Two weeks in Thailand with children

The rule this itinerary is built on

Children do not care about seeing more places. They care about a pool, a beach they can walk into, food they recognise, and not being in a minivan.

So this plan moves three times in a fortnight and stays five nights or more in each of the two main bases. Anything faster turns the holiday into an airport-and-hotel exercise that the adults will also stop enjoying.

Days 1 to 3 — Bangkok, briefly

Three nights is enough, and it is worth doing: the river boats are a genuine hit with children, and the city is where the flight lands anyway.

Keep it short and structured. A morning on the Chao Phraya on a longtail boat, an afternoon by the pool, and one outing a day rather than three. Skip the Grand Palace in the middle of the day — it is hot, crowded and entirely without shade.

Days 4 to 9 — the beach base

Six nights in one place. This is the heart of the trip and the part the children will remember.

• Hua Hin is the easiest — three hours by road from Bangkok, shallow calm water, a real town, and mainland reliability if the weather turns.
• Northern Phuket, around Bang Tao and Nai Yang, has resorts built around families, with shallow water and everything within the resort.
• Koh Samui works well, with the Gulf's calmer water and enough infrastructure for a comfortable stay.
• Koh Lanta's Klong Dao beach is shallow and calm, on a quieter island.
• Whichever you choose: pick one with a pool, a beach you can wade into, and a restaurant that will cook plain rice and grilled chicken without negotiation.

Days 10 to 13 — one more base, or stay put

If the children are older and the family travels well, add Chiang Mai for the elephants, the markets and the cooler air. Check the calendar first: the burning season from February to April makes the northern air genuinely bad.

If they are small, do not add anything. Extend the beach. A fortnight with one beach and one city is a better family holiday than a fortnight with four destinations.

Days 14 — back to Bangkok

Return to the capital the day before the flight, not on the day of it. With children, a delay that is an inconvenience for adults is a crisis for everyone.

The three practical things that matter most

Everything else is detail; these are the ones that shape the trip.

• The heat. Out early, back to shade or a pool over the middle of the day, out again in the late afternoon. Sunscreen reapplied after every swim, hats, and rash guards for swimming.
• Transport. Car seats are effectively unavailable in taxis, minivans and transfers — bring your own if you need one. Short domestic flights are much kinder than long minivan journeys on winding roads.
• Food and water. Bottled water throughout, for drinking and for brushing teeth. Introduce Thai food mildly — rice, grilled chicken, noodle soup, fried rice, roti — and carry oral rehydration sachets.