Bangkok & Koh Samui.

[pilates]

Thinking of holiday for next year end of July/beginning August. 3 days in Bangkok and 10 days in Koh Samui. Two children, one will be 12 and the other 15.

What do you think and what would you recommend to do?

The Travel Agent I spoke to said Koh Samui is more suitable weather wise, bearing in mind the time of year we are going. Would it be very rainy the other side, Phuket and surrounding area?

Samui is hot and dry in July / August, Phuket is rainy in July, August and September although of the three months, August has the lowest rainfall. I have spent many weeks in Samui (built a house there while living in Singapore) and you can spend 10 days there on the beach, fishing, snorkel trips by boat, temples, shopping at markets, maybe take in a cooking lesson etc. If you and your kids want to learn to dive, there's plenty of that too and July / August is a good season to do that off Koh Tao (the island next door, a quick boat trip away). Personally I would want to spend longer in Bangkok and less time in Samui but I get bored sitting on a beach for more than a couple of days.

Thanks myfriends. I was thinking of either the Bo Phut or Choeng Mon area. What do you think? We like to be able to walk to nearby restaurants of an evening. From what I have read I don't think Chaweng would be suitable.

What would you recommend to do in Bangkok and any hotel recommendations?

Also is Thai Airways a good Company to fly with?

I like Bo Phut, there is a great street market on Friday nights and lovely bars and restaurants (try Krua Bophut in a traditional Thai house at the west end of the strip). I don't know Choeng Mon I'm afraid, our house is in Bang Por Beach, near Maenam.

Look for properties in AirBnB or holidaylettings if you want a rental property. Thai Airways is very good. In Bangkok I like the markets, was mostly there on girls weekends so didn't do much cultural stuff, probably why I feel longer would give you the chance to do both.

We did something similar 2 years ago, our dc were 10 and 6 at the time. we had 3 nights in Bangkok at the Swissotel, nice quiet hotel great pool for kids clean nice restaurant, etc. Then flew with Bangkok airways via Koh Samui to Koh Tao and stayed in villa with a pool I found on tripadvisor. Returning to Bangkok for our flight home we travelled on the overnight sleeper train for one further night in Bangkok. We flew with Finnair from Manchester which was the shortest way of doing it and also the cheapest. Weather hot and humid as you expect with maybe 2 or 3 short showers the whole time we were there which was end of July, kids had a great time .

Op are you me???
Ive just booked a holiday with Trailfinders to koh samui and Bangkok.
we go next July with a 12 yr old and 16 yr old!!

we are doing koh samui first then on to Bangkok for 3 days. both places have separate rooms for the kids,
in Koh samui we are staying in Cheong Mon at The Tongsai Bay.we should have a 2 bed villa there, then in Bangkok we are staying by the river at the Sheraton royal orchid.
we are flying with Thai airways as they were cheaper than BA.

I am very excited.

By the way op, Myfriendscallmeo has an amazing villa in Bang por.
Might be worth asking her for the details.

Koh samui is beautiful but it's 16 years since I went. I remember doing a nice walk to see a waterfall. I also went on a boat trip to the marine national park. The boat went to an island we did a hike on the island which was good. Boat trip was a bit long and rough though.

Following with interest. Just wondered how pricey it is in Koh Sumui, particularly eating out and trips, vs the UK. I went years ago and found Asia very cheap, is that still the case?

Thanks everyone.

Ihatethecold, funnily enough I have been speaking with Trailfinders too . Can I ask why you are going to Koh Samui first and then to Bangkok? Do you know much about the area Cheong Mon? What excursions do you plan to do? Sorry for all the questions.

We are doing that way because the flights worked out better, No long waits.
We also thought we could flop on the beach jet lagged then really enjoy Bangkok at the end.
We choose Cheong Mon because of the beach really, Bophut looked nice but the sea apparently isn't clear and the sand a bit rough.
We will go to the marine reserve and probably hire a car to go to the waterfall.
When you book flights, if you go with Thai airways get them to put you on the Airbus plane. Its newer so has better facilities. movies

Sounds like a good plan ihatethecold. Just be aware that unless you go during rainy season, the waterfalls are more of a trickle, plus wear trainers as it's a walk on not very flat ground. Marine reserve is fabulous, could go every day. We have taken group and private boats. The group ones tend to stop at all the good snorkeling areas but can get busy, the private ones take you to uninhabited white sand islands and often you are the only people there. Depends on your budget too. There are 81 islands in the marine park, it's truly stunning, we have seen whales and turtles as well as thousands of reef fish. Make sure you get everyone fitted for masks and snorkels before you go!

Worth checking if Thai will be using their dreamliners for any of the routes by the time you fly, it has a lower cabin altitude, cleaner air, you feel much better and jet lag effects are reduced. I've flow it a couple of times on United over the past few months and was amazed at the difference on long haul.

Do we need to take our own snorkels and masks then?

I don't know but we have our own because we dive and snorkel a lot. It's wise to get a good fit (not all masks fit all face shapes) and to be honest, I wouldn't fancy renting a snorkel that had been used by a lot of people.... I do know that you can buy them from the shops along Bophut, where you can sign up for boat trips but I imagine they would be cheaper to buy before you go....

Thanks Oh.
If you go out to the islands to snorkel do you hire a private boat?
How would we know who is safe to go with.
I would much prefer a small group rather than a tour that's full of other boats.
We had this in Sardinia this summer and it was depressing to turn up to beautiful beaches to see lots of other tours that cause the sea bed to be ruined by motor boats.

We hired private boats (just the 4 of us) from the hotel we used to stay at when our villa was being built, that was amazing. Sometimes we would show up to a known snorkeling spot and it would be busy so we just keep going to the next one. Your resort should be able to recommend a charter company, or you can visit Bophut and have a chat with the various companies selling tours. We normally recommend Samui Boat Charter to our guests, they have a max of 14 on board at any time which is enough or you can private charter. They have been operating for a while and will pick you up from your resort but your hotel might have contacts and deals with charters too.

Just posting as I am considering a trip to Thaliand next year too. We were wondering whether to fit in a trip to chiang mai or Koh sak national park for the elephant. My girls (6 and 10) are desperate to see elephants and I wonderined whether we needed to go all the way to chiang mai?

My friends, do you have details of your villa

Ihate the cold - I have had a poor response from trailfinders, do you want giving me a rough estimate of what they charged you? No worries if you would rather not share.

no problem

We are going in the school holidays with 2 teens and 2 adults
we have a 2 bedroom cottage at the Tongsai bay then 3 nights with 2 rooms at the sheraton hotel on the river in bangkok.

We are flying with Thai airways.

the cost is 7K for 14 nights

all hotels include breakfast and all transfers plus late checkouts.

Very helpful thank you :)

TwoFalls, it was a long time since I was on Koh Samui but they did have elephants there then. You could go on a elephant ride/trek. I didn't do it and don't know how it compares to Chaing Mai at all.

Also twofalls the weather is different depending on where and when you go.

There are definitely elephants for trekking on Samui, although I would much rather see them in a rehabilitation sanctuary such as the one in Mae Taeng near Chiang Mai (there are other good ones in Lampang and another north of Bangkok) than working for tourists like they are in other parts of Thailand. Our villa is on Samui, at Bang Por Beach here. Message me if you have any questions at all.

Thanks everyone, agree about the elephants. My friends, your villa looks amazing, thank you for the details. We are in the process of choosing between Vietnam and Thailand. It's so hard!