When it comes to travel, my dad and I are planets apart. Me? Travel obsessed; I was the kind of kid that reads Lonely Planets in bed at night. Him? Reluctant to do anything spur of the moment or step out of his comfort zone, which has meant him travelling to the same place in rural France every summer for the past two decades.
This has always been frustrating for me (of course it has, he’s my dad after all). There’s a big world out there, and it can be tough convincing him to see more than a small, fairly boring corner of it.
But when it comes to taking a long-haul flight to try something new and unusual, there’s not much that’s more persuasive for a greying grandpa than celebrating his first grandson’s first birthday. And so, with a fairly forceful approach, after 20 years of trying, I got Dad to Thailand.
My plan for the trip was for Dad (Paul) and stepmum, Rachel, to have the World’s Best Holiday, full of bonding moments with their grandson and sprinkled with entirely new cultural experiences. This was about mixing why I’ve been visiting Thailand virtually every year since I was 18 (street food and beaches, mostly) with what I knew Dad would love (fancy but good-value restaurants; meeting and learning from new people; buffet breakfasts). I decided on three destinations — city time in Bangkok, followed by coastal Phang Nga and Koh Yao Yai. They were places that blended both our interests, keeping everyone happy, including the VIP, my son.
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Our first night in Bangkok
Hannah with her baby in the rooftop pool at the 137 Pillars
I’d be lying if I said that on that first night in Bangkok, with my parents giddy from jet lag and the complimentary cocktail hour at the seriously swish (and well-priced) 137 Pillars hotel, that I didn’t think, “Wow, this might be a long fortnight.” (It had been 20 years since we’d been on holiday together.) “Hannah,” my husband, Jon, said, a little exasperated, “you’ve wanted this for years. Just enjoy them enjoying it.”
With that reminder, we headed out onto the hectic streets of Thonglor, an upscale neighbourhood, where I quickly took on the parent role — parenting Dad, that is. That amounted to a lot of hurried ushering across the streets as hundreds of mopeds whizzed around his slow, wide-eyed saunter.
• Best hotels in Bangkok
The street food stalls in Chinatown
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I booked a backstreets street food tour, something I knew he’d love but would never have arranged himself. Led by Aye, a chef, guide and archaeologist, we wiggled our way through cramped, sometimes stinky markets and devoured crunchy, fragrant and fresh catfish salads standing by roadside stalls. “Surprisingly tasty,” was Dad’s verdict. Then, in the searingly hot, stained-walled space that was a derelict former cinema in Chinatown, we perched on tiny plastic chairs and spooned in peppery tripe broth while horns honked, fans stuttered and people shouted around us. Bliss.
Keen to keep things balanced — the key to a successful trip for three generations — the next day was relaxed. After leaving the parents to their own devices in the morning (they had booked a tour of the Grand Palace but instead spent 90 minutes waiting in the wrong place for their guide), we had an afternoon in the hotel’s infinity pool, my son squealing with glee as Gramps hurled him in the air. Rachel returned breathless from her spa session — “best massage ever!” she declared. “Although the therapist did spend most of it standing on my back. Is that normal?”
To the beaches of Phang Nga
Rooms at Aleenta Phuket have floor-to-ceiling views of the pool and sea beyond
After the hectic pace of the city I knew the long, golden beaches of Phang Nga would be the perfect antidote. Our home for the next few days was the Aleenta Phuket hotel. Strictly speaking it’s north of Phuket, but just a 30-minute drive from the airport and in a far quieter and much less developed region. Our family villa was a series of virtually all-glass rooms clustered around a pool that almost touched the beach, with gentle waves beyond.
• Best beaches in Thailand
We quickly slipped into a relaxed routine: a 15m stroll across the sand to our alfresco breakfast; pool playtime; nap times (grandson and grandpa); and cooling sea swims. Every evening Dad would take the toddler to the water’s edge for a paddle, waves lapping at his toes as the sky turned the colour of apricots. Then it was singing nursery rhymes on rotation as we negotiated panang curries and pad thais in the hotel restaurant, although my son was definitely more enamoured with the evening entertainment: a Thai octogenarian’s sweet rendition of Ralph McTell’s Streets of London being the favourite.
Tibetan singing bowls used for sound therapy at the Aleenta
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Keen to get my parents to see more of Thailand than the beach, I sent them off on hotel-arranged excursions — picnicking next to waterfalls, learning about turtle rehabilitation and meditating in a Buddhist temple (a new experience for both of them). At the hotel, they joined Ashit for yoga and sound therapy, another first for both of them. Dad returned fascinated by tales of this person with a lifestyle at total odds to his own. And then, the mid-trip epiphany: “I think I’ve been living my life all wrong,” he told us, gazing out to sea. “I need to drink more smoothies.” While it wasn’t the radical realisation I was hoping for, it was a decent start for this pie-loving Geordie.
Hannah’s dad Paul drinking smoothies at the Aleenta Phuket
The island of Koh Yao Yai
The next day we whizzed across the Andaman Sea for our final few nights on Koh Yao Yai. I’ve visited the island and its sleepier, smaller sister Koh Yao Noi dozens of times and love that it hasn’t developed the crowds of Samui or Phuket. Our next hotel, the gleaming Anantara, which opened at the end of 2023, may just change all that, with its large lagoon-style pool and excellent restaurants.
A traditional Thai longtail boat tour
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There are plenty of people who could come here and feel no need to leave, but that was never part of Operation Thailand. Instead, we hired a traditional longtail boat and took a tour of the nearby archipelago, lying out on the peeling mint-green paint of the deck, gazing up at limestone karsts. We paused to see monkeys scampering in the trees and dropped anchor at a tiny, empty beach where we floated on our backs.
• Best islands in Thailand
The following day we took a local van around the island, blasting past towering rubber trees and beneath pink bougainvillea bushes, our son wincing at his first tart taste of passion fruit, and with just 60 or so years between them, Dad trying his first, too.
As we sat in the shade sipping fresh juices, we watched a backpacker leave the ferry dock, a huge rucksack on his back and a guidebook in his hand. I could see Dad’s brain processing the scene: this young adult surely wasn’t just arriving on a semi-remote island with no concrete travel plans, was he? “Yes Dad, that’s all part of the fun,” I explained. “Huh,” he replied. “That’s a new one for me.”
The Anantara hotel has a great kids’ club
Back at the hotel, we took it in turns to whizz the little one down the hotel’s water slides and watched as he buried himself in the ball pit at the kids’ club. We’d travelled all this way to spend a sunny afternoon in soft play yet the joy on his face — on all our faces — will stay in my mind for ever.
With all these new sights, foods and experiences, I knew that there was one evening that would stick in Dad’s memory for years to come. It was not tasting Thailand’s smelliest white wine (imagine wine with notes of sweaty feet) or razzing through Bangkok in a tuk-tuk or the vegan tasting menu at Aleenta, all of which he loved. Instead, it was the first birthday party. The team at Aleenta had arranged a beautiful outdoor meal of freshly caught prawns, with lanterns, toes-in-sand dining and a huge cake.
After two weeks there was a hopeful outlook when it came to Dad and future travel plans. “I want to go to Lisbon and Athens and Iceland, and follow all the travel guides you’ve written,” he told me. He was clearly leaving with a newfound appreciation for the world, one that extended beyond his annual trip to the Dordogne.
Later, when we were passing through border control on the way home, the Thai official handed the passport back to Dad, who replied with “merci”. There’s definitely been good progress, but it seems there’s still some way to go.
Hannah Summers was a guest of Inspiring Travel, which has ten nights’ B&B — including two at 137 Pillars, four at Aleenta Phuket Phang Nga Resort & Spa and four at Anantara Koh Yao Yai Resort & Villas — from £3,165pp, including flights and transfers (inspiringtravel.co.uk); and of Tourism Thailand (tourismthailand.org) and Holiday Extras (holidayextras.com)
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