Thailand with children: 12 days that work for everyone
Thailand is one of the easiest countries in Asia to travel with children. Thai people are genuinely warm towards them, the food is mild unless you ask for heat, the hotels understand families and the sea is 84°F (29°C).
- Duration
- 12 days
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Hotel changes
- 3
- Best months
- Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar
- From
- $2,040 per person
It is also easy to get wrong, and the way people get it wrong is always the same: too many places. Three flights, six hotels and a different beach every second night turns a good trip into a fortnight of packing. This route has three hotel changes in twelve days and five nights in the last one.
Who it suits: families with children roughly 3 to 16. We adjust the walking, the guiding and the food for younger, and we will tell you honestly if your dates or your children’s ages point to a different route.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive in Bangkok. Private transfer, a hotel by the river with a pool and either a family room or two connecting rooms. Nothing scheduled. Everyone will be awake at four in the morning and that is fine.
Day 2: Bangkok by boat. Out early, before the heat. The public river boats as transport, which children like far more than a car, then Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha, which is 150 feet (46 m) long and reliably impressive at any age. Back to the hotel by noon to swim. Late afternoon at a night market, eating in small portions from several stalls.
Day 3: Bangkok, the canals. A longtail boat through the Thonburi canals, where the engine is loud, the boat is fast and there are monitor lizards in the water. Afternoon free. If you have teenagers, the Museum of Siam is much better than its name; if you have small children, the hotel pool is better than the museum.
Day 4: Bangkok to Chiang Mai. A morning flight, an hour and fifteen minutes, and then a hotel with a garden and a pool rather than a boutique room in the old city. Afternoon free to swim and recover. Evening walk to the night bazaar if anyone still has energy.
Day 5: The elephant day. A full day at an observation-led project outside Chiang Mai. Your children walk with a herd at a distance, carry their food, learn what an elephant actually does all day and do not ride, wash or perform with them. We explain the reasoning to children directly, and in our experience they take it better than adults do. We name the project in your proposal.
Day 6: Chiang Mai, hands on. A family cooking session that begins in the market, where each child cooks their own pad thai and mango sticky rice, then an afternoon at a craft workshop in San Kamphaeng making paper umbrellas or throwing pots. Both are messy, both produce something to take home.
Day 7: Chiang Mai, the mountain. Doi Inthanon national park: a short forest walk on a boardwalk that suits small legs, two waterfalls you can stand under, and a picnic. Back mid-afternoon. Alternatively a half day at the zipline courses in the hills above the city for children over about eight, which we will book and which is properly run.
Day 8: Chiang Mai to Koh Lanta. The long day, and the only one. A morning flight to Krabi, then about two hours by road and ferry to Koh Lanta. We put snacks in the car, we book the crossing rather than leaving it to the pier, and you are in the pool by late afternoon. We choose Lanta over Phuket for families because the west coast beaches are long, flat and shallow, and because the island is quiet enough to walk on.
Day 9: Koh Lanta. Nothing scheduled. Beach, pool, and the shallow water that makes this island work with small children.
Day 10: Koh Lanta, the boats. A private longtail to the Koh Rok islands or to Koh Ngai for snorkelling in calm shallow water, with a guide in the water alongside younger swimmers. Half day, back for lunch. Or skip it and stay put, which nobody has ever regretted.
Day 11: Koh Lanta, free. The old town on the east coast in the late afternoon, which is wooden stilt houses over the water and a good dinner, and the rest of the day at the beach.
Day 12: Departure. Ferry and road back to Krabi, then the flight to Bangkok and your connection home. It is a half day of travel and we build the timings backwards from your flight so nobody is rushed.
What is included
Family rooms or connecting rooms throughout with breakfast, both domestic flights with a real baggage allowance, all ferry and speedboat crossings, a private air-conditioned car with English-speaking driver on every transfer day, licensed guides on three half days chosen for being good with children, the full-day elephant project, the family cooking session, the craft workshop, the private longtail snorkelling trip with a guide in the water, all entrance fees on guided days, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our representatives in Thailand for the whole trip.
Honest notes
Heat. From March onwards the middle of the day in Bangkok is above 95°F (35°C) and there is no version of this trip where a two-hour walk at noon is a good idea. Everything outdoors is scheduled before ten or after four, and the middle of the day is a pool.
Elephants. Your children will see riding advertised, and they will ask. It is worth talking about before you go. The venues that offer rides keep elephants in conditions we will not put a family in front of, and the bathing programmes that look gentle are stressful for the animal and less safe than they appear. What we book instead is better and quieter, and it needs a bit of framing beforehand so it is not a disappointment.
Food. Easier than parents fear. Rice, noodles, grilled chicken, fresh fruit, omelettes and mild curries are everywhere, and nothing is chilli-hot unless it is ordered that way. Tell us about allergies early: fish sauce and shrimp paste are in most things, and our partner team briefs restaurants in Thai rather than leaving you with a phrasebook.
The sea. Andaman beaches are calm from November to March, which is why this route runs then. In the monsoon months we move the ending to the Gulf, where Koh Samui has the opposite season and equally shallow water on the north coast.
What we leave out. Phi Phi, Bangkok’s shopping malls and the tiger attractions. Phi Phi is a long boat ride to a crowded beach, and the tiger venues are not somewhere we will take anyone’s children.
Ages. Under about four, we would shorten this again: drop a Bangkok night and add a sixth on Lanta.
Built by Paz Prosianoy, our Southeast Asia specialist, and tested by families who travelled it before you.
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