Thailand advice - sorry for long list of questions!

[scattygirl]

We're going to Thailand in Oct with our DS who will be 20 mths by then. Our plan is to spend a few days in Bangkok before flying to Koh Samui for a wedding then maybe another resort before heading home. Any help on the following would be really appreciated (sorry, it goes on!)

What airline do you recommend? I understand BA provides a car seat if you're lucky to get a bulkhead seat but I am contemplating paying for a child fare as it's such a long flight, or do we chance it and hope the flight isn't full and DS can sit in a spare seat? Thai Air have a good deal at the mo but not sure if they supply car seats. Any ideas?

Can you recommend a decent child-friendly hotel for us in Bangkok? Should we stay in a 1-bed suite which will be handy after DS goes to bed? (hotel in KS is sorted)

What should I do about travelling in taxis without a car seat? Surely people don't lug one around with them? Are taxis generally safe, and have you just sat yours on your laps?

How about a buggy, is it practical to push one around Bangkok or is a sling better (although more sweaty I'm sure!)? I'm thinking it will be handy for airports and the odd night out so DS can sleep in it.

If we are lucky enough to fit in one more resort which one would you recommend (and hotel). Thanks for any help.

Hi

Went to Bangkok when my dd were 3 and 9, travelled on my own with them and decided to just bight the bullet and fly BA, it was worth it in my opinion as they really did look after me.

They told me to check in at first class and got me on the plane first etc.

I stayed in the Riverside Marriot, which was a lovely hotel. I had room only and as I worked for Marriot back then got a v good deal £30 per night. When I arrived they did deals so for $25 US per night breakfast was included as well as free drinks at the bar between 6-8 and buffet.

There was also a free creche, I used this to go swimming in the hotle pool - so not far away. The staff in the hotel were all lovely with my children and knew their names etc.

The bell boys got me a taxi to go to the palace and the taxi driver stayed with me for 3 hours - £15 for the trip, but much easier than an organised trip when you have a three year old.

No seat belts in cars, taxis, buses. I went to a desk at the airport and arranged a taxi, it was fine.

Don'y bother with a toot toot they are like white knuckle rides for real.

Didn't have a buggy as dd was three and to much hassle.

There are the river boats and mono rail to get into the city centre.

I love the people (I had spent 3 months in Thailand previously) and they are wonderful with children.

I would go back to Kanchanaburi, the bridge over the river kwai, but don't know if it has changed in the last 20 years or so! At that time it wasn't touristy and more natural thailand. As for resorts sorry don't know.

Have a fantastic trip

Thanks for this! The hotel you stayed in sounds great, I will check it out.
It sounds like you had a good experience with BA too, I guess they are very hit or miss.
With DS being only 20 mths when we go I think ~I will chance it with a buggy, otherwise I'll need to start building up my arm muscles now!
I'm really looking forward to it, I hear so much how the Thai people love kids so I'm sure DS will be spoilt rotten

Just to say, we're also flying ba (with dd 2.5 next jan), mainly because were given airmiles, but I also feel I can rely on them to look after us! We've flown thai air internally and they were fine.
If you are thinking of a bassinet, not sure but i think 20 month too old. If you can afford it, i'd get him a seat. Long time to have him on your lap if there are no spares.

Also a buggy good idea. Paths in bangkok/samui mostly ok and for naps etc a lifesaver.

We're also staying at the marriott riverside for a few nights and it looks stunning. We've got a suite - hey it is our honeymoon! - which is about 120 a night.

Have a great time.

Hi Scattygirl - we flew BA to Bangkok last year and used a local airline (air Thailand?) for local flights. All were fine. We stayed at the Pennisula - we were on honeymoon

We are flying to the BVI in April and our Bean will (all going well) be 3 months then. We are planning to buy a travel system which includes a car seat so we can take it with us, with the frame - thought as the baby will be so young that this was a good plan, not sure taking a seat would be practical for a child your DS's age though

Have fun!

i've flown with a few diff airlines to bangkok, they are all pretty much the same really, i would get a seat for your ds, as its a long way to have to share a seat

i managed to push ds2 in a wheelchair about bangkok and smaller less tarmaced islands, so a buggy should be ok

we didnt have car seats so yes we did travel about with them just strapped in

am v jealous, i was 2 islands along from koh samui in april (in koh tao)

ks airport is lovely btw, bkk is HUGE but now it has been revamped easy to find your transfer

bangkok air is hte best internal airline to go with imo, they have a lounge with free internet, food and drinks at all the places they fly from, which you can use if you flash your boarding pass at them, and it has air con

Would definitely fly BA if you can, have flown both BA and Thai Air to Bangkok and BA is far, far superior - better service, more comfortable planes (newer) and better food & entertainment on board

Best hotel in Bangkok I think is the Peninsula, it has a lovely pool as well. Definitely would ask about a suite but I imagine it would be very expensive

Re another resort I would head south to Krabi (the Rayavadee is amazing) and/or Koh Lanta (can recommend the Pimalai). These are all top end hotels, don't know what your budget is? Actually thinking about it your dates may mean this part of Thailand is coming to the end of the rainy season there, is that an issue?

Good luck!

krabi and koh lanta are v nice too

I'd reccomend Emirates who fly to Bangkok via Dubai. Have used them several times and far and away best I've used. You don't have to worry about BA strikes, etc.

Have never spent a lot of time in Bangkok but have a lot in Koh Samui. The roads on Samui are a little bit fraught and that was a few years ago. I've heard its got worse as the numbers of tourists have increased. Not sure what I'd say about car seat in taxis. In Samui all the taxis were pickup trucks with bench seats in the back and no seatbelts. I'm guessing now there are hotels on the island though there must be proper taxis.....

Try the thorntree part of the lonelyplanet website - they have a special "travelling with kids" section where you could ask.

I would recommend finding a smaller, nicer island than Samui if you have time on your hands. Samui is rapidly turning into Benidorm. Koh Tao is lovely and just a couple of islands up from Samui. Avoid Koh Phangan if there is a full moon. They hold infamous full moon parties there and there is always trouble and a lot of drugs.

yeh koh phagnan is not family place during the parties

the pick ups are generally the taxis for the islands, on somewhere like phuket you can get car taxis, but if you are somewhere fairly small then its all in the back!

i went with emirates last time, they were pretty good

Sweetaddict - they turn the beds down and lay out the gowns, flowers on your pillow and they used to put tuck my dd's teddy in the bed! so sweet. Have a great honeymoon

been to thailand loads, good hotel for kids in bangkok is shangrila, fab pool and close to amenities, hotel can arrange for nurse from a bangkok hospital to help you with children for about 10 dollars an hour. ks a bit seedy in the main strip, we stayed at tongsai bay which was lovely. 2 hours drive from bk is hua hin, good hotels ,we stayed at anantara, good night market and fab food.
definately book a seat for child. taxis are safe to a degree, some take you the long way around to places and it might cost you an extra 30p so watch out!have tescos in bk.and boots so buy all your supplies there.in most hotels you can upgrade when you check in for about 25 dollars a day and have 24 hour access to a floor where ou get food and drink all day, well worth it.

there is a boots in koh samui now, and a mcdonalds

Taxis don't have seatbelts, but hotel cars generally do. It's not that much more expensive to book a car pickup than take a taxi, and you know you're not going to get a mad driver who has placed his faith in the Buddha and not in, oh, I don't know, driving lessons.

I don't even know if there is one on Samui, but Le Meridien in Khao Lak is divided into two wings - one for families, one for couples. Each has its own pool, so you won't get honeymooners and gay couples looking daggers at you if your child starts to squeal.

If you do want to fly around, Bangkok Airways serves the touristy destinations (Siem Reap in Cambodia, Phuket etc) and is excellent. Nok Air is also good.

Thanks for all the useful advice, I will now have to try and talk DH into the benfits of forking out for a child seat (will just have to threaten him with having DS squirming on his lap for 11 hours)

Nine dragons I will check out Le Meridien in Khao Lak - also Krabi, Koh Lanta and Koh Tao.....so many choices and they all sound lovely. Lou33/SKSS where did you stay in Koh Tao? My main concern is somewhere suitable for DS ie a good pool or beach he can splash around in.
Joligirl, we will chance the rainy season, anythings better than weather here

Peninsula in Bangkok looks lovely but apparently you can't walk through the lobby in shorts/vest so probably a bit 'posh' for us, my sis found a bargain 5 star hotel for 60 pound a night called siam@siam which looks lovely but not sure if it's child-friendly, we don't want to annoy the trendy crowd with DS running around casuing havoc!

If we wanted to go somewhere close to Bangkok without having to fly do you recommend chiang mai or hua hin?

scatty, i stayed with my then bf, he lives there

beach wise , i recommend going to sairee and finding somewhere there tho, the beach is long and nice

We've been to Bangkok a couple of times with our young children - the first time the twins were 6 months and the next time they were 3 and the youngest was 6 mths.

Both times we stayed in serviced apartments which are fantastic with small children. Plenty of space for the children to run around, kitchen facilities and washing machine, room service for evening meals and all the facilities of a hotel including daily maid service. Most even include breakfast in the room rate.
Previously (as a couple) we'd stayed in hotels including the Shangri-La (which is fantastic and has excellent restaurants) but the serviced apartments are definitely of good hotel quality.
The best serviced apartment we stayed in was the Suan Plu but there are loads of others which also look good. Prices tend to be cheaper or on par with hotels.

We've flown Eva Air the last couple of times we've been to Bangkok. They have direct flights from London and you can upgrade to premium economy for not much more than BA or Thai Air economy fare.

We coped with a twin buggy (on trip 1) and a single buggy (trip 2) in Bangkok. The pavements are awful so a 3-wheeler with large wheels is best. The only problem is that there aren't many lifts to get to the sky train stations so you need to be prepared to carry the buggy up and down long flights of steps.

We took car seats with us on the last trip but only used them for the transfers. Most taxis don't have seat belts.

i just remembered the name of the hotel we stayed in in bangkok, it was the century park hotel

lovely rooms, plush looking hotel, think it was about 50 quid a night

after that we spent less, tbh i wouldnt book all your accommodation in advance, but just do the first few days, as when you get to thailand you will be able to find rooms cheaper

and october will not be too busy as it is the end of monsoon, beginning of the good weather, most start arriving in november/december

Went to Chiang Mai and thought it was super cool.
A lot more traditional than Bangkok and we stayed in a luch hotel called the Chiang Mai plaza (surprise!)
went elephant trekking and did a fantastic thai cooking school there.

Both great. Highly recommend this part of Thailand was great. I think it was only a shortish flight from Bangkok.

Scatty, I stayed in a wooden shack on the beach in Koh Tao that was infested with ants and a lizard and a big cockroach that woke me up one night by crawling across my back. Fab place but wouldn't recommend it when you have kids!

lol, there are nice places in koh tao as well tho!

You should be able to get a very good deal if you go to Khao Lak - from memory we paid about US$100 a night for Le Meridien about 18 months ago. It's a top-drawer five-star hotel, so this was a bargain.

Khao Lak suffered very badly in the tsunami, and most of its business before then came from people from Hong Kong and Singapore. Asian cultures in general are a lot more concerned about ghosts, so those customers have stopped coming and you will get a fantastically warm reception from every shopkeeper/restauranteur/taxi driver in town for coming back and supporting their economy.

It's about 45 minutes to an hour in a car from Phuket airport, but a very pleasant drive, especially in a hotel car with a uniformed driver and iced towels and water waiting for you.

Scattygirl, if you're looking for a beachresort and don't want to fly from bangkok, you could look into Koh Chang. You get a ferry across from Trat which is driveable, tho with toddler, not sure... I always though koh chang very touristy but a friend went there recently and said there were some nice beaches. Might be worth considering anyway.

Sorry just remembered you're going to samui anyway. Then visit koh phangan! - only a ferry trip away and it's stunning. Full moon only really affects Haad Rin area.

Our flights are booked (Thai air, NO child seat for ds, hubby has been warned) and I'm so excited as we have decided to bite the bullet and go for about 3 weeks!!!

I have been tasked with where we are going and for how long and so far I have come up with the following very rough plan......
Bangkok - 3 nights
Koh Samui (wedding) - 6 nights
Koh Phangan - 2 nights (coincides with full moon apparently!)
Krabi/Khao Lak area - 4 nights
Chiang Mai area - 4 nights
then back to Bangkok for flight home

Do you think this is too ambitious with ds in tow? that's about 5 different places with 3-4 internal flights (plus the 2 international flights). I really wsnted to see as much of Thailand as I could as I don't know if we will get this opportunity again....carbon footprint and everything we will travel by train where possible as it may even be better for ds anyway.