Weekend trips out of Bangkok

The thread about people starting discussions reminded me to mention this; we recently did two weekend outings in Pattaya.  In the past we've done long weekend trips to Korat, Rayong, Cha-am, and Hua Hin.  Even Buriram, earlier this year, but there's not much to see or do in Buriram. 

Pattaya is kind of an odd choice given that we travel with two young kids and the theme is nightlife entertainment there.  There are also a number of other activities there, including three water parks nearby (Cartoon Network, Ramayana, and the more local Pattaya Park), and we just visited a Centara Grand Mirage resort play area that served a similar purpose, with a few small waterslides, a lazy river, beach access, etc.

I'll mention a blog post write-up about those outings with more details, with the main idea here starting discussion about other options.  For kids visiting Isaan works better than it might sound; Korat and Khon Kaen both have nice zoos with water parks, and there are dinosaur fossils and a museum out in that latter area, and a space-theme museum.  For the cool season (now) it works to get out to natural areas and do short hikes to see something different.

We tend to drive for these outings, enabling use of a vehicle while there, but expanding that to using a night train instead allows for visiting Chiang Mai or Nong Kai (and Vientiane, Laos) over a relatively short time.  I love taking those sleeper car trains and my kids do too.  It would work well to visit Siem Reap for a relatively short outing but a three-day weekend wouldn't be quite enough; it takes two full days there to do seeing those ancient temples justice, and even with the flight being short two travel days are still required.

About those Pattaya outings:

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co … h.html?m=1