I've been trawling through the board and am looking for opinions on what is the best place for my family (wife and 5 year old son). We've been to BK and Phuket and want a nice resort, in a nice place, can be somewhat built-up, but not too much. Decent resort, decent prices. Any suggestions?

Krabi or Khao Lak in region (or even Maiton Island Resort just off Phuket).

Hua Hin and environs, Cha-am, Ao Manao, within 3 hours drive from Bangkok.

I liked Koi Samui a few years ago. Very beautiful island, more than a tad touristy in spots, but still nice. Of course, the tourist areas have lots of services.

I would fly there as the overnight train and ferry trip from BKK is a bit much.

As I recall, it is now the relatively dry season there.

I liked Koi Samui a few years ago. Very beautiful island, more than a tad touristy in spots, but still nice. Of course, the tourist areas have lots of services.
I didn't get around Koh Samui much but what I did see I found much too hectic. So I took a ferry over to Koh Tao which was much slower paced. Ultimately then took another ferry to Nang Yuan, which is REALLY slow paced, likely too much so for a 5 year old.

The village of Bo Phut on Samui, maybe? Smile House (http://www.samui-hotels.com/smilehouse/), with 2 pools, range of accomodation, nice restaurant, very child-friendly. Or Mae Nam beach on the north of Samui, Coco Palm (http://coco-palm-samui-resort.th66.com/). Khao Lak, here's a site (http://www.khaolak.de/khaolakbeach/home.htm) run by a German guy who owns a small bungalow operation on Bang Niang Beach and takes bookings for other bungalows and resorts. Many of these places are really nice, newly-built after the tsunami, family-owned places where the owners really struggled to find financing and rebuild. Personally, I'd much rather stay at one of these places than one of the anonymous resorts run by some big multinational chain.

Oh and another suggestion: Koh Phayam, which is a jewel of a small island off Ranong. The main beach is huge, clean, empty and fairly shallow, with a few widely separated bungalow resorts. Coconut is owned by a really sweet Thai family with two cute daughters around your son's age, who were playing hard with a western child when I was there and chattering in mixed Thai/French and Scottish-flavoured English. There were a number of extended families of ex-pats from Bangkok on the ferry. You don't say when you plan to travel. The Andaman is best Jan-March. Phayam is not built-up at all though. No cars (no roads!) only motorbikes. Just an embryonic village around the ferry landing, beaches and cashew plantations.

next week, keep the suggestions coming all sounds good so far...

Next week; oh then, now's not the time to travel to Phayam or any other small island. Everything's closed and the sea is rough, ferries don't run. But Khao Lak is still good.

We'll be in the Hyatt in Hua Hin from this coming Thursday. Drop me a line if you are in the area. We'll be in Bangkok for a few days from Sunday, August 26.