Phuket, Thailand October 2024

At the time of departure, Emirates were not yet flying from Edinburgh and so we booked to depart from Glasgow with Emirates. We were really excited about the kids flying long haul with Emirates. The staff were great, the kids received a few gifts on the flight, such as Emirate backpacks and also colouring packs for when they were needing a break from the hundreds of film/tv choices/games on the flights entertainment at their seat. We also got some polaroid photos taken on the flight which was a great little memory add on.

We flew via Dubai and with no time to spare, made our connecting flight to Phuket. Once we arrived in Phuket we got a taxi pretty quickly and made our way to the Hotel. We didn’t book a private transfer in case we missed our connecting flight.

As soon as we left the airport terminal the heat hit us. It was around 34 degrees and it felt HOT. The journey to the hotel was good, the kids literally shouted out everything they saw on the way, so many animals including a random elephant on the back of a truck.

We arrived at the Luxury Thavorn Beach Resort and Spa. Our first impression was wow. The grounds were beautiful and it felt huge when we arrived in the reception area. When we got out of the car, our luggage was instantly taken from us. We checked in pretty quickly and were taken by the transport team to our Garden Bungalow in a little golf cart with our luggage.

We had a few gecko friends around our bungalow and the kids LOVED it. Our room was lovely, very spacious and we had a separate half outdoor shower which was just awesome.

Our hotel pool/lagoon is the biggest in Phuket and it looked and felt so luxurious. We spent most of our time here. There is a shop where you can buy or hire everything you need, snorkels, inflatables, paddleboards, you name it they had it.

The beach was beautiful, the sea bed was a little stoney so you did have to be careful when entering the sea. However when the tide was out the rock pools were amazing and you could see so many different sea creatures including sea cucumbers and hermit crabs.

The hotel also had a petting zoo which was really popular amongst both children and adults. There were different types of birds which you could feed, which would land on your shoulders or your head, or sit in your hands. There was little pigs you could give a bottle of milk too. There was a massive tortoise who was clearly well looked after and also a little tortoise, both of which you could touch and feed.

The food at the hotel was amazing. We had been looking forward to trying Authentic Thai food and it didn’t disappoint. I was even eating Thai Green Curry for breakfast…. Why not? The pool/beach bar also sold food which was really great and included pizzas, burgers, fries, pastas etc and we quite enjoyed just sitting by the pool eating. When we booked we upgraded to half board as we thought it would be good with the kids. However if we were to do this again, we would just include breakfast as the half board menu didn’t have as much choice as the main menu and there was not much difference in price really.

We visited the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary whilst in Phuket, this was something Louise really wanted to do and we did a lot of research on this before we went as we wanted to ensure we went somewhere ethical. We decided on the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, there is so many to choose from. It is a wildlife conservation centre and the whole team is committed to elephant welfare. It’s a not for profit organisation which aims to promote the conservation and welfare of the Asian elephant and reduce human – elephant contact. All the elephants here are rescued. We had a great time here, all be it it was so hot. The kids got to see elephants up close and we got to feed them. They also got to hear about how the elephants are looked after and how to approach the elephants in a safe way. A once in a lifetime experience for us.

We attended the wedding…….. what a day. The hotel did such a great job of this and the location was stunning, on the beach, sun setting in the background. Food was amazing, music was amazing and we couldn’t fault anything. Even the kids loved it.

We wanted to go to Phuket’s water park as it is meant to be really good, however we were absolutely knackered and decided a chill day was needed before we flew on to our next destination.

Phuket was amazing and if we were to go back I think we would try and do some island hopping too.

Look out for our next Blog on Bangkok…..