Thailand with young kids? Or Costa Rica?

[RocketSurgery]

Looking to do our first ‘proper’ holiday since we’ve had kids. We’ve been long haul with them before but stuck to staying in one hotel for the whole week. Dc’s are 3 and 6 and I’d really like to take them somewhere jungly where they can see animals. We’ve previously stayed at Pacuare Lodge in Costa Rica which was amazing but you have to white water raft to get there so obviously no good with young kids.

Ideally we’d like to do a week-10 days travelling, exploring and staying in different places then and few days at the end at the beach. This is obviously a lot easier in a smaller country like Costa Rica but flights to Thailand are much more child friendly.

Has anyone done anything similar? Any recommendations? I’m open to travelling to other countries but these were the ones that we’ve visited before so know they’d be good with kids.

Hopeful bump. I’ve been looking at tours through Stubborn Mule travel if anyone has had any dealings with them? Or any recommendations of tour companies?

I've never been but my friend did this twice I think with her kids of similar ages and they loved it. I know they went to quieter areas, real family orientated and her kids still talk about it.

Sorry that was Thailand I was referring to.

That’s great cstaff, so glad to hear they loved it. The couple of people I’ve spoken to irl about it told me I was bonkers and to save it until they’re older. But I don’t know if we’d be able to afford it in a few years so want to make the most of it now.

Yeah I thought the same when she mentioned Thailand and the kids but I was thinking more about the 'adult' areas iykwim.

Yes we've done both twice with our kids. Thailand when they were aged 2-6 and Costa Rica they were about 6-10. PM me if you'd like any details on what we did. Broadly, I thought Costa Rica worked really well for our age children and older as they could really get stuck in with the jungle walking and activities (zip lining etc). You could also do a good holiday with younger children but we'd have been a bit more cautious in some of the places we went e.g. we really enjoyed going to Corcovado and I wouldn't have wanted to take a 3 year old.

Thailand we stayed in some wonderful places, mainly villas in smaller locations and that worked very well at those ages and there are lots of good options. It's also (depending where you go obviously!) more beachy and they loved that at that age. They both had their first snorkelling experience there too and it was a good place for that.

Both places we drove around with no problems and had a fantastic time.

So I would say that both are great but I liked it the way round we did it.

Been to Costa Rica but we just stayed in one place and did excursions. We went with TUI and stayed at RUI Guanacaste, that was surrounded by rainforest and had a beach. Lots of animals, quite a few nights a racoon family of 5 would come to steakhouse there, also saw coati, gecko and pelican there. 50 metres away are lots of monkeys. You can go horseriding on beach and take a tour with Gecko Tours to see sloths. We did 5 trips from there, kayaking is included. Its more of a teenage holiday than small child due to high ziplines etc but could still be good at that age. Food was excellent.

Oh god I hadn’t even thought about that with Thailand! I guess we’ll have to be slightly more aware of the places we go when we’re out and about. We managed not to see anything inappropriate when we had a couple of days in Bangkok. We spent some time in Koh Samui and there was a whole strip of bars with girls dancing on the tables that you could see from the street. Knowing my 3yo he’d probably climb up and try to join in 🤦‍♀️

Oh and we did it all ourselves but I did contact Stubborn Mule for a different trip and they put together a really fantastic looking itinerary and were very responsive and pleasant to deal with as well as being good about budget etc. In the end we didn't go as we couldn't get the timings to work for us (it was a bit last minute) but I was definitely impressed with them. I do think that Costa Rica and Thailand you could do yourself more cheaply but I enjoy that kind of thing!

Thanks Mia I think we’re probably going to decide on Thailand as there’s a lot of stuff that they either can’t do or only my 6 year old would be able to do in Costa Rica. Also flights, although longer, can be done overnight both ways which should hopefully make it a lot less stressful.

penguin that’s the same hotel Dh and I stayed in pre kids. It was such a lovely hotel that we barely left it when we were there. We had a few days in the south before we went there so it’s good to know there’s stuff to do in that part of the country too.

That’s reassuring. It’s so hard to judge what your operators are like just from their websites. Getting excited now!

I am sure that you know as you've been before but be a bit careful with when you go to Thailand and where. Many of the tourist spots are a bit of a washout in the summer. Now is perfect!

Sorry, I didn’t realise I hadn’t said in op - we were thinking two weeks in mid October. It would be 4 days off school for ds1 but I don’t think it matters too much at that age.

We stay at Bangtao Bay in Phuket with kids. Lovely beach, low key with a few lovely restaurants and bars, Very nice hotels with kids clubs etc

penguinandrabbit I'd love to hear more about your stay in CR. How far away were the trips you did? What sort of prices? Was it possible to hire a car and see some of the big CR draws like the cloud forest, volcano? What was the culture like? Was it all rich Americans? Do you have to tip the world amd his wife? I have some preconceptions it would be great to dispelled!

Hi Tehstan, I know you asked rabbit but as she is not checking I'll reply! We found it really, really easy to drive round CR and both times we went we did it as a 'road trip' with several places to stay. It's not that big a country but has a really diverse environment so it was easy to stay in, say, cloud forest, rain forest, dry coastal area etc all in one trip. We found that there it felt very much like an outpost of the USA in the tourist spots of some areas (the best known tourist areas) but this quickly diminished outside of those areas and it became much quieter. I guess most Americans have very short holidays so tend to go to particular locations near that are in a relatively short radius from the airport. We met lovely Americans all over the country and I don't mean to be rude about them in any way but having started in the quieter locations it was a bit of a shock to get to Manuel Antonio and essentially feel as if we were checking into an American resort with added sloths!

We have just got back from Thailand with older dds (13 and 9). I can recommend Elephant Hills in koh sak national park. You won't be able to stay in the lake camp as you have to be 8 but the rainforest camp is great. Contact them direct for advice.

It's 2.5 hours from Phuket airport and they pick you up. We did 3 days Bangkok, 3 days rainforest and 6 days beach. We went to koh lak because it's only 1.5 hours from elephant hills (and eldest daughter struggles with long bus journeys) but there are probably nicer areas to go if you don't mind a longer transfer. It was nice, just not as nice as other places! We stayed at the Sands which would be absolutely perfect for kids your age. Big kids pool and splashers, kids activities, kids menus. Loads of restaurants locally. We booked it all direct.

Mia if you have any recommendations on where to stay it would be great. I've read a few threads where people have gone with TUI but they all seem to be big resorts, whereas we're used to much smaller places. If you, or anyone else, have any suggestions it would be great.
PS sorry for hijacking the thread but hopefully some accommodation option might help others too!

Yes we are not big resort people and much preferred the smaller places esp those that put a big emphasis on conservation etc. Do you know roughly where you'd be interested in going/prices? We did a mix of places and very happy to recommend.

@Mia83 Sorry to jump on this. I’m looking at Thailand next Easter- dcs are 4,7,9. I’d love some recommendations for places to stay. Would like to be by a beach, with restaurants/market nearby but nothing too busy or stressful with the the dcs.

Hi

Here is a list of the resort's we stayed at when we went to CR
We stayed here a few years ago with our DS 7 & 11
www.blueriverresort.com/
Then here
www.hotelsamaracostarica.com/

Then we went south to Whale watch but a giant grasshopper landed on my head so we left and went back north ( I was pretty traumatized by it , it was the size of a small cat
And so we booked into this hotel which was lovely and not a big commercial chain
www.margaritavillebeachresortcostarica.com/
The south was incredibly humid , so the north always felt more comfortable. We loved it . One lasting memory among plenty was my boys riding horses through the jungle then swimming in a waterfall ...such amazing times .

Just so you know ...it was the size of a small cat and it attached it's self to my hair . My son was very brave to stand next to it

Tehstean Sorry only just seen your questions. Trips were Diamante next door so you walk there though is a shuttle bus but its 100 metres, Buena Vista, sloth trip and Blue River Trip were 2 hours away but magnificent scenery enroute. Arenal was further at 4 hours each way, again lovely scenery but long day. All of those were roughly £100 per person per trip but included a lot - Buena Vista, for example, was waterslide through jungle, then ziplining through jungle with monkeys and toucan close by, active volcano, lunch and drinks and cooking demo, horseriding and hot springs.

You could hire a car but in August some roads were flooded so like driving through small rivers, very few signposts, dirt track in places, herds of cows blocking in places so DH wouldn't and I don't drive. People do hire cars though. Cloudforest is 4 hours drive from there though its surrounded by rainforest already in hotel. Didn't notice much tipping or rich Americans. There were quite a few North Americans around resort but think rich ones must stay elsewhere. Didn't notice anyone who appeared especially rich. Culture wise you have to seek that out, default is adventure and wildlife activities with only culture being the meals. When we went on trip run by Costa Ricans Gecko Tours they told us a lot about their lives and culture and took us more off beaten track plus was just us on trip and two guides. Though I think the nature and wildlife is part of the culture there, they are very passionate about it. We went on one trip where just us and one US family and they commented how cute it was the school had school uniform and books, apparently their US school is all ipads etc. Looked just like a UK school. They also said their BIL had hired car and got stranded for hours.

The culture we came across was quite rural / farming like. Most people we met were either there for the rainforest /wildlife and / or adventure - very high ziplines, white water rafting, water sports etc.