There’s nothing like a pandemic, worldwide travel restrictions and lockdown to make you want to start planning a huge holiday. We missed our opportunity to go away this year thanks to coronavirus, but thankfully this has been rearranged for April 2021. That means the next big trip take will be in April 2022 and I have plenty of time to plan it.
We have always done our long haul holidays in April because it’s slightly cheaper than the summer holidays and the weather is slightly cooler too. We love Thailand in April as its when they celebrate Songkran – Thai New Year. It’s a wonderful celebration and definitely not one to miss.
The boys have never been on a long haul holiday before, so far we have stuck to Spain, so this will be quite the adventure which will take lots of planning so its just right. Dexter will be coming up to six and Felix will be three. The perfect age I think to start with wonderful long haul adventures!
The flight
We have flown to Thailand with both Qatar Airways and Etihad and we much prefer Qatar. I am open to flying with other airlines, at the end of the day, I am simply going to go with whoever is cheapest, but has a decent amount of layover. Gone are the days where I am willing to spend eight hours in Doha waiting for the next flight and equally, I don’t really want a very short layover and feel very rushed. We have missed connections far too many times (through no fault of our own) and I don’t want to have to go through that with small children.
We usually fly to Bangkok, spend a few days there and then move onto Phuket, but I think this time we will probably fly direct to Phuket and spend the whole holiday at the beach.
Flights to Phuket in April are £500-600 per person, so once they become available to buy, I’ll be setting up an alert to make sure we get the cheapest flights possible. I love this game and when we went to Australia, I managed to bag our return flights for less than £700 each!
The hotel
When we visit Phuket, we always stay in the Metadee resort, but this time, I am ready to try somewhere new. There are so many incredible resorts in Phuket and their prices are extremely reasonable. I have stumbled upon a few hotels on the Voyage Privé website I really love including The Charm Resort which has an infinity pool and is right by the beach. You can get two bedroom rooms and breakfast included for less than £150 per night – a real bargain.
We usually stay in the Kata beach region of Phuket because it’s quiet. We will definitely be returning to this area to visit our favourite restaurant – Horngrill. If you haven’t been to this incredible steak restaurant before when visiting Phuket, you haven’t lived!
Activities
There is so much to see and do in Thailand. You only have to read this older post I wrote about activities in Phuket with the kids. Unlike earlier times when we visited Thailand, we won’t be able to hire a scooter, spend hours getting massages or stay up until the early hours at a local bar, but we will still be kept busy with the two boys. We’ll be visiting the beach lots, lounging around the pool, exploring the local villages in the evenings and we may even make it to a water park.
The most important thing for us when we go on holiday is that we relax and have fun and Thailand will definitely make sure we get enough of both!