Where to live?

I would recommend this island called Koh Lanta which is perhaps lesser known than many of the islands already mentioned but Lanta has a lot to offer a family as detailed below:

1. Beautiful beaches, long Beach

2. Good numbers of expats on island. A lot of Swedish who have excellent English.

3. It's fairly big and offers a close knit community as well as more secluded areas.
• saladan is main town but the island is pretty big with loads to see and do and there are many little towns and markets and smaller sub town communities.

4. Development is moving quickly first time I visit in 2010 a ferry or speed boat were the only options to reach island but last time I went I see they were building a large bridge to join the island with the mainland. Not sure if it is built yet but if not definitely very soon.

5. Safety - the only problems I ever heard about on that island are isolated incidents involving scooters tourists and alcohol and they were very few and far between.

6. Schooling - they have 1 international school on the island for children 1.5 years upto 12. Noted this is not required for the OA.

7. It's not party central it has a nightlife crowd but it's pretty relaxed.

8. It's reachable by airport - aprox 2 hours from krabi town airport.

9. You can also get there via trang which is nearest train station - aprox 2 hours from trang via frequent minibuses at trang centre  ( can also get off at surat thani and get minibus to krabi, this from my experience took longer than trang but trang is after surat thani on the train route.

10. Air quality is fresh, overall quality of life I think is very good, the one thing i noticed over the 5 years I visited so far has been the retention of people on the island, the same people year after year, that says a lot to me.

The independent newspaper in uk voted lanta as one of the must see places last year so interest is growing as are developments, it is very different to many islands in my opinion and was more family orientated hence more relaxing.