I was invited to review one of the Avani brand’s latest openings, the Avani+ Khao Lak. An hour’s drive from Phuket International Airport, the hotel was right on the beach and offers a range of activities, and also has multiple room types that suit couples and families alike. 

What really drew me to the hotel were the kids’ facilities including a kid’s club as well as a water play area with two water slides and a splash bucket. 

Travelling with kids is nothing like travelling as a couple was. We used to pack minimal, carry-on luggage, check in online and show up at the airport less than an hour ahead of schedule. Or if we went early we lounged somewhere and had some food.

However now in this post-pandemic world, we knew better than to rock up and wing it and made sure we arrived two hours before our 9am flight. But that meant leaving the house at 645am, and waking everyone up by 6am. 

We had arranged for a car seat for our toddler in both our rides to and from the airport and also to and from the resort, but brought the baby’s bucket car seat which fit on the travel stroller we had. Loading everyone into the car probably took a good 15 minutes on its own and that included two full-sized suitcases packed with diapers, toys, clothes, extra clothes, swimsuits and slippers etc. My toddler R had just started getting into choosing her own clothes, so we had to make sure we packed all of those. For baby A, who was just starting solids, we brought some food plus bibs and also dish soap.

Thankfully, the flight to Phuket is less than two hours. For her first real holiday, R was quite excited just to sit on the plane and be responsible for her own seatbelt, tray table and the window. However I’d say that wore off close to landing time. I had also made her a snackbox packed with some of her favourite things to keep her entertained and not hungry. I had been prepared to nurse Baby A on takeoff and landing to help her ears with the pressure, but this kid was way happier making friends with the people seated around her.

The drive from Phuket International Airport to Khao Lak is just over an hour, and this was what I was most worried about given that one hour in the car, with not much to actually physically entertain a toddler with was a stressful idea. In general I expected the novelty of the whole situation to take up about 20 minutes, and the rest of the time we’d have to wing it.

Fortunately, we had bought data on our phones and I used that to Spotify some of her favourite music. This was a good idea as she soon conked out and got a good 40 minute nap in on the journey. For a child who hates napping, this was pretty impressive. Baby A unfortunately napped not at all as she was too excited looking at everything on the way.

My first experience with this hotel brand, the sister brand to Thailand’s Anantara, was in 2018 when I travelled by myself to their hotel in Hua Hin. I noted then how the sprawling space and simple luxuries would be great for travelling with kids. Especially the villas which are designed to accommodate families and young children and their needs.

Our two bedroom pool villa featured a full-sized fridge, sink and small stove. The sink came in particularly useful for the baby’s food. There was also a six-seater full-sized dining table for family meals (plus a baby high chair). All-in-all, it made having meals together inside the villa easy and relatively relaxing – as relaxing as it was going to get with two young kids anyway.

The resort is sprawling, the benefit of being up in Khao Lak is it’s an area that hasn’t been fully developed yet, and so the resort, has a lot of space for amenities including two swimming pools, a children’s water play area, three restaurants including all-day dining Elements and beach-side The Beach House. Honestly, we ended up spending most of our time at Mi Scusi, the pizza bar next to the kids’ pool and water play area (for obvious reasons). For rainy days, kids would also love Avani Kids which also had a soft play room for toddlers as well as an upstairs hideaway for teens.

As mentioned above, the hotel has three restaurants with all-day dining Elements doubling up as Tiffin in the evenings, cooking up authentic Indian and Thai cuisine. All restaurants accommodate kids with a children’s menu and which (for some reason) were all just a little different from one another. The last time we travelled with R, her picky eating definitely got a bit stressful, and so this time I decided if she was going to live off pizza for three days, so be it. This made meals a lot easier (and she did eat other things, including variety of yoghurts and donuts at breakfast, maybe some fruit). It also seemed to bring out the adventurous side of her, and I was amazed that she was willing to try our spicy Tandoori chicken and Phad Krab Loi(?).

In a sense, it was good that we only had one kid to worry about feeding, as Baby A is still largely breastfed. It was nice to be able to include her at meals tho by letting her sample bread and various fruits, keeping potential allergies in mind.

The resort has expansive beach options which older kids (and adults) would probably enjoy, from stand-up paddle boarding to kayaking in a see-through canoe. However my kids are at that age where the sensory experience of sand is a no-go. We tried to spend a morning on the beach showing R the little crabs running across the sand and sea shells, but the waves were quite strong and that made her nervous. Respecting this, we spent most of our time in the pools. Harder still was convincing her that the water play area, with its huge splash bucket and two windy water slides would be a good time. Despite hijacking Baby A to go down on the slide with together, she still refused. We decided it wasn’t something to push her on as we didn’t want her to have a lasting phobia about it. For the time being, she was extremely happy to spend her time in the various pools, one of which had a wading area only 60cm-high, which was perfect for her to walk in.

We would spend mornings in one pool by the beach, and then head to the kids’ area for lunch and more pool time. Then we’d take a break and end up back in a pool, usually the villa’s. All this activity was great for everyone as it meant R was tired out by 6pm (she would literally stand up in the high chair at dinner and announce “I’m TIRED!”) and asleep by 7.30pm. Given that she is usually awake till 9pm in Singapore, my husband and I didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves once she was asleep. We went to the spa one evening for 90-minute massages, and ended up binge-watching The Crown the other night. While there are useful buggies to take you everywhere, it was nice taking advantage of Khao Lak’s cooler weather to walk to most places.

We visited the kids club to explore a couple times but ended up outdoors in the pools a lot. Even so, kids’ clubs is a new experience for me as naturally, it was never an important part of a hotel when we didn’t have kids. This one includes a small sand playground which – smartly enough – is covered and protected from the rain (there is also one outdoors by the water play area). The attentive staff at the club will indulge your kids in activities (there are free as well as paid activities from batik painting to pancake decorating) and are warmly welcoming and ready to help give tired parents’ a couple hours respite. There are also many books and comfortable bean bags if your kids are into reading.

Also worth mentioning is the net in the lobby. While it looks like a design element, it was confirmed by three staff members (I asked multiple times) that it is indeed for children to climb on. For awhile, R was the only one using it to “lightly hop” as we reminded her many times. But one morning a group of kids checked in and they were all over it. Kids are fearless and seemingly dangling over the all-day dining didn’t scare them one bit.

I’m glad that we made our first trip away with two young kids easy and worry-free. While in the past we might have tried to save money on hotel transfers, or been more adventurous with our activities, I think simply spending time around the resort was a good way to see what our toddler enjoyed and how much she could handle in terms of new experiences.

You always hear how babies and toddlers are creatures of habits that it can make a parent uneasy breaking everyone out of their comfort zone – but then you do it and you see how rewarding it can be.

Both kids impressed me with their general resiliency and willingness to accept new things – you always hear/get warned how babies and toddlers are creatures of habits that it can make a parent uneasy breaking everyone out of their comfort zone – but then you do it and you see how rewarding it can be. R came back and told everyone at school what a wonderful holiday she had in Thailand, and we, as tired but contented parents, came back feeling more confident about how we manage the kids on-the-go.

Probably the only thing I would change was the packing. We packed way too much in worry that we would need this or that or something. As the hotel was well-stocked and ready for kids, we probably didn’t have to worry too much, and we could have definitely done with less clothes – but live and learn. 

Our next trip will be 13 hours to the UK, so it will be interesting to see how that compares to this. But one thing’s for sure, I am already looking forward to watching my kids experience colder climates and new places.

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