Has anyone been to Thailand with kids?

We've decided to consider Thailand for our family holiday. DH and I have both been there before, DH three times and me twice. Initially we thought this would be a reason NOT to go again, but the fact we've always loved it is making us think that maybe it might be the ideal destination to go to again.

Anyway, as we haven't been with kids before, I'm just wondering how you found it? Was it an 'easy' place to take kids? What sort of activities did you do? Which part of Thailand did you visit? We are considering either Karon beach (as opposed to Patong this time) or Chang Mai (nether of us have ever been up that far).

We have been to Koh Samui with two kids. Lots of family time, swimming and relaxing. It was on the end of a big European trip, so we were happy to relax and not do much at all!

We are going to Karon Beach in July, with our three kids plus two other families who each have three kids. One thing we are planning this time is a visit to an elephant park. Would love to hear other suggestions!

I was thinking of something to do with elephants. DD1 is obsessed with animals!

We took our boys a few years. We just island hopped around the Andaman sea. Lots of boat rides, some jungle trekking, visited a wat or 2, hung out at the night markets eating....... just the normal touristy stuff.
The boys loved it.

Yes, we went with dd1 when she was 2.5 and it was the best holiday ever! We stayed near surin beach, just along from Karon beach. We did the long boats to phang nga bay, elephant safari,butterfly house, waterfalls at the national park, beaches, lots of swimming, patong markets, and just hung out. It was wonderful!

Yep - BBL hun xx

Karon beach is lovely, much nicer and more family friendly than Patong!

Bangkok is NOT kid friendly! Stairs everywhere, dirty in some parts, lots of shopping centres though.
Koh samui is great has heaps of activities for kids ie elephants tigers. Safe clean and friendly!
Phuket - unless they are teens and even then is be cautious.

We took DD to Phuket last April so she was 18 months old. Stayed at Kamala Beach which is about 20 min north of Patong. Hotel was the Sunwing Resort. It was really good, we had a family room which had a separate bedroom so DD slept in that and DH and I slept in the main part of the room. Made nap time easy!!!
Lots of pools, small playground, right on the beach, great food options for kids (kids eat free from a kids buffet every meal with a paying adult) and great cheap ****tails! Oh and a swim up bar, plus on site massages for only 300 baht ($10).
Downside is that it was quite Euro centered in that most of visitors were from Scandinavia and not many English speaking kids but DD was too young to interact with strangers anyway. Kids club was ok but again DD to young to leave there so we just took her for a change of scenery.
Phuket Fantasea is just across the road and the girls would love that.

Unfortunately for us DD had terrible car sickness while we were there (does not normally) I think due to a combo of the heat/humidity and the windy roads and stop/start jerky taxi drivers (she vomited on the way from the airport to the hotel and vice versa). So we couldn't do any day trips with her as most places were a 40 min drive and we didn't want to subject her to that. We did take her to Patong one day though.

Oh and the hotel had options to hire a pram, portacot and ikea high chair for your room!

I look my son when he was 8 months old and we stayed at the sunset beach resort in patong.

We took him to do everything we did. Phuket zoo, the monkey school (which he loved), the snake tour (he held a snake) , Phuket fantasea (he rode an elephant with me), lots of time spent swimming in the pool and going shopping ;) we bought him so many clothes some he still needs to be bigger to wear and he is over 2 now.

The Thai ladies love little kids. Every place we stopped to eat the waitresses would pick up my son and coo and talk to him and take him round to meet all the staff while we ate our meal, it was a nice break :)

Thanks for the great ideas and info everyone!

Hey there - I answered your other post - we took all our kids to Thailand for 2 months - we spent most of our time in Chiang Mai. The children had a wonderful time. The Thai people love children and are adored wherever they go. All our children did elephant riding, bamboo rafting, visited Laos, went to the Tiger Kingdom and snake shows. They loved the markets (I recommend using baby carriers) and the Tuk Tuks were a blast. We were also blessed enough to spend time in an orphanage which was a fantastic experience for my children and lasting friendships have been formed. A life changing experience.

Thanks everyone!

We booked the trip today! We are off in August. We are staying in Karon. If anyone has any info or further tips to share, I'm all ears!

No info from me but wanted to say yay and how exciting!!!