just back from BKK / Hua Hin with a baby
 

Hi All

Thank you all so much for your advice regarding travel with a baby in thailand. We decided on spending a couple of nights in Bangkok at the Davis Hotel (88 soi 24 sukhumvit) which we found to be perfect for a base in bangkok. The hotel is a boutique 5 star with nice pool and big rooms at a very reasonable rate. I appreciated the extra room to move around. There wasnt any noticable bars etc in the area which is just what we preferred. The staff were excellent, the food was good, and we had complimentary transfers from the hotel to the Emporium for shopping and skytrain.
For the trip to Hua Hin, we used Mr Roong, who again was excellent. On time, clean comfortable modern vehicles with leather interior, free drinks, and a roof mounted DVD screen. By the time we watched a movie we were there after about 2.5 hours. Price was 2000 thb each way which was very reasonable.
We stayed at the Sofitel Central Hua Hin. Excellent location, however we did have a few problems with the hotel.
Overall was a very relaxed and enjoyable trip.
I highly recommend Emirates airlines for a pleasant flight. Baby slept most of the trip both ways.
New airport is enormous and very busy, i recommend checking in at least 3 hours prior to flight.
I previously queried fishing trips around Hua Hin on this site. There is actually a lot of operators around town who will take you game fishing. There is also a land based fishing place where you can catch big catfish. I ahve plenty of brochures if anyone is interested.
Once again, thanks to all for your advice, we had a great time.

Thanks for the report. We stayed at the Sofital Central 4 years ago and found it wonderful. What problems did you encounter?

Penalty avoided.

I'm glad you had a good time but please define your meaning of "game fishing"?

thanks for the report..

tell us more about davis

Problems at the Sofitel....upon check-in we were asked if we would like to upgrade to "Club Sofitel" for an extra 1500 thb a night, which would include my choice of aus newspaper each day, a new "My-Bed" - supposedly soft and so comfortable you will have the best night of sleep, a complimentary gift etc.....on day 2 i enquired about the newspaper and was told by the same girl that "the policy changed and no international papers are provided. Fine, but why offer it as an inducement. I was a bit annoyed that offers were made when they couldnt be honored. The "complimentary gift" never arrived, again no big deal but why offer, the bed was honestly old, tired and nowhere near new or soft. I checked it and it was a generic hotel brand mattress. We had a baby with us and the place was half empty on check-in, but they put us in a room where exterior painting was being done less than 10 metres away, and rooms were having the floors sanded and sealed - very very strong fumes outside the room. In our room, one of the teak floorboards was loose and dipped down about an inch under pressure.
Other than that, the place was very good. Housekeeping and restaurant staff excellent.
The gamefishing apparently takes place from a town 20 minutes south of HuaHin. The brochures advertised fishing for live-bait and squid and then spending night-time fishing for sailfish and tuna. I didnt get the time to do this trip, but I will on my next trip.
The Davis Hotel I found through TripAdvisor and ranked at #4 for popularity but was less than half the cost of the top 3. From reviews, they have a policy of offering upgrades whenever possible. Our room was huge, comfortable king bed, plasma tv, and the all marble bathroom had a double-sized figure 8 shaped tub. The staff here were extremely friendly when they saw the baby coming. Housekeeping would wait to hear our door open and be waiting outside for hugs. Breakfast at the Davis was very good too.
Overall a great trip and will go back again, and would stay the same places.

Don't believe the brochure too much! Twenty minutes south from Hua Hin is Pran Buri not known for it's gamefishing. In general you fish for squid at night and sailfish during the daytime and there are not that many around there. Unless you go quite far out I doubt that you'll find Tuna within 30 kilometers from shore.

Give it a try but be advised that the only decent saltwater gamefishing in Thailand is around Phuket.

thanks hanuman. I suspected the fishing wouldnt be great around there. In my family we have a large professional dropline/longline tuna boat business, and i know that pelagics like tuna feed offshore drop-offs.
I did get a brochure for a new land-based fishing lodge which is apparently 10km from hua-hin, could be worth a look for fishing addicts. the website is http://www.huahinfishing.com