BANGKOK WITH A TODDLER: UNEXPECTEDLY GREAT!

JANUARY 2025

On our November Asia trip I decided to schedule in Bangkok. I had been to Bangkok before, but there were still so many temples that I would love to explore, that I decided to revisit. I didn’t know whether Bangkok would be a sensible destination with a toddler, but quickly discovered that Bangkok was much more kid-friendly than I thought. In this blogpost I will give you a complete overview of what we did in our 48 hours in Bangkok!

Kid friendly hotel in Bangkok

Bangkok can be scorching hot year-round, so I knew I had to book a hotel with a swimming pool to unwind after a long, hot day of exploring. I decided upon the Nouvo city hotel, as it had two swimming pools and a very good location, close to the temples and within walking distance of the restaurant streets. We spent about € 70 per night for a 3-person room including breakfast. The hotel caters to groups as well, so therefore it can feel a bit crowded in the lobby and during breakfast, but the facilities are also very good. The breakfast spread was huge and had a good variation of Asian and international dishes and lots of things that kids like (yoghurt, granola, pancakes etc). I especially want to note that the coffee was very good. Nouvo city hotel has a rooftop swimming pool, which was very cute, but felt a bit unsafe as the deck was a bit run down. There also is a swimming pool at the third floor, that felt like it was maintained better and was a good spot for kids. Next to this pool there was a small kids club. The hotel is kid friendly, but not a kids’ paradise, which sounds perfect to me. The personnel was very kind, especially the bell boys who kept entertaining Hugo with little jokes and games. There are lots of restaurants in the area and the hotel is within walking distance of Khao San Road and the more intimate Ram Buttri restaurant & shopping street.

How kid friendly is Bangkok?

I already said in my introduction that Bangkok turned out to be much more kid friendly than I expected. If you stay within the main tourist areas of the city you will discover that lots of activities can be done on foot, with a stroller, as there are (proper) sidewalks. To get to Ram Buttri from our hotel we only had one dodgy crossing, honestly it wasn’t bad with a stroller at all! The temples also turned out to be quite kid friendly, there were children’s discounts at the entrance and strollers were generally allowed. Not every area of a temple is stroller accessible, so if you are traveling with a baby I would advise to bring a baby carrier too. Another thing that adds a fun factor for kids is traveling with a tuktuk. We just folded our stroller and brought it along. Hugo found it great fun, even though the tuktuk drivers were really overspeeding sometimes. We used Grab as our taxi app and found drivers to be tolerant of kids and not making issues about not having a child seat. In Singapore you had to book specific kind of Grabs, who were family friendly, but the rules in Bangkok are less strict. Hugo is just over 1 meter and we found it worked well. Kids & food is always an issue when traveling, for us this was also the case in Bangkok. I fed Hugo with smoothies, fruit, plain rice and icecream. If you stay in the touristy areas and choose nice restaurants, you shouldn’t have any issues with ice cubes. We didn’t get sick in Thailand at all! Another thing which I found great about Bangkok is that I could easily find a 3-person room, so Hugo could stay in our room with us.

Things we did in Bangkok

We spent our time in Bangkok mainly visiting temples, because that is why I revisited. Luckily Hugo enjoyed the gold and glamour as well! I found that entrance fees change relatively quickly, so I won’t include them in this guide. Kids most of the time received a discount for an activity and sometimes they were free.

Wat Arun: My favorite temple! We arrived at around 10AM, it does get busy quick. We explored for about 1,5 hours and fell in love with the details of this temple. Hugo loved climbing the stairs surrounding the stupas. If you visit just one temple, make sure to visit this one! You can easily get to other hotspots by using the ferry transport which is very cheap.

Grand Palace: Of all the things we visited, the Grand Palace was the most crowded. It is super beautiful and definitely worth a visit. We visited at around 12PM and all the tour groups were visiting. Still we were pretty quick with buying a ticket onsite. You will mainly be able to visit the temples, you won’t actually get into the palace. It would be sensible to do some research on your ticket as it also includes a ticket to a Thai dancing show in a different location. If this is something you are interested in you have to do a bit more planning, so do your research! We skipped the dancing show due to lack of time.

Wat Pho: Another absolutely stunning temple that you should not miss out on! It is more colorful than Wat Arun, the grounds are a bit bigger and there are more flowers. You can find an enormous reclining buddha over here, Hugo found this fascinating. You can feel that not everyone in Bangkok visits this temple, it is less crowded than at the other sites, cheaper, so use that to your advantage and go visit this stunning temple!

Aquarium: Of course we had to throw in an activity for Hugo as well. We decided to visit the aquarium: SEA LIFE Bangkok Ocean World. Quite an expensive activity, but a beautiful aquarium with a great variety of fish and sea animals. It is located inside Siam Paragon shopping mall, which is quite out of the historic center, but a good opportunity to see the modern side of Bangkok. We loved our tuktuk drive through the neon lights in the evening!

Wat Sam Phran: This temple is quite a drive outside of the city center (about 40 minutes from our hotel), but this is doable with a Grab taxi. You might need some patience for a driver to accept this ride, but it is worth it. Wat Sam Phran is a pink temple which has a dragon circling around it. It is a very interesting building, I had never seen anything like it. In the temple area you will also find some other statues, such as a giant elephant. The temple is free to enter, but we made some donations. There is an elevator to get to the top, giving you views over the dragons. It is a very original activities and great with kids. Because it is quite far out of the center you won’t find crowds.

Food in Bangkok

We loved the food in Bangkok, so affordable, healthy and tasty! Where else can you get € 4 margarita cocktails in a charming open-air bar? I loved it!

Holiday vibes at Ram Buttri

Tom Yung Kung is a bar at Khao San Road that was a bit more upscale. I found the music a bit too loud, but we loved the food & cocktails. They also serve more western dishes, which can come in handy with a kid.

Madame Musur: This restaurant is located in the charming Ram Buttri. The restaurant was very well priced, charming tropical style decorations. The music created a really nice atmosphere.

SO Samsen: This restaurant was located opposite our hotel in the cute Samsen neighborhood. Best pad Thai!

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