2 weeks in Thailand with a 15 year old

[Subeccoo]

I've finally bitten the bullet and booked 17 nights in Thailand this year.
Me and ds 15 will be going in July once school has finished.
We will be staying 2 nights each end of the holiday in Bangkok with our friends but the rest of the time we will be travelling to different places.
We are going to krabi soon after arriving but after that no real plans.
I have a hankering to go to chiang mai on the overnight sleeper train. Has anyone done this? Seems a long way but it looks incredible, we could do it towards the end before returning to Bangkok.
Which other destinations do people recommend and if anyone's got tips for entertaining teens, that'd be helpful!!

Krabi is a great place to start as it has great connections to the islands. I would definitely recommend Koh Samui, some beautiful places to stay! Chang Mai is incredible, I travelled up on a sleeper bus - train sounds much more civilised! I'd definitely recommend doing a jungle trek when there, they usually include a night stay in the jungle. Once we stayed in a camp with beds and hammocks and the second time we stayed in a mountain village, where we were able to experience daily life of the hill tribe. It was fascinating! Lots of waterfalls to cool down in during the trek. I am not the fittest of people and it was very manageable.
I have been to Thailand 7 or 8 times, it is one of the friendliest and most beautiful countries I have ever visited! You will have a fantastic time!!

Halong Bay Cruise ship is amazing

Sorry just remembered that’s Vietnam!

Hi I think the national park Khao Sok looks fun. I’ve also been looking at the fancy travel companies itineraries to get a good idea of how to spend two weeks. I’ve found a really fun looking bike tour for the back streets of Bangkok and a Tuk Tuk tour in the North..
Haven’t done trains for years but also researching. Check out Explore/Stubborn Mule and google Thailand itineraries kids there are a few others that come up.

Thank you for the ideas and thoughts, I am screen shot ting everything and keeping so many notes from friends. I will start to build an itinerary in a few months, I'm so excited!!

Use river taxi's in Bangkok- avoid the terrible traffic on the roads

You might want a bit more time in Bangkok - it's an amazing city with tons of stuff to do for teens. Don't forget the first day or two are hard because of the jet lag so you probably won't do too much.

Also, just be aware that July is wet season in Krabi. I'm not sure how much of an issue that is for you but maybe consider gulf of Thailand islands instead as it'll be dry for them.

Yes do the sleeper train !! Great fun . We came back to Bangkok from Koh Tao ( Chomphon ) a few years back . Completely recommend.

Also have done Elephant Hills for 2 nights in the jungle camp - can be booked direct or with tour operator, but places get filled fast .

We went to Thailand for our honeymoon, having booked the whole thing the day before we got married and flying to Bangkok the day after! Because we had very few options at that point, we booked a "Temple Tour" of the country north of Bangkok by minibus, after having spent some days in Bangkok where my best memories are of taking the flying boat along the klongs and visiting the Royal Boatyard full of Dragon Boats. Also, lots of temples there, unsurprisingly! For us, the outstanding parts of the "Temple Tour" were our visits to what are now UNESCO World Heritage sites at Ayutthaya and Sukhothai. I think I may be confused but I don't remember anything special about Chiang Mai except possibly the rather awful live animal market we were taken to one morning, where I presume what was for sale was similar to the Chinese market currently in the news for viral reasons.
From Chiang Mai, we visited the Karen Hill Tribe which was very uncomfortable, not to mention unpleasant, we thought at the time, because we the hugely wealthy (comparatively) tourists were just looking at these people as if they were in a zoo. Somewhere along the way, we visited an orchid and butterfly farm, which was lovely.
Your teen might be interested in seeing "The Bridge over the River Kwai" - my husband was impressed, anyway!
We also went to Koh Samui, but even then, nearly 30 years ago, it was oddly "touristy" in parts, beautiful though the island is.
Have a wonderful time, enjoy!

Yes - it is rainy season so you will need to check that areas are open. For example some of the islands round Krabi close to tourists. Ko samui and the other islands close will have better weather, but are not as beautiful as Krabi (imo).

Walking with rescue elephants in Chiang Mai through the Elephant Nature Park is amazing. They have day trips with camps who now let their elephants walk and bathe freely. I just did Elephant Heaven or visit their centre.

Grasshopper biketours in Bangkok and Chiang Mai have some well planned trips.

Not sure how your plans stand now OP, but if you do manage to get there at some point, definitely recommend the overnight sleeper train from Bangkok to C Mai.

2nd class aircon is actually better than 1st class. Individual bunks which they come & make up for you. Go for the lower level bunks as they have a window. Take your own food and drink. It's about 18 hours. At times you could walk faster 😂

Fabulous experience and the views on waking the next morning on your way up to C Mai are great. C Mai itself is a laid back friendly small town vibe, & a welcome relief from Bangkok madness.

It's hard to book, though - no online booking directly. From the UK, we used a travel agency whose offices are across the road from Bangkok station. You book with them, they nip over and buy your tickets, come back & confirm them to you! You pick the tickets up on the day.

I took my son when he left school last year to thailand & Japan with a night stop in KL , i wrote a review of the train journey here eatsleepshoottravelblog.com/2019/08/04/bangkok-to-chiang-mai-sleeper-train-review/

We only done one way from bkk up to chaing mai but it was great in 2nd class a proper adventure any questions just ask

I hope you get to go on your trip, if not July then some time in the near(ish) future.

Krabi is one of my favourite places. Ao Nang is a nice town near Krabi which is where I stayed. It's got a great vibe about it and (I think) it is less busy and a bit smaller than Krabi itself, some great little shops and restaurants, delicious food, we did a hike up to a viewpoint (can't remember the name, sorry) but it was brilliant.

Definitely worth looking into Ao Nang as it's also a short long tail boat ride away from Railay Beach, just Google some pics of it and you'll want to visit :-).

I've also done the sleeper train from Bankgok to Chumphon to then travel to Koh Tao and the islands on that side of Thailand. Koh Samui is great and lots to do with your 15 year old too. The train wasn't bad, I didn't love it but it was an experience and we look back on it and laugh. Koh Tao is beautiful.

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We went to Thailand in February this year. Was considering Chiang Mai for the middle part of the trip after Bangkok and before Phuket and islands but in the end we flew out to Siem Reap in Cambodia - absolutely loved Cambodia and Angkor Wat was incredible. Flights were £30 each out of Bangkok and we found a great cheap hotel.

I can recommend Ao Nang as well. Railay Beach was lovely. Check how rainy it will be as someone else said. I LOVE Thailand and am insanely jealous about your trip, Also check out a night market. I believe they happen all over Thailand. ENJOY!!

We visited Thailand in July 2018 with two primary school aged children, and had an amazing time. We did 2 nights in Bangkok at both the beginning and end of the trip, took a sleeper bus (couldn’t get dates we needed for the train) to Chiang Mai where we spent 4 nights (and visited a fantastic elephant sanctuary) and then 8 nights in Koh Samui, around the village of Lamai, (which was quieter than the hustle and bustle of Chaweng Beach and Bo Put, though we were able to get taxi to them when we wanted).

Weather wise it was almost perfect. Bangkok was 30 degrees and cloudy, with sun breaking through on occasions. Rained one day of the four. Chiang Mai was predictably rainy in the evening, but we bought ponchos there to keep us dry. And Samui was high 20s and sunny, perfect pool and beach weather without being too hot. It rained during the day on one of the days, it was torrential but passed within a few hours and then the sun came out again.
I’d love to go back and stay in Bangkok again (we liked it much more than we expected, assumed it would be quite seedy and while I’m sure it is in parts, we would have had to go looking for it). Kids loved taking tuk-tuks and river taxis, lizard spotting in Lumpini park, and visiting Asiatique, a big open air market on the river.

If you do inckude Chiang Mai you will need Malaria medication and may be too late to start this effectively

@SeasonFinale, is this recent advice? When we went, our travel clinic advised that anti-malarials were not required for Chiang Mai, provided that we were staying in the city, and not travelling to stay in the rural villages around the border.
However this was in 2018 so I appreciate advice may have changed based on localised outbreaks.

I didn't take anti malarial I'm Chang mai but a few years ago now.

If you go to samui I love the Sala chaweng beach.

Not to put a dampener on your trip but will Thailand be open for visitors by then?

We were there in March and had to contend with return flights being cancelled on us 3 times and only made it back to the uk by throwing copious amounts of money at various airlines until we found a direct flight home.

There lockdown ment that there cases of Covid were very low.
I’ve got a strange feeling that when they do open again they will enforce a quarantine period on travellers from other countries to keep it out of the country.

I hope I’m wrong as I love this place and really want to go back and finish this year’s holiday.

fuzzyduck..

Given the current restrictions for entry into Thailand I did a double take as well..then realised the OP's original post was made in Feb.......I wonder what happened?