More advice please..?
 

Hi,
Well, we've decided to leave out Ankgo wat this time with our 2 year old. Plan on Bangkok and chiang mai for 7 days...the last week in october. Now we are considering adding on 4 or 5 days at the beginning of the trip to hang out at a beach area. Any suggestions? I've read here that Phuket may still be monsoony and Koh samui (sp?) may be drier. We have a 2 year old, so nightlife isn't important ;-) more interested in a basic beachy vacation and relaxing.

Thanks!
Shelly

not sure of the weather but the peace resort on koh samui would be perfect for you with a child...

also hua hin could be considered: marriott, hyatt, sofitel, anantara hotels are all good...its an easy 2 hour drive south of bkk and that time of year it is lovely...

also koh chang...we stayed at the barali beach resort and it was fantastic...

rhkkmk,
Thanks for all your advice so far. Koh Chang and barali resort look beautiful! How did you get there? I see it is a 4 hour drive and then a short ferry ride from Bangkok. Would you recommend that?
Shelly

You can fly to Trat then take the ferry to Koh Chang. Look at the Tropicana Resort next door to Barali too.

we drove in a private car--hired through pattaya where we spent 2 nites on the way....we flew back to bangkok from trat airport....the flight is only about 35 minutes on bangkok air...you can fly both ways for a very reasonable price...
the hotel will arrange transportation to and from the trat airport for you...i think i paid about $10 each but i sort of forget in a sharred van...the van takes you directly from the airport, onto the ferry and from the ferry directly to the hotel...door to door...

one slightly more upscale hotel that is brand new and in the same area is the amari emerald cove resort...it is fantastic...barali was very nice and quiet...only thing we did not like was that their restaurant was only so so...we often walked just nest door (1 minute walk) to the tropicana resort and ate there where the food was much better....barali was not bad just not fantastic....amari has fantastic food but also is more expensive...