Kid friendly Koh Samui

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Image by whl.travel via Flickr

Koh Samui is becoming increasingly popular with families – especially those with older kids – and offers a wide range of activities as well as a growing number of family friendly resorts. Here’s our pick of the best..

It’s an obvious choice for families really with a great choice of family friendly resorts, friendly locals who welcome children and plenty of safe swimming beaches.

In addition to obvious activities like swimming and snorkeling, kids can take part in anything from football golf (I’ll explain later) to elephant rides.

Au naturale

You can of course walk out of your resort room, stroll across the white sand on the beach outside and swim or snorkel in the crystal clear waters in front of you. But for the best marine adventure in Koh Samui, hop in a speedboat with the kids and head for the Ang-thong national park, about an hour south of Samui.

Several companies operate tours from Samui for a price that wont break the budget. In this beautiful archipelago you’ll find unspoilt beaches, an inland lake known as the Emerald Lake, as well as caves and enough mystery and adventure for the kids to feel like they’re in their own Survivor episode. Older kids can also go kayaking and the colourful marine life provides great snorkeling.

Heading in the other direction, there is a great two-kilometre jungle hike that starts from the temple in Hin Lad just south of Na Thon on the island’s north-west.

The jungle path follows a small river with plenty of rock pools and waterfalls to dip into and further up the mountain there are larger pools ideal for swimming.

Animal antics

If your kids, like mine, are budding junior zookeepers it’s worth checking out some of the animal attractions. There are in fact plenty of animal attractions in Koh Samui, as diverse as the animals they exhibit and include a butterfly garden, a crocodile farm, snake farm and monkey shows.

All of them are well signposted and easy to reach by car, taxi or scooter and many are within a short drive fro each other so you can visit several in one day. There are also a number of operators that will take you on a Samui safari to a number of attractions so you can get up close to elephants, monkeys, crocodiles and even tigers.

At the elephant camps you can watch these gentle giants play football as well as musical instruments and if you want to get even closer you can try your hand at elephant trekking through the interior jungle. The elephant camp at Namuang Safari Park is one of the best places to start.

Monkeys are traditionally used in Thailand to help farm coconuts and you can really see how dexterous these creatures are at one of the monkey shows on the island such as the Monkey Theatre near Bophut.

Paradise Island in the centre of Samui is one of the island’s newest attractions and covers some 20 acres. It’s inhabited by plenty of kid-friendly animals such as deer, ponies, birds, emus and goats.

If your kids would rather not get under the water to see marine life, take them to the Samui Aquarium and Tiger Zoo. The aquarium is home to sharks, turtles, colourful fish and coral which you can watch from a plexiglass tunnel. The venue’s real highlight however is the daily Bengal tiger show.

Sporty stuff

Nearby to the mini-golf course in Choeng Mon you can play a new hybrid game apparently invented here called football-golf. You tee-off with your foot and the aim of the game is to get the football round quite a difficult obstacle course.

If you want to get messier, Samui Paintball can be found near the Samui International Hospital in Chaweng. Samui Go-Kart has a great racing course and is situated just off the 4169 Ring road west of Bo Put village.

Fact File

Getting there

Thai Airways fly daily to Bangkok from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth with connecting flights to Koh Samui. www.thaiairways.com.au

Animal Attractions

Monkey Theatre show times: 10:30, 14:00 and 16:00 daily

Snake farm show times: 11:00 and 14:00 daily

Samui Aquarium and Tiger Zoo show times: 13:00 daily

Crocodile farm show times: 14:00 and 16:30 daily

When to visit
If you like it hot, April to June is the best time to visit, with the wet season between mid-October and December. Late December to the end of March provide ideal tropical island weather.

More Information: Amazing Thailand