Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Children's Highlights
Children will especially enjoy the beaches, as most are shallow, gentle bays good for begin-
ner swimmers. The further south you go, the clearer the water. The bays are often fringed
with near-shore reefs and curious fish swim by for a visit.
Animal amusements abound in Thailand, though standards are often below those in the
West. Chiang Mai is the centre of elephant tourism; here tourists can bathe, ride and learn
about elephant welfare. Many beach resorts, such as Phuket and Ko Chang, also have wild-
life encounters. Lopburi is overrun with monkeys who cause all sorts of mayhem.
Outdoor activities - trekking, ziplining, bamboo rafting - will appeal to older children.
Chiang Mai, Kanchanaburi, southern beach resorts and tourist centres in Northern Thailand
all have a variety of nature sports that are family friendly.
Bangkok is great fun for those in awe of construction sites: the city is filled with cranes,
jackhammers and concrete-pouring trucks. Then there's the aboveground BTS (Skytrain),
and shopping malls complete with escalators (a preschool favourite). The city's immense
shopping options will appeal to tweens and teens.
Getting around can also be amusing. Kids on a train kick might like an overnight jour-
ney. On the train they can walk around and they're assigned the lower sleeping berths with
views of the stations. The author's preschooler loved the speedboats they took to get
around the Ko Chang archipelago.
Even temples can be engaging places for children. The climb to hilltop temples, marvel-
ling at the resident monkeys and cave shrines, is a great way to expend energy. Merit-mak-
ing at a Buddhist temple is surprisingly child-friendly - there are the burning joss sticks,
the bowing in front of the Buddha and the rubbing of gold leaf on the central image. It is a
very active process that can involve the kids. Most temples have a fortune-telling area,
where you shake a bamboo container until a numbered stick falls out. The number corres-
ponds to a printed fortune. A variation on this is to make a donation into a pot (or in some
cases an automated machine) corresponding to the day of the week you were born and re-
trieve the attached fortune.
