Thailand for Christmas with kids

[Sockmate123]

Ages 10 & 13. Where would you recommend? Want to avoid 'seedy' places...looking for peaceful beautiful beaches...

We travelled for a bit on our way to Aus when we emigrated, kids were 4, 9 and 13. Their favourite place (and ours) was Koh Tao. DH and I had been there years previously. We rented a villa with its own little pool which was nice when we were beached out, did a couple of boat trips where DH and the older two went snorkelling and ate yummy Thai food at beachside restaurants. Thais love kids, we were much more popular than the backpackers to the extent that in restaurants we would regularly be sought out and seated first, it was quite magical although the journey from Bangkok was long. I would probably to fly to Koh Samui and get the ferry from there if I went again. Kho Phangan is also lovely so you could island hop.

Thank you very much for that. Its very helpful

Seedy places to avoid - Phuket, Patong, Pattaya, parts of Bangkok.

The islands are lovely, Li pe, Lanta are very chilled with amazing beaches and food and you can do all the trips from that area. We took our kids at Christmas a few years and the thing they always talk about the most was Chaing Mai! The culture there is amazing and it was so cheap! You could do a multi stop.

I didn’t like parts of Koh Samui - Bo Phut was pretty grim I thought, but further south was beautiful.

I believe that Koh Samui/Koh Tao will be in rainy season (we're going at the same time).

The islands on the West side experience the good weather at tis time of year - haven't been to Phuket in a long time, but Kata/Karon beaches are the more laidback, however we are planning to go to Kao Lak, which is an hour or so north of Phuket and supposed to be more family friendly, beautiful beaches, etc.

We have also been looking at Chiang Mai, as the comment above suggests, and it looks beautiful - accommodation really reasonable and something different to just beaches, like markets and temples. Take a look at rebeccaloves__ instagram, she has just been there with younger children and shared some lovely activities they did.