Phuket with Kids: 10 Days, Three Beaches and One Four-Year-Old, from Surin to Kata to Patong

1Surin BeachHat Surin

Oct 15 (night) to Oct 17 (midday), 2 nights About 23 km (14 mi) from Phuket Airport, 30–40 minutes by car

Our flight landed around 9:30 p.m. A driver from the car company I’d booked over a messaging app was waiting at Gate 3, and the ride to the hotel was 550 baht. Walking to the convenience store that night, we met a lizard, a dog and a bird I’d never seen before, and my kid greeted each one the same way:

“Nice to meet you! Let’s meet again tomorrow! But it’s okay if you don’t come out tomorrow! Take care! Don’t let anything bad happen!”

The Novotel at Surin had plenty for kids to do. The pool had several slides, there were foam play sessions in the water, and music was always playing. The next day we spent the morning in that pool and had pizza for lunch at the resort restaurant, which was honestly very good. The beach is right in front of the resort, so in the afternoon we walked along the sand, swam, and saw a few fish with a snorkel mask. Dinner was grilled pork ribs from a street grill that my kid picked out. “What if we hadn’t eaten this? It’s so good!” From that night on, pork was the favorite food of the trip.

Where we stayedNovotel Phuket Surin Beach Resort at the time. Since 2023 it has operated as Holiday Inn Resort Phuket Surin Beach

Where we ateThe resort restaurant (pizza) and a street grill near the hotel (pork ribs)

TipIf you land at night, book the airport pickup ahead. Standing in a taxi line with a sleepy kid and all your bags is not how you want to start.

2Kata BeachHat Kata

Oct 17 (midday) to Oct 19 (midday), 2 nights About 25–30 km (16–19 mi) south of Surin, around 50 minutes by car

Driving south from Surin, we passed Karon Beach and its long stretch of sea, and checked in at the Metadee in Kata around 2 p.m. After a welcome drink we found our room opened onto a terrace with steps straight down into the pool. Slipping into the water right there with my kid is one of my favorite memories of the whole trip.

To get in and out of the resort you call a little golf cart. The carts came often, so we never waited long, and for my kid the cart ride was its own attraction. There was a market nearby that we wandered through together, too.

Our first dinner was at Aup Kata, a seafood restaurant. On the way back my kid put both feet in a doctor-fish tank outside a shop. My kid’s legs were too short to reach the fish from the edge, so the kind person at the shop said it was fine to just stand inside the tank.

The next day at lunch, at another seafood place nearby, a staff member brought over a live lobster to show us and even let my kid hold it. We spent the afternoon on Kata Beach until sunset.

Where we stayedMetadee Resort & Villas, pool-access room. It now appears on booking sites as Metadee Concept Hotel

Where we ateAup Kata seafood restaurant, another seafood restaurant nearby, fruit stalls in Kata

TipPeople in Thailand are generally wonderful with kids. Restaurant staff often came over first to show us a crab or a lobster and say hello.

3Patong Beach and JungceylonHat Patong

Oct 19 (afternoon) to Oct 23 (night), 4 nights About 10 km (6 mi) north of Kata, around 25 minutes by car

We spent the last four nights at Baan Laimai in Patong. The beach is just across the road, and the Jungceylon shopping mall is an easy walk, so even after a day trip we could walk to dinner. On the first afternoon we swam in the sea at Patong while the sun went down, and that night we went to the trampoline park inside Jungceylon. The mall reopened in 2024 after a renovation; the trampolines are now inside Kidzoona, an indoor playground on the third floor.

We ate twice at Shabushi, a conveyor-belt shabu-shabu (Japanese-style hot pot) restaurant in Jungceylon. Every evening we walked back past the fountain in front of the mall and a toy shop, stopping for a long time at every seafood tank and every street cat.

Where we stayedBaan Laimai Beach Resort & Spa

Where we ateShabushi at Jungceylon, a Korean restaurant in Patong, seafood restaurants

4Flying Hanuman ziplineKathu

Oct 20, 2:30–4:30 p.m. On the road to Kathu Waterfall, 20–25 minutes by car from Patong

I booked this the night before, worried that our one empty day would drag. The course links 28 treetop platforms in the forest with ziplines and rope bridges, and I hesitated: if my kid got scared halfway, we’d both be miserable and the money would be gone. But on our first night in Surin, an ad for this exact zipline had come on the hotel TV, and my kid had said:

“Wow, I’ve wanted to do this forever. If I try that, I think I’ll feel fantastic!”

So we went, and my kid loved every line. On the uphill forest paths between platforms, the guide was patient and helped us the whole way.

TipMinimum age rules vary from listing to listing (some say from age 4), so confirm with the operator before you book. Don’t confuse Flying Hanuman with Hanuman World, a different park with a luge.

5Island SafariChalong

Oct 21, 9 a.m. to noon Near Chalong, 30–40 minutes by car from Patong

This was a safari-park package with an elephant trek and a few shows. I hadn’t thought much about it when I booked, but once we were there, the elephants seemed to be working far too hard, and it didn’t sit well with me. There were sanctuary visits where nobody rides the elephants, and I wished we had done one of those instead.

Still, one elephant bathing slowly in a pond at the edge of the park held us there for a long time.

TipIf you want to see elephants, choose a sanctuary program with no riding and no shows. Observation-only places like Phuket Elephant Sanctuary welcome kids of all ages.

6Koh KhaiKhai Islands

Oct 22, 10:30 a.m. to noon About 20 minutes by speedboat from the pier on Ko Sire, east of Phuket Town

This was a speedboat tour that combined Koh Khai and the Phi Phi islands. A van picked us up outside the hotel around 8:20 a.m. and drove us to a pier on Ko Sire, and we boarded around 10. The first stop, Koh Khai, has shallow, clear water: my kid just stood knee-deep and striped fish gathered around those small feet. Before we boarded, a vendor had taken my kid’s photo. By the end of the day it would come back to us printed on a plate.

TipFeeding the fish at Koh Khai is now banned. The beaches are rocky and shallow, so water shoes help.

7Phi Phi IslandsKoh Phi Phi

Oct 22, 12:50–3 p.m. About 40 minutes by speedboat from Koh Khai

At Phi Phi Leh we passed Maya Bay without landing, then swam with my kid in a bay ringed by cliffs. Going past Viking Cave, we spotted monkeys living on the rocks by the water. Then we landed on Phi Phi Don for a buffet lunch, swam once more off the beach, and headed back to Phuket.

All day, other families on the boat were curious about such a small kid, and some asked if they could take photos with my kid. When we stepped off the boat, there was the morning’s photo, printed on a plate and for sale. I went to buy just the one with my kid on it, and my kid said:

“If we buy the plate with you on it too, then we can be together!”

So we bought two, at 100 baht each. I still think of that moment fondly.

There’s a separate post with the whole day: A Phi Phi Islands tour from Phuket with our 4-year-old, Khai Island first

TipMaya Bay was closed from June 2018 to January 2022 to let the beach recover, so in 2019 we could only see it from the boat. Today visitors land at the Loh Samah Bay pier behind it and walk in. Swimming isn’t allowed, and the bay closes every August and September (as of October 2026). Phi Phi also has a national park fee for foreign visitors (400 baht for adults, 200 baht for children), so check whether your tour includes it.

8Last day, waiting for a night flightPatong

Oct 23, noon to 10 p.m. About 40 km (25 mi) from Patong to the airport, around an hour in daytime

Our flight home left after 1 a.m., so we checked out around noon and left our bags with the hotel. Baan Laimai let us keep using the pool and the kids’ playroom after checkout, so the hotel became our base until it was time to go. Lunch was coconut and fried rice at a food court nearby, and then we played in the sand on Patong Beach, which had grown wide at low tide. In the afternoon we had a last swim in the sea as a light rain started, and dinner was Shabushi at Jungceylon, one more time.

At 10 p.m. the car we’d booked took us through the rain to the airport. My kid fell asleep soon after we boarded, and woke up when we landed.

TipWith a late-night flight, ask your hotel ahead of time whether you can store your bags and keep using the pool and play areas after checkout. It makes the last day long and easy.