Where should we go for a beach holiday in Thailand?

[julietbat]

We're thinking of taking the DCs (10 and 8) to Thailand next July/Aug for a couple of weeks travelling around (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, etc) and then ending with a week in a lovely hotel on a beach.

Because of the timing of the trip I'm assuming Krabi/Phuket are out and we'd be better off sticking to somewhere like Koh Samui or Phanang?

Does anyone have any recommendations for area to look at or specific hotels? We want somewhere 4* ish, good pool, safe beach for the kids and ideally close to local street food/restaurants so we don't have to eat in the hotel all the time.

Any help would be much appreciated - my brain is about to explode with the overload of information after a brief google search!

Shamelessly placemarking as I'm currently researching twin centre Thailand holidays for 2018 so interested to see what comments are made.

If you go to Koh Samui there are quite a few hotels in Bophut/Fisherman's village. Lots of bars and restaurants in the Fisherman's village, very family friendly and not a crazy party area.

I have stayed at the Hansar hotel there which was good, not super high end but still nice and located next to the Fishermans village, which also had a weekly market.

Beach is nice and safe and there are lots of water sports and boat trips available. Really nice and cheap Thai massages on the beach as well.

Not sure what the weather is like in July/August as I went in April.

I really enjoyed it there and would go again.

Thanks, ruler. I'll have a look at that area. DW and I travelled around Thailand about 13 years ago but we didn't end up going to Koh Samui (we stayed on Koh Tao instead) so really don't have any frame of reference.

Placemark away, girl! Hope you get some useful advice.

Samui is dry in July, it's hot though! Bophut is good, also Maenam. I don't know about hotels because I have a house on Samui but if you have questions, feel free to ask.

Did that trip with bo phut earlier this year and would highly recommend. Has everything you need without being too busy.
Have had koh Samui weather on my weather app ever since and noticed how dry it's been in July and Aug so would definitely consider it for school hols.

also placemarking! why are Krabi/Phuket out in July - rain?

would really like to hear more about Bophut too as I'm looking for a beach holiday inthailand for October half term, 3 kids 7-13. Do people fly straight there or have a couple of nights in Bangkok first? Is Bangkok on with the kids, can you avoid the seedy areas?

Thanks, Bradley I'll be in touch if I have specific questions - lucky you having a house there!

Thanks whirly - does the area have a good range of restaurants / street food? We really don't like being stuck eating in hotels, not with the sort of food on offer in Thailand!

Gavel - it's the rainy season in July/Aug but Koh Samui side seems to have a later rainy season (more end Sept/Oct).
I haven't been to Thailand since having kids but I don't remember it being hard to avoid the seedy stuff if you know where to go / not go. We're definitely going to spend a few nights in Bangkok because we want the kids to experience something culturally very different. But we'll be in Thailand for over 3 weeks so it's more about whether you'll have time to do both.

Juliet yes - fab combination of upmarket beachfront restaurants in the pretty old village, street food at the night markets and we loved the unpretentious authentic Thai restaurants along the main road where they would cook us anything we liked and we rarely spent over £10 for dinner. We were there 10 nights and didn't try all the places we wanted to.
Lots of nice coffee shops and bars too - enough to create a lovely buzz but not the tacky feel you get in some places. We chose it by accident but would absolutely go back - we've travelled a lot in Thailand and I loved koh Samui.

We stayed at the bandara by the way. Loved the location- 5 mins walk from the centre

Brilliant! Thanks, whirly, sounds like exactly what we're looking for. I'll check out the Bandara too.

We stayed at Anantara Bophut Hotel on Koh Samui July 2015 with 3 teenagers....great hotel, fabulous pool, within minutes walking distance to Fishermans village with great restaurants/beach and a street food market
( there's a 40% sale on rooms I think at the moment!)...would highly recommend

We went last July/Aug and stayed in the family cottage at Tongsai bay about 6 miles south of the fishermans village ( which is fab btw)
We had a beautiful villa overlooking the sea that had 2 bedrooms and bathrooms.
It was like paradise.
We kayaked to a beach at cheong mon and got massages for £7.
Beach wasn't so good (shingle) at the resort but its private and no hawkers.

Best beach we went to was called the Silver beach, south of Chawang.

We really disliked Bangkok. Way too hot and shopping was so expensive. The Saturday market ( chatachat) was fab but stifling with heat.
Taxis are very cheap in Bangkok but more expensive in Koh Samui.

The golden temple in Bangkok was so hot that my bra dye melted !!

Bangkok see palace, China town, chatatuk market, other temples, can do half day trip to village with floating market. Krabi has beaches, markets, day trips on land and water. You can get ferry to other islands from Krabi that are less busy. You can eat out cheaply, the further away from tourist area, the cheaper. I would suggest some island hopping, stay in a few different places

Haad Yao beach on northern side of phangan is beautiful, family friendly & cheap. www.haadyao.info

We stayed in well equipped beach front villas & every day was perfect 🐠☀️🏖

Ps most accommodations will drive to the port to collect you when you arrive

We loved the Buri Rasa Koh Phangan. Lovely Hotel on the beach, good selection of restaurants outside. Just very very chill.

Another vote for Bophut and Fisherman's Village. We stayed at Peace Resort (for a wedding) which was lovely and about 5 mins walk from Fisherman's Village.

I also love Koh Phangan although only ever stayed in £5 a night beach huts there (both trips were a long time ago). We stayed at Thong Nai Pan beach, which was stunning.

Just found this thread and wondered how you got on with research op @juliebat as I have kids the same age and was also pondering Thailand (actually DH was - it hadn't even occurred to me although I'm the half -Thai one in the family)

I'm following with interest too. We are hoping to go in July/Aug and had read some disheartening things about Koh Samui, so this thread has been helpful in giving another perspective.

We went to Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Koh samui late August this year with 14 yo DD. We’d been before but it was dd’s first visit. We loved it. Bangkok was ok, we could probably have done with a better location for our hotel, as the traffic was unreal, and getting about took ages. In retrospect I’d have stayed on the river instead of sukhumvit. Chiang Mai was lovely. In koh samui we stayed on Chaweng beach in the Centara grand and it was lovely and relaxing. I’d not been to samui for about 20 years and was worried about how different it would be, and the Main Street behind the hotels was much busier, but the beach was still lovely, and pretty quiet down at our end. And even the strip, although busy, still had that grubby slightly ramshackle Thai charm that I had been afraid would have gone. The weather was good too, we had one overcast day when we arrived then a week of perfect weather, no sign of the wet season other than the hotel getting quiet as the week passed.

We are not long back from 3 weeks in Thailand. We spent 4 days in Bangkok, we stayed on the river and it was a great base. The rest of our time was spent in a quiet area of Krabi, it was fantastic, scenery was stunning. However it’s not the place to visit in July/August it’s monsoon season, but I’d highly recommend it to anyone thinking about going in dry season (Nov to April).

OP, TripAdvisor is a goldmine of information, well worth reading up on Thailand there. A lot of great tips for every area of Thailand.

We enjoyed staying at centara in hui hin. Easy to get to from Bangkok.

Place marking

We were in Krabi at the end of July/beginning of August. It did rain but not all day every day. There were some heavy rains but not every day and usually only for an hour or two. There are some great deals at the time of year because of the rain.