How to Road Trip Thailand

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Day 1 of our Road Trip Thailand Guide, you'll be arriving into Phuket! Pick up your hire car from a car rental near Phuket Airport then head to your Phuket family resort. Looking for family friendly hotels in Phuket or things to do in Phuket? You can see where we stayed and everything we did in our Thailand Travel Guide. This also covers Phuket attractions for children, Phuket with a family and the best beaches in Phuket.

Phuket is a great base and a great introduction into what awaits for your travels through Thailand. You will want to spend at least 4 days here. Phuket is a mountainous island in the Andaman Sea, and has some of Thailand’s most popular beaches, mainly situated along the clear waters of the western shore. The island is home to many high-end seaside resorts, spas and restaurants. There is so much to do in Phuket for kids and as a family, so you will want to do your research so that you can plan your Phuket itinerary accordigly. Patong, the main resort town, has many nightclubs and bars, this area is for the younger crowd and can get quite loud and chaotic. Although a great area to see, we recommend staying at a more family friendly area of Phuket if traveling with young children.

Enjoy your time in Phuket, settle in and get ready for your traveling through Thailand to begin.

After Phuket, head to the stunning and more remote area of Khaoh Sok. Approx 2.5hrs drive. This is a little out of the way and off the beaten path but Khaoh Sok is fast becoming a tourist hot spot and we highly recommend visiting before it becomes way to over crowded. It is so beautiful and peaceful and if it's within your budget, we suggest spending a night in a floating bungalow on Khao Sok Lake to really experience the area. Think lakes, jungle, nature and a quirky little town in amongst it all full of delicious food, friendly locals and tour guides waiting to take you on an unforgetable adventure floating down the Sok River. 

Khao Sok National Park is a nature reserve in southern Thailand containing dense jungle, towerlike limestone formations and the man-made Cheow Lan Lake. The park can be explored by an elephant safari or hiking trail or even raft, canoe or kayak via the Sok river. 

Looking for family friendly accommodation in Khaoh Sok or wondering where to stay in Phang Nga with kids? Our Thailand Travel Guide has everything you need from Things to do in Khao Sok with kids to family day trips in Phang Nga.

After 1-2 nights in Khao Sok, head to Phang Nga. Approx 1 hour away. Spend 1 night here exploring the area before making your way to Krabi. Phang Nga is distinguished by its tall limestone rock-like islets. One of the islets, Khao Phing Kan, is known for a 20m-tall rock called Ko Tapu, or James Bond Island, which is featured in the film “The Man with the Golden Gun" and is a sight to see! It is such a breathtaking landscape of limestone formations in emerald green water! Also be sure to visit the floating village of Koh Panyee if in the area.

Once you can bring yourself to leave Phang Nga, drive 2 hours south east until you reach Krabi. Krabi will be your base while you explore all of the surrounding islands. There are so many day trips out to secluded and remote islands here so you will want to do your reseach on which ones you'd like to visit and how many you will be able to visit in one day. We also highly recommend seeing Railay Beach while in Krabi. This was one of our most favourite destinations in the whole of Thailand. So relax, enjoy and immerce yourself into the stunning destinations that surround Krabi. 

Our Thailand Travel Guide covers everything you need to know about your Krabi Family holiday and Island hopping from Krabi. Plus how to get to Railay Beach with kids and where to stay in Railay Beach with kids.

The final leg of our Road Trip in Thailand, and the longest stretch! Drive from Krabi to Koh Samui which will take approx 5 hours in total including a ferry! The Ferry to Koh Samui is caught from Surat Thani and you can simply just drive your car on. It will take approx 2 hours, depending on which Ferry company you go with and the weather conditons etc... The journey is quite comfortable with food and beverages on board and comfortable seating. Be sure to pre book this ahead of time!

Once you arrive into Koh Samui, you will get back into your car to drive it off the Ferry and then continue on to your accommodation in Koh Samui.

So this will conclude your incredible road trip through Thailand. If you don't have 2 weeks to do this you can easily leave out some locations as everywhere is really quite accessible and easy to get to if you use this Thailand Road Trip Itinerary as a guide.

Koh Samui is paradise, there are stunning palm lined beaches to explore, family friendly beach clubs, beautiful restaraunts, markets and so much more. Everything in Koh Samui is quite spread out so it really does pay off to have your own car here. This is your time to relax, unwind from your Thailand road trip and enjoy everything that Koh Samui has to offer for a family.

There are so many incredible things to do in Koh Samui with kids and we stayed in the most amazing Koh Samui Villa for a family. You can dive deeper into our Thailand Itinerary in our Thailand Travel Guide.

What do we do to stay connected while traveling? Have you ever received a huge roaming bill after a trip abroad? Have you ever lost phone service or connectivity while traveling - and found yourself desperately searching for free Wi-Fi? Have you wasted time anxiously looking for a SIM vendor at the airport? We experienced all of these things, this is why we use Airalo. Simply download and instal your digital data pack, depending on where you are in the world and you are good to go. This saved us so much time, effort and money when we arrived into a new country. We got off the plane and immediately had Internet! See more info here - Airalo ESIM 

& that concludes this epic 2 week Road Trip of Thailand full of Bucket List adventures and destinations! To dive deeper, you can see more of our Thailand Travel Guide in our YouTube episodes which will be linked to this article soon! 

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Read more about our epic travels through Asia here