I am taking my family to India on business. I have a week free to do some sightseeing. I was thinking about going to Kerala but it looks like it may be too slow for my tastes and possibly expensive. So I started reading other postings and thought that I could catch a flight from Singapore to Thailand. It will be me, my wife, my 9 year old and 12 year old children. Im an architect and enjoy temples, churches, etc. My children love to play in the same. My wife would like resorts and massages. Please give me any feedback that will help me decide. I would like to go to place that allows for some independence to just wander. I am thinking that the extra cost of the flight from Singapore to Thailand will be offset by not going to Kerala and overpaying for hotels. If I wanted to pay anything over 100 Euro I'd go to Europe.

there are cheap flights from sin to bkk....air asia via K/L....tiger air...

in bkk you could have the best of what you want....look at the marriott resort and spa as the kids would love that and so would the wife...

the marriott courtyard might also work for you....they might have 2 dbl beds per room??

a serviced apartment like centre point silom would work with 2 bedrooms or some of the other serviced apartment places around town....

What time of year is your trip? That makes a huge difference for a place like Kerala, which has a monsoon season. Also, do you want beach areas of Thailand or city areas like Bangkok? Beach areas also have a wet season.

For India, look at Alistar Sawday's book, Great Places to Stay in India if you want to get hotels in that price range, not sure why you are finding hotels more expensive in Kerala than in a place like Bangkok to be honest.

One thing with Kerala veresus Thailand for kids will be health issues, you will need Malaria meds for the kids (and possibly yourself) in Kerala, but would not need them in most parts of Thailand. But you may be starting them anyway for the business portion of the trip you are taking the kids on anyway.

You might want to consider just staying in Singapore, there is a lot to see and do there, even for kdis (great zoo and night safari.)

YOu will find a good number of churches in Kerala (as well as temples and even some synagogues), but will not find a whole lot in Thailand (although there are a very few in Bangkok).

Thanks for the feedback. We are leaving on December 17th. I wasn't sure I was taking my typical family trip this year until this last month. Now we are in a scramble.
I am now just trying to figure out what we can do that fits into my typical flight pattern of coming into North India on Singapore Airlines. I've done stopovers in Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore. So now, I'm looking into expanding the radius and fitting in Thailand, or Cambodia, Bali, etc. Also, I've toured Northern India but not Southern. I will be spending a week in Northern India for business as it is. So if its all the same regarding cost, I can book a separate roundtrip flight out of Singapore, or book a roundtrip flight from my base of business in Northern India to the South. Any feedback from those of you who are more familiar with these areas will help me narrow it down.
I think its coming down to Siem Reap/Angkor Wat versus Kerala.