Starting to plan for a late-January/early-February 2013 trip to Thailand. Purpose of the trip is to visit son and daughter-in-law and their new baby, who will be about six months old then. (This will be a second visit to my new granddaughter as I will also be there in August/September 2012 for her birth.) My sister is joining me for this second visit. It will be her first time in Thailand and I am looking into a few new experiences that she might enjoy.

We will be in Thailand for about two weeks and while in Bangkok will be staying at a small hotel near where the family lives. We thought we might break up our stay with a few excursions away from Bangkok to give son and d-i-l a break.

I read about the Anantara cruises recently in the London Telegraph and wonder if anyone here has first-hand experience, or second-hand for that matter. The cruise includes two nights onboard in private, air-conditioned cabins, all meals, stops at many places including Ayutthaya, then returns to Bangkok the afternoon of the third day. I have had a couple of lovely and very enjoyable experiences with converted-rice-barge cruises in Kerala in the south of India.