Hi all,
I'm looking for a toddler friendly resort in South East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, …) or even closer like Bali. Thank you for sharing your experiences and recommendations!
Resort Holidays in South East Asia with a 2yo
Lsupersushi on 12/02/2019 - 09:50
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Just came back from a luxury escapes holiday to Vietnam in a Vinpearl resort (a chain across all of vn). It was great, water park, safari, theme park even a kids club… My 2 year old loved it. Buffet food was surprisingly good. (for the adults, free daily cocktail and 1x 1hr massage)
There's currently a deal there for vin pearl in hoi an. Little more expensive and no unlimited entries to the parks like I did but still good value.
How is the getting around in Vietnam with 2yo, pram friendly? Easy to get around?
Well, the only time we left the resort was:
1/ When we went to the safari - yes pram friendly and easy to get around. It was a little bit of a hassle to carry the pram onto the little hotel shuttle buggie but not overly difficult. The safari itself has plenty of space, open and pram friendly
2/ When we went to the theme park - same as above, plenty of space and pram friendly. The place had hardly anyone there so didnt have to fight with crowds or line up for rides
3/ When we took a night out (3 hours?) to go out to the night market. Not very pram friendly, we didnt take the pram - i carried him and when on the streets let him walk a little bit. But I'd keep him at arms length - foreign country, unknown neighborhood - could be a dangerous place (it felt fine - we were at the night market and didnt stay late anyway).The resort itself was plenty spacious - you could push the pram around but my 2yo was also happy to walk around - goto the pools and run around the kids club (You can pay for child minding but we didnt)
Ah thanks which cities you visited in vietnam, or just the resorts and the surroundings? Done any tours or site seen?
I'm planning to go see ie vietnam or Korea, but I wouldn't be stuck in a resort tho :(@boomramada: In vietnam - the only other city i've been is HCM.
I love vietnam and i've heard plenty of good things about some of the places up north (eg. nha trang, hoi an, ha long bay) . U dont need to be in a resort - theres heaps to see and do.But if you're travelling with a child .. i'd be extra careful. A lot of places are not hygienic at all. Just be extra careful when it comes to food safety (fully cooked or peeled foods) and physical safety.
The safari imho was one of the best features of the resort. A lot of people say the theme park is lame but imho the fact that not a hell of a lot of people go, on our first night there was probably about 3 other families the operators were literally waiting for us to go on the rides that its great. Secondly, people expect a disneyland of sorts of universal world studios, expectation gap. The PQ market agreed is not designed for prams and overall I think lacks the general infrastructure to support tourists.
Thanks @SmiTTy!
Can I ask which VInpearl resort you went to?
Cheers!Phu Quoc.. I dont know how much it normally is but we got a good deal thru luxury escapes. Not sure I'd pay the normal price so try to find a package deal..
Eg
https://luxuryescapes.com/au/offer/vinpearl-resort-and-golf-…
We went in October 2017 with our three year old son and we had the loved it too, but I didn't know if it was because I'm easily satisfied by things or we didn't know any better because we rarely travel to South East Asia and so we're travel noobs.
We have relos in Vietnam and they were somehow able to purchase tickets at a discounted price - apparently didn't need to hold Vietnamese passports or anything either. I think at the time the Vinpearl group just wanted to promote the place to locals….it worked out to be $130 odd dollars per night for a family of 3, included limitless entry to their theme parks, safari and pools. This included Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Buffets and a decent hotel room. We stayed for 3 nights and 4 days.
Our thoughts:
Go now, in a few years, just like any over touristy place it will suffer from pollution etc. They already have a casino (opened Feb 19) there so no doubt expect it to be a lot more rowdy and probably increase of violence.
Those slides/pools are somewhat of a disappointment. They dont let you go accompany your kids as its a kids only pool, its probably more geared towards older children (8+).
Beach was good but quite boring, there isn't much to do though apart from swimming and tanning. Don't expect a lot jetski hires or parasailing. This can be good/bad depending on what you like.
We took a gamble going in late Oct/Early Nov. Apparently this is the end of the shoulder season, of the 4 days we were there we had 2 days of really bright sunshine, one overcast day, half a day of rain and half cloudy. Also quite quiet as well, wasn't overly crowded which is what you want at resorts. Main pool was good.
Kids club is good, but the massages (paid) was quite expensive so the wife said no to that.
We got picked up from the airport to the actual resort which was great (again included).
We loved the free robes, drop off bins and showers on the beach within the resort very useful. With a 3 yr old we found it very easy to just rinse after our beach session, head back to hotel room without a crapload of sand and then head for dinner/lunch.
For comparison, we went to Okinawa Sun Marina (Sheraton) for our babymoon in April 2018 and boy, the value for money vs Vinpearl it's like day and night. Our next family trip, we're going to look at Vinpearl again but probably going to try the flagship Nha Trang one out.
This is where I've taken my family. Padma Resort Legian. It's awesome - great family activities and staff, it's in Bali, so really close. Highly recommend checking it out. It's not cheap, but it's worth the money.
I ended up going to The Sands in Khao Lak, Thailiand. I highly recommend it, especially the rooms with private pools, which is perfect for parents to relax while the kids have a nap!
Uh, all of them, technically? It's not like it's unusual for people to holiday with children. My recommendation would be to pay for a full-time nanny for the time you are away and have some real freedom.