After experiencing Bangkok with 4 young kids, including a pair of twin toddlers, I continue to maintain my stance that Bangkok is not entirely children-friendly.
That is not to say that families with young children should not step foot into Bangkok. There are many places in Bangkok which families with kids will enjoy. They just have to be a little more mindful of the challenges involved and avoid making themselves miserable where possible.
I don’t know about you, but the following are the key traps that my family will steer clear of.
Key Challenges In Bangkok with Young Kids
Travelling to Bangkok with a pram
Unless you are going to be confined within the shopping malls, navigating the streets with a pram is a hassle.
The pavements are uneven to roll along with lots of steps. If you will be exploring the street sights and food, be mindful of the steps along the sidewalks.
Travelling by BTS train? I did not see any lift at the stations I went to. See this article for details.
For us, our solution is babywearing. Our twins have a combined of over 20kg. If we add on our monster tandem stroller, total weight is nearly 40kg. Can you imagine navigating the uneven streets with a 40kg stroller?
If you don’t have a baby carrier, you can rent one. Check out the rental shop based in Singapore here.
However, please perform your own sanity check. If you are equipped with a super light-weighted pram and your child is significantly heavier than your pram, you may be better off with pushing the pram up and down the bumpy streets as compared with wearing him/her the entire day.
Take the cab and join the jam
Bangkok is notoriously known for its traffic jam, especially in the evenings. Where possible, take the BTS instead.
We suffered from two bad experiences, one of which was from our accommodation to BTS Saphan Taksin in the evening. We could have taken a 45-min train ride instead of a 90-min cab ride.
Imagine yourself having to entertain your young children who are whining and crying out of boredom. Mine pooped in her diapers. Can you imagine keeping a pile of shit in the diaper for an hour? We had to very discreetly change into a fresh one while risking our grumpy driver cursing at us.
By the way, that was the one and only time we experienced an unfriendly driver. Perhaps it was due to the accumulated stress from driving through the congested streets daily.
Delectable street food – try the raw crab salad
Thailand is famous for its cuisine especially the very affordable and delicious street food.
We love Thai street food, and we tried out some of the piping hot meals from the street stalls just outside our accommodation at Better Moon Guesthouse. Check out my review on the property if you are keen.
But having young children with us makes us very cautious. We avoided trying out anything raw, exotic or cold on the street that would risk an unpleasant case of food poisoning with no one left to look after our kiddos.
Adapting to the local taste bud, be clear with your food preference
My children had no issue with Thai food. Knowing that some of the Thai food is spicy, we steered clear of them, such as tom yam soup though it is my favourite. And we gave instructions to the restaurants or stall owners to exclude chilli from any dish that the kids would be eating.
On the last day of our trip, we had lunch at the airport. We ordered pad thai. It was something that the kids often eat, and the dish was never spicy.
The dish turned out to be hot, and our kiddos rejected the meal. I complained to the restaurant staff who claimed that the pad thai dish is typically spicy. Her response got me pretty upset because I already mentioned to the waitress when ordering that the pad thai was for the kids.
On hindsight, perhaps our communication was not sufficiently clear, and the staff presumed our kids, including the toddlers, could tolerate and even enjoy spicy food.
Shopping
I don’t know about your kids. My kids do not like to shop unless they are looking for toys. And Thailand is a warm country. Street shopping typically gets us all hot and sweaty.
Therefore, at least for me, going to shop in the street or mall is a sure-fire way of getting my children all whiny and even risk melt-downs. My shopping trip will be ruined for sure.
My dear cousin, whose loves shopping in Bangkok, shared that she goes shopping after dinner. Her young twins will be left with her husband in a nearby hotel. In fact, she intentionally books hotels that are a stone’s throw from her favourite malls.
Want to know what we did in Bangkok? Check out my following posts.
Khao Yai & Bangkok with kids – 7D6N – June 2019
The kids had a blast in KidZania Bangkok
You may also like to read these travel posts on other parts of Thailand:
Hua Hin with kids – 6D5N – November 2022
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