Hello. I am new to the board, but we will be visiting both Bangkok (Dec. 22 to Dec. 27) and Chiang Mai (Dec. 27 and 30) in the next week and I would love to hear your opinion on what we should do and see. We are pretty flexible. We would like our children to get a good taste of Thailand while visiting the "must sees". We are also open to just fun time as well. Any of you who could recommend some "must sees and dos" with younger children, please let me know. We have two boys and two girls ages 10, 8, 6, and 2 respectively. We appreciate your help.
Thanks,
Jared

On a side note, I am planning on and excited about getting suits at Raja's on Soi 4 (1/6)-.

We holidayed with the kids (6 & 4) in BKK in June and these were the things they did and liked the most (bearing in mind, kids are very different in what they like: mine like to see how people live in different countries)

I just asked them over dinner and these is what they liked the most (ranked in order of preference).

1) Counting the number of times they spotted garudas on government buildings as they pass them by while seated in the BTS train. LOL.

2) Feeding the elephants with bananas. We did this at the Siam Niramit show.

3) The temples (Wat Phra Kaew and the Palace), the buddhas and the various mythical figurines/statues you can find there. We built the experience up by telling them a children's version of Ramayana for several weeks before we went to BKK.

4) Water taxi rides on the Chao Phraya. Hop on the taxi at Saphan Taksin pier and head up to the temples.

5) The aquarium at Siam Paragon.

6) The pool at the Hilton Millenium. LOL

7) My daughter: she had her hair braided for US$5.

Other things that might be interesting for kids:
1) Snake Farm. My kids want to go to this in June next year.
2) Older kids: let them loose in a food court. Buy them some coupons (all food courts use coupons instead of currency) and tell them to get something interesting to eat.

There is an amusement park on the outskirts north of BKK in an area called Rangsit. It's called Future Park (or something like that). I went there several years ago and thought it might be fun for kids (they have water rides, an indoor snow center, stuff like that). To get there take a cab but I took a cab to/from Mo Chit BTS instead of the city center because of the traffic. It's probably 20 minutes from Mo Chit by cab, past the old Don Muang airport.

Hope your family has fun!

Any ideas - aside from the hotel pool areas

Hello. I am new to the board, but we will be visiting both Bangkok (Dec. 22 to Dec. 27) and Chiang Mai (Dec. 27 and 30) in the next week and I would love to hear your opinion on what we should do and see. We are pretty flexible. We would like our children to get a good taste of Thailand while visiting the "must sees". We are also open to just fun time as well. Any of you who could recommend some "must sees and dos" with younger children, please let me know. We have two boys and two girls ages 10, 8, 6, and 2 respectively. We appreciate your help.
Thanks,
Jared

On a side note, I am planning on and excited about getting suits at Raja's on Soi 4 (1/6)-.

There are many things for families with children to do in Chiang Mai.

Here is a streaming video of our friends and their children (http://www.all-thailand-exp.com/images/Family_fun.wmv) visiting an elephant camp, Huai Tung Tao lake, Chiang Mai Zoo and the weekend walking market in Chiang Mai.

Other places we visited that are not in the video are Monkey Training Center, Doi Suthep Temple, Doi Inthanon National Park, The Chiang Mai Night Safari and spent an evening in a hill tribe village. You can find videos of these and others at the thread "Advice for Visitors to Chiang Mai Thailand" here at FT.

Enjoy,
Randy and Ning

Any ideas - aside from the hotel pool areas

We did Wat Phra Kaew when our son was about 8 mths old. There are some parks that may be suitable (e.g. Lumpini Park, Chatuchak Park during the week) but there is not a great deal of shade there so you'll need a sun shade or ideally a very cloudy day (and still need sunscreen).

To be honest though, most of his outdoor activities at 8 mths old in Bangkok were at the pool, playing in the garden or on play dates at friends' houses doing much the same. We've found that the traffic and state of the streets are not conducive for doing much in Bangkok with kids that age (though that may come from the jaded eyes of living here knowing that the attractions will still be here when he's older rather than holiday-makers trying to get the best experience from Bangkok).

IIRC, his first experience of the Siam Paragon aquarium was around that age and he enjoyed that as an indoors activity.