recommendations please

[givemeaclue]

We have sorted our holidays for 2014 but being someone who plans ahead, We are thinking of thailand for 2015 with our seven year olds.

Looking online there are are so many options. Can anyone advise:

• should we do Bangkok/ golden triangle or both as well as beach resort? Any recommendations and should we do that at beginning or end of holiday?
• beach resort - koh Samui, krabi or elsewhere?
• want a good hotel in beach resort with kids club - easy access to restaurants as unlikely to be all inclusive
• I find all inclusive easier with kids as they are not interested in going out to restaurants in the evening and it makes life easier. However I know in thailand local food is easily accessible and cheap and so hotels tend not to be all inc. does this mean though that you end up spending a fortune on drinks/ lunch etc if you are at the beach/ hotel during the day?
• anything unmissable we must do ( we tend to only go places once)
• what is this all going to cost, can I do it for less than £6k?

Thank you vey much!

If you are only going once then I would recommend Bangkok Royal Palace - amazing!
I have been to Phuket and the north of the island is nice and quiet - stayed at the Indigo Pearl and they do have a kids' club.

Koh Samui is nice, lovely beaches and great trips for kids ( tigers etc). Enjoy!

Thank you both

Are you planning in flying direct into Phuket or into Bangkok and then to somewhere else?

I found Bangkok quite a hassle with Dd, it's so very busy and frenetic all the time. We have combined KL with Krabi, using Air Asia to fly up to Trang, and returning on the night train- which was fun!
I love Koh Lanta, a beautiful long skinny island with sweeping beaches. The further down the island you go, the more chilled out it becomes. Or you could fly into Phuket, miss the cities out all together and use the ferries to hop around the area.
What time of year are you planning to go?

YY thegonnagle Koh Lanta was my favourite part of Thailand. But I suspect island wise Koh Samui/Phuket would be more suitable if you are looking for kids' clubs.
Koh samui has some lovely beaches (silver beach is nice and quiet and less popular than Chaweng).

Lots to do on samui - butterfly sanctuary/waterfalls/markets/stunning hills/elephant rides (if you are into that kind of thing). It's just very westernised which depending on your view point is both a good and a bad thing.
Also - easy to get boat trips to the nearby islands.

I went to Bangkok at the beginning and end of my trip and found the first time so overwhelming - the noise/the hawkers/the fumes/heat a total assault on the senses, but it was definitely less of a shock on the way home when I had become more accustomed to SE Asia's ways.

We got the train from Bangkok to Hua Hin (the King's summer residence) - which was amazing. Took about 4 hours and was an old wooden type train which allowed you to take it all in. We got a coach from there to Surat Thani to get the boat to Samui which was a nice break from flying.

oh and not sure how much hotel resort costs, but Thailand in general is fairly cheap - even if eating drinking all day by beach you wouldn't spend half of what you would in a european resort.

The best places to eat in thailand from my experience are the cheap street places. I only ever got food poisoning from a four star hotel in Thailand.

We like The Laguna Beach Club on Bangtao Bay in Phuket. Very quiet and laidback beach with some super hotels stretched along it. The kids club is great and there is a water slide one of the pools. An elephant (sometimes with baby) comes to breakfast and the kids can feed it and ride it. It's a quiet beach but nice for young families as no seediness or much hassle. The local beach restaurants just a stones throw away are excellent and much cheaper than the hotel - also you can eat while the kids play on the beach.

Marking my place. Great suggestions

The Laguna Beach has changed to the Outrigger Laguna Phuket Beach Resort and has been updated for anyone who might be interested. Very family friendly.

We stayed at the Surin Phuket a couple of years ago, and it was perfect. We left our kids behind but kept thinking how perfect the beach was for children - very calm & sandy with some climbing opportunities.

Just not sure about Phuket in General though

Phuket is idyllic. What are your reservations?

WRT the cost, it's much cheaper in the summer (monsoon season!). We had no problem with this except when we were stupid enough to go to the Phi Phi islands via boat. There was vomit dripping off the floors from the upper deck to the lower deck because they basically couldn't contain it all. Thousands of vomiting people.

Do you definitely want hotels? We've done a couple of holidays renting villas in Thailand and had a wonderful time. We've stayed in several but generally there have been a few villas on site, excellent service with managers, cleaners etc. A restaurant on site and several nearby, plus private/communal pools. We've loved that as we get much more privacy, away from the crowds, loads more space but no actual work in terms of cooking or cleaning. We've always rented a car and driven round (not Bangkok) and found it fine but that wouldn't be necessary as they all organise transfers.

Remember Bangkok (and possibly elsewhere) not wonderfully stable just now.