Which Thai Island?

[tigermeow]

We are planning a trip to Thailand this summer. We plan to spend some time in Bangkok, then venture up north for a bit. Our plan then is to head south and relax for a while on an island.

DD will be nearly 3.5yrs when we go so we need some activities for her. She loves the sound of elephant riding. She is also a huge animal fan, loves wildlife and fish. She is currently obsessed with all tropical fish so somewhere with good snorkelling/glass bottomed boats would be ideal. We'd like a bit of beach time too, great food and some culture. We are not the clubbing, touristy, shopping types so a quieter island would be fine.

Any ideas please! Many thanks.

We went to Koh Samui after Bangkok on our honeymoon, there were a few families at our resort, although I can't say from memory it's somewhere I would rush back to with a child. In the brochures there were another couple of islands which looked quieter, Trang and Krabi, which we'd go for next time. Plenty of culture in Bangkok, so depending on how long you're planning there, you'll probably get your fill, lovely trips round the temples, buddha trails, markets etc. plus we managed a trip on the river kwai, where we saw some elephants, and I think some of the beach resorts had elephants that would walk along at certain times of the day.

Sorry I can't really answer your post properly, but hopefully bumping for somebody else!

Thanks Sparkly. Krabi was on my list as was Koh Samui...will swap Koh Samui for Trang!

The hotels around the Laguna reaort in Phuket have elephants. I think kids can feed and ride on them.

I am going to Krabi tomorrow so will let yu know how family-friendly it is. Krabi is on the mainland but loads of islands off it.

Ooo, lucky you! Have a great time!

what is the weather like in may...phuket mainly? I must have asked this questions on all of the threads!

We are going to singapore in may and plana trip to phuket for four days late may....not sure if phuket (bang tao) is the right decision because of the monsoon starting?

we have been to Koh Samui a few times will find a link to a very child friendly hotel there but can't say we have done elephant riding..

Here's my Krabi report. We stayed at Railey (Railei?) beach. It's a quiet stretch of beach with only a handful of restaurants and hotels, perhaps one bar on the beach.

Most people don't stay there we notice, a lot come over on the long tail boats as day trippers.

The scenery is lovely as you've got beach which is surrounded by these limestone cliffs (think of the film The Beach, which I think is filmed on a neighbouring island).

The other islands off Krabi that seem to be popular are Phi-Phi and Koh Lanta (slightly longer boat ride times from Ao Nang - which is the point where boats take off from on the mainland).

Only thing is these islands are quiet and there isn't much for kids to do except to play on the beach. My kids thought it was great as we travelled with another family so they weren't short of company.

There are times of the year which are better for certain islands if I remember, depending on where they are the rainy periods are different. We went to Koh Samui in March and April and the weather was good but some other parts would be wet, and I think Koh Samui would have been rainy in August. I may have that the wrong way round but would be worth checking.

hi tiger, we took dd at xmas to krabi. there was a sheraton further down from our hotel which had lots of things for children to do. they also had an elephant you could feed and bathe. it was predominantly German though.
carefully check the weather as each side, Andaman sea and gulf of Thailand are very different. lots of Thais go on holiday in august so you would have to book early.
koh samui is like the thai Blackpool.
be careful in the sea as dd and i were covered in tiny leeches, she also had her legs very strongly sucked by the fish.
we hired a speedboat for the day and did all the islands around krabi, beautiful.
the thai people are lovely with kids, the staff at our hotel took her to feed the fish while we finished breakfast, the pool boys also entertained her, she was 3.6 at xmas and had had it by 3pm because of the heat.

i've been to railay rojak, but i actually stayed on tonsai beach, where all the rock climbers and back packers stay

i've also been to koh lanta, it is a big island so lots of beaches, varying in popularity

april -october is monsoon season on the west coast, for places like phuket

just want to add to what Hifi said about blackpool and Koh samui.
If you don't like the sound of it but do still want to go to KohSamui, avoid Chaweng, there are still lots of quieter more hippy style beaches. on the opposite side of the island.

We went to Koh Tao last June on our way to Oz. Kids were then 13, 8 and 4. It's not the easiest place to get to, but it's probably the least developed in that area. We ended up getting a taxi from Bangkok to the port where you get the boat over, then got the same taxi driver to pick us up again and take us back to Bangkok (9 hour car journey) but we didn't fancy taking the kids on a bus geared up to backpackers. We stayed at a villa I found online.

The people on the island were fantastic, there were a few other families there and the Thais definitely preferred us and our kids to the 20somethings who often behaved like big, rude kids There is nothing in the way of organised activities for kids, but if yours are happy to chill out, play on the beach, go snorkelling etc. it's a fantastic place for them. Because it wsn't very busy when we went we managed to get a guy with a yacht to take just us out sailing a couple of days at a good rate which was a real highlight. My kids keep asking when we're going back.

Sorry, just re-read the OP and saw the age of your child. With just one that age you would be able to rent one of the lovely huts right on the beach - avoid the South end though because that's prime backpacker territory. We'd have loved to do that but none were big enough for 5 and obviously there was no way we could have the kids in a hut by themselves.