Our first family trip to Asia did not disappoint – bold, vibrant colors, flavors, and dramatic landscapes to fill our hearts, soak in sunshine, and make lasting memories.

The Basics

Who & Why: my husband’s 20-year sabbatical from work, plus spring break for our kids, currently ages 10 and 13. My husband’s wish for this trip was to go to Thailand, where he has family, and also explore an Asian country for the first time.

What & Where: Two weeks in Thailand, combining three nights in Bangkok at the beginning, two nights in Chiang Mai, three nights on Koh Lanta, three nights in Koh Samui, and one final night in Bangkok prior to flying home to London

When: April 2025 (we went in the first part of the month). The weather was hot and humid, but other than one morning of thunderstorms in Bangkok, we were unaffected by rain. It did occasionally rain at night, but were treated to sunny, warm days (even when the forecast called for storms!).

Learnings

What I Loved

• Our Hotels:  we stayed at some of the best places in Thailand, and opted for connecting rooms or multi-room villas whenever possible to allow all of us space to spread out. As our kids have gotten older, we’ve prioritized space and privacy vs. saving money, because we all end up happier when we can have our own space. And honestly, I just don’t want to deal with their standard of having their suitcases explode all over the room while we’re traveling. 🙂 In all seriousness, the hotels were fantastic – incredible breakfast buffets, beautiful rooms, many with private pools, and plenty of amenities on offer – from the spa, beach access and activities, multiple restaurants and bars, and help with organizing tours off property, we loved every second of our stays.
  • Bangkok: The Sukhothai and The Siam
  • Chiang Mai: 137 Pillars House
  • Koh Lanta: Pimalai Resort
  • Koh Samui: Banyan Tree
• Touring in Bangkok: We had an amazing guide that I recruited after he showed me around Bangkok on a previous trip, and he took care of everything! We worked together on an itinerary, and from there, we just had to sit back and let him lead us. We saw so much of the city, and leaving the logistics to an expert was such a gift to me (as the one who’s normally planning every step of the day). We tried awesome food, saw back alleyways and canals where we were the only ones there, and felt immersed in local culture every step of the way.
• Elephant Volunteering Project: I highly recommend our day of volunteering with the Care for Elephants program at Elephant Nature Park. We all learned so much, and our kids loved getting to take care of the elephants (no complaints all day!). Our very small group meant we could ask as many questions as we wanted, and they even took pictures of us throughout the day for download afterwards (which again, otherwise falls on me most often). An incredible experience you can feel good about.
• Doing Less: I like to make the most of the time we are traveling, but we talked as a family before we left about everyone’s goals and hopes for the trip. Our daughter wanted to be able to sleep in and nap (she’s officially a teen on vacation), and our son wanted to play in the pool and at the beach. That meant that the day-long snorkeling and island hopping trips I’d planned for likely had to go. But, I decided to honor my kids’ choices and not overschedule us, and it worked out really well. Kids need to feel listened to and valued on vacation, and even though I struggled a bit, I felt better at the end knowing they got something they were hoping for out of the trip. It also made them motivated to share the fun, but long, days in Bangkok, knowing they could relax more on the back end.
• Length of Trip: We clocked in at just under two weeks, and that length of time was just about perfect. We’ve also started not leaving at the crack of dawn the very first day of a school holiday, and arriving with 2-3 nights before going back. This seems to leave us all rested and ready on both ends of a vacation.

What I’d Change

• Curate our time in Chiang Mai: We only had two nights in Chiang Mai, so I booked us a city tour for a half day after arriving, hoping we could still see and explore a bit in the city alongside our day at Elephant Nature Park. However, I should have been more specific, because it was 100% visiting temples, and not much else. Nothing against temples, but we were hoping to get a more holistic view of Chiang Mai as the capital of culture, and this wasn’t t
• One more night in a beach location: I think one more night in Koh Lanta or Samui could have been nice. We could have all had one more full day of relaxation and felt really good going home. Traveling between locations in Thailand almost always requires flights, so we spent a lot of time going to/from airports.
• Know a bit more about the cash situation: while Bolt and Line work for public transportation, many places use cash, including tuk tuks, street food vendors, and shops. We should have had more cash at the ready, especially because our bank had a daily limit of how much cash we could take out (meaning a fee each time).

Tips for Travelers

Thinking of an artic or scandi adventure?  Keep these tips in mind:

• Bangkok Traffic: Traffic here is no joke. It’s not the most walkable city either, so I would definitely recommend public transit whenever possible (they have a good amount of boat options, too along the river), or plan for plenty of extra time in a taxi. I worked with the hotel a lot to organize rides so we could engotiate the time neeed as well as the rate ahead of time.
• Be Ready to Bargain: when it comes to certain crafts, souvenirs, and even transportation, be ready to bargain. Look at pricing across different places ahead of time and know what the average is before committing to a price.
• Have cash handy: See above, cash is still king with many small vendors in Thailand
• Learn some Thai: Locals loved that we knew some Thai. We worked with our guide to learn about 20-25 words and phrases in Thai, and people were astounded and surprised (in a good way).

Final Words

We are now bitten with the Asia bug – we all want to go more places in this part of the world! While some things were more challenging, the things that remained the same were the friendliness and helpfulness of the people, and the wonder of a new culture. We loved so many things about our time here, and the thing that stands out to me is just the vibrancy of the different aspects of the culture. I can’t say enough good things about this incredible country.