
Photo:
A family vacation to Thailand is affordable and adventurous. Photo: courtesy Holiday Inn Resort Samui
Thailand was just named Travel + Leisure’s Destination of the Year for 2025. Its beautiful beaches, ease of island hopping by boat, hikes with hidden waterfalls, elephant sanctuaries, and abundance of diverse flavors make it a unique family-friendly destination. It’s also helpful that Thailand is relatively affordable. I was continually sticker-shocked in the best way. While it’ll take you over a day to get there from Seattle, it’s worth it!
Traveling to Thailand from Seattle
Your biggest planning dilemma will be choosing where to visit. While I think it’s valuable to visit Bangkok for a few days to experience the culture, chaos and history, I highly recommend venturing off to an island for part of your trip. Our family visited Koh Samui, just one of Thailand’s 1,430 islands, where we experienced a happy medium of relaxation and plenty of activities.
From Seattle, we took a two-hour flight to San Francisco, a 10-hour flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and then a seven-hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok. After a long travel day, it was nice to land for a few days in Bangkok to adjust to the time zone (15 hours ahead of Seattle).

Private tours and other things to do in Bangkok
When we visit a new destination with our kids, we like to see as much as possible (at our kids’ pace) by hiring a private tour guide. We spent two days with our guide from Click Thailand Tour visiting the Train Market, Floating Market and several famous temples.

On our last day, we enjoyed some pool time at the Conrad Bangkok where we were staying and visited the IconSiam Bangkok mall — at this point their air-conditioned floating market was very appealing. I knew the spa services would be cheaper in Thailand than at home, so I found a highly rated salon within walking distance of our hotel. I got a shellac manicure and pedicure while my husband got a men’s pedicure, for a grand total of $60.

Jet lag got the best of us, but next time I plan to go on a Chef’s Tour Bangkok Backstreets Bangkok Food Tour. On our way home from Koh Samui, we stayed one night at the Athenee Hotel, which also has a stunning rooftop pool and occupies a former palace.
What to know beforehand
Bangkok is hot and gritty — wear breathable clothes and cover your shoulders at temples. You will need cash (Baht), coins for public toilets, and sometimes your own toilet paper for public bathrooms. Thailand does not have a tipping culture and while it is unexpected, it won’t be offensive if you feel a tip is warranted for extraordinary service. Instead of Uber, download the ride service app Grab.

Getting to Koh Samui
From Bangkok, we took a one-hour flight on Bangkok Airways to Koh Samui, where we were welcomed with island vibes at the open-air airport. On the way home, the kids ran around and swung on the swings along the runway, watching planes take off.
Staying in a Koh Samui hotel with kids
With kids ages 2, 5, and 7, we chose a family-friendly hotel with a great location. The Holiday Inn Resort at Koh Samui is not your typical American Holiday Inn. This remodeled hotel (completed at the end of 2022) has rooms that feel more luxurious, an outdoor sand-bottom playground, a splash pad for a range of kids’ ages, a large pool with a waterslide, and an indoor play area that also offers Kids Club babysitting services. Our “Kids Suite” had a primary bedroom, bathroom, balconies, large walk-in closet, and — our kids’ favorite — a separate jungle-themed room complete with a Jeep-themed bunk bed.

If you want an easy vacation, the daily kids activities (some free and some have additional costs) and free kids meals (for those younger than 12 years old) may be appealing and help you save money. We chose to plan our own adventures off the property and while we did eat at the hotel restaurants a few times, we preferred to explore other options for better quality and diversity of food. However, if you have picky eaters, they will likely love the more Americanized food at the daily breakfast.
The hotel sits on a stretch of Bo Phut Beach, a sandy beach that borders the Fisherman’s Village Night Market, and is steps away from endless restaurant options, shops and spas along the beachfront road within Fisherman’s Village. We took advantage of the very affordable spa treatments compared to the U.S. prices and got Thai massages — at only $60 for a 120-minute couples massage, we indulged a few times.
Elephant tours and family-friendly things to do in Koh Samui
Samui Animal Sanctuary provides ethical elephant tours that we all enjoyed. Within our three-hour tour, we had the privilege of making “elephant sushi” (a rice mixture with bananas wrapped in palm leaves) for rescue elephants, feeding them, seeing them enjoy a mud bath at their own will, and safely wandering through their habitats.

The resident elephants are rescued from Thailand’s dangerous and deadly logging jobs and tourist attractions such as elephant riding. The tour included transportation to and from our hotel; water, coffee, tea and snacks on arrival; and a Thai vegetarian meal with fresh fruit. The tour cost approximately $88 for adults, $44 per child 5–12 years old, and free for kids younger than 5 years old (payment must be in cash on arrival at the sanctuary). We booked our tour online once in Samui. After this experience, I also became more aware of the importance of not supporting tourist activities that harm elephants by riding them or bathing with them, or with shows and riders that use bull hooks or chains.
Both kids and adults enjoyed a private boat excursion to Pig Island with Get Your Guide. My kids loved feeding the puppies and piglets on this tiny island where pigs roam wild. Normally the piglets swim, but the waves were too choppy on the day we went.

Once we had enough of the cuteness, we boated to Ko Taen, a private island, where we had one of my favorite meals in Thailand. We all savored bowls of Tom Yum soup, crunchy flattened fried chicken and fresh fruits. We then relaxed on beach hammocks, swam and snorkeled in the ocean cove before heading back to the hotel.

If your kids are old enough to dive, don’t miss out on diving around Samui or take a short boat ride to Ko Tao. The coral life in Ko Tao was the second most diverse and healthy that we’ve ever seen, following Okinawa. We dove with Member Diving, a Swiss SSI-certified dive school, which also offers snorkeling excursions and whale shark diving. For the best chances of a calm ocean to dive and swim in, visit March through September.

Trying new foods and shopping at the Fisherman’s Village Night Market in Bophut is also a must. Because we were staying right next to it, we went several times. It was fun to wander the lively market bustling with people and buzzing with music. While they didn’t have any night market games often found in Asian night markets, my kids enjoyed the food stalls and local vendors. Some favorites include the ice cream rolls, fried chicken (the best my family has ever had!), grilled corn, fresh coconuts, and local fruits such as mangosteen, wax apples and passion fruits.
Fire shows are another popular attraction on Samui, and there are several along the coast. Being so close to Coco Tam’s, we waited in line for a spot on their beach one night. There is no entrance fee to sit on their beach bag loungers, but you must order food or drinks. A children’s menu is available. Our kids were mesmerized by the engaging 45-minute show accompanied by DJ music. Shows are weather-dependent but are typically at 7:15 p.m. and 9 p.m.

It’s impossible to see and do everything in the one week that we had on Samui. If we could have stayed a few more days, I would’ve loved to do a private island tour to explore some of the jungle and other beaches. Hikes with views, waterfalls and lush rainforest abound. Next time!
Favorite places to eat
Eating in Thailand was a memorable experience of fresh fruits and juices, flavorful Thai food, night market foods and seafood. The prices were also remarkably affordable. Once I discovered Little Green Café, I walked there daily for a $2–$3 special drink like matcha coconut water or fresh passion fruit juice. Their specialty coffee, fresh baked goods and brunch items also kept us coming back.
A local recommended Secret Garden Restaurant, which ended up being a hidden gem on the beach. Our kids were happy to see a wood-fired pizza while the adults enjoyed various curries and seafood. The prices, again, blew us away — we got appetizers, mains, specialty juices and drinks and our bill for four adults and three kids (who eat more than me sometimes!) was only $104.

While Coco Tam’s restaurant is very popular, we enjoyed the more laid-back sister restaurant, Summer by Coco Tam’s, for breakfast and lunch. The open-air beachside restaurant has a variety of local and European-inspired foods. The watermelon lychee smoothie was one of my favorite menu items. The price difference from the U.S. isn’t as stark here but $90 for brunch for five, including a specialty smoothie for each person, is not bad.
Dining at The Roof was more than just dinner — it was an experience. Our hotel made the reservation for us and arranged an all-wheel drive taxi to make the climb up to the hillside open-air restaurant. The relaxed atmosphere and sweeping sunset view of the Gulf of Siam was breathtaking. Our party dabbled off the kids menu, Thai menu and extensive international menu. We all sunk into the oversized beanbag chairs and enjoyed the view, food, drinks and live music. Another rooftop option that I wanted to try but was completely booked is The Jungle Club.

Best time to travel to Thailand
For ideal weather, it depends on which area of Thailand you are visiting. Most of Thailand’s dry season is from November through March. Samui is rainiest from September through December. We ended up taking advantage of our kids’ holiday break in December but if we were to go during this timeframe again, I would consider Phuket.
While we missed the big storm that occurred a week before our arrival, the beaches were closed the entire length of our stay due to the aftermath of the storm, and the ocean was too churned up to dive in for most of our visit. Even though this vacation didn’t end up being the beach vacation that I anticipated, we found plenty to do and enjoyed the warm weather.
A word of caution
While motorbike rentals are affordable and convenient, motorbike accidents are the top cause of tourist injuries in Thailand. Thailand also has one of the highest rates of road traffic deaths in the world with the majority of fatalities involving motorbikes. In Samui, we saw many people driving without helmets and openly drinking alcohol while driving. We did not rent a car for this trip. We mainly walked everywhere and took readily available and affordable taxis when needed.
More travel inspiration for Seattle-area families: |