Originally Posted by
TravelPenguin
I've been browsing through the threads and I've read through the stickies. I'm in the planning stages of our trip which will be in December (high season) to Thailand. Family of four, we are two adults and two toddlers (ages 2yrs and 4yrs by time of travel).
For the moment, I am thinking 4 nights Bangkok, 5 nights Chiang Mai, 7 nights Phuket....and this is where it gets fuzzy. After 7 nights in Phuket I was thinking of hopping over to Cambodia for 5 nights then heading back to BKK for 3 nights before we head back to the U.S.
Is this itinerary a bit too ambitious?
As per ambition, it might be a bit so with the two little ones in tow. That is a fair bit of flying and packing and unpacking in a fairly short period of time and if you are flying within Thaliand and over to Cambodia on budget airlines you can expect delays.
My wife and I took a 9 month old and a 5 year old to Thailand and Vietnam for a month this past December and early January. Although your kids are old enough to walk, the toughest part of the trip was dealing with the airports--i.e. luggage, car seats, security lines, check-in, immigration, waiting for flights, etc. etc. I highly recommend that you take as few flights as possible and try not to move around too much (packing up a hotel room with a family of 4 takes time). For example, if you are going to Bangkok why not stay a week to begin with as opposed to stopping back in for 3 more days at the end of your trip? Another place to perhaps visit if you are interested in the beach is Hua Hin, which is an easy three hour drive from Bangkok. You might consider going here instead of one of your other beach destinations. We went to Hua Hin after Bangkok and before Vietnam and had a great week relaxing on the beach after a week in hectic Bangkok.
I agree with others that Angkor Wot is an amazing experience (I went there on a different trip) and can be done in a few days, but to really appreciate the ruins you do have to do a lot of walking and climbing stairs and in many places a stroller wouldn't be practical. If you do go you might consider seeing if for one of the days your hotel has a nanny service so you could do a bit more exploring than you can with a 2 and 4 year old.
I hope you have a great trip. The Thai people (and the Vietnamese) love children (especially babies). My nine month old was held and picked up by dozens of friendly people during our trip. It seemed like every time we ate at a restaurant he was carried back to the kitchen for a photo shoot with the staff. It is a bit weird at first, but after a few days you get used to it.