Family Bangkok trip — four days, ten people

This was a 4 days 3 nights trip with ten people: two older relatives, two toddlers, and the rest of us in between. A group that size does not move like a couple with a daypack. Meals, toilets, naps, and Grab vans matter more than a tight itinerary.

We split into two groups for the flights. Day 1 below is from our side — two adults and two toddlers, flying Thai Airways from Singapore Changi. From Day 2 the whole group is together.

Before you fly

Take a few minutes and fill in the Thai Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) before you leave. It is the official form, and there is no fee.

Do not be alarmed by the aliens inside the website. 🙂

Day 1 — Changi to Sathorn, then CentralWorld

Thai Airways served lunch on the tray: rice with a stew, a small salad, bread with Orchid butter, and a layered dessert. It was ordinary airline food, which is all we needed with two toddlers in the row.

We landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) around 2pm local time. First view from the window was the usual overcast apron: a Thai Airways aircraft on the tarmac, ground equipment, and the airport’s latticed roof in the distance.

The terminal is large and, on our afternoon, crowded. After immigration, keep walking. Even when you reach an arrivals hall, it may be closed because of overcrowding. You may need to continue to the next one.

If you want the classic “we have arrived” photo, the backlit BANGKOK wall is worth a short stop once you are through.

Grab at Suvarnabhumi

Baggage claim is on Level 2. For Grab, go down to Level 1.

Suvarnabhumi does not work like Grab in Singapore. After you book, you do not get a driver name, ETA, and plate number. You get a pin code.

Then:

1. Exit the airport and walk toward the large Grab sign. You will pass the ordinary taxi and coach lanes.
2. Queue at Grab with that pin. Staff will help if you show them the code.
3. When you board, the driver asks for the pin again. After they enter it, they see your destination.

With toddlers and luggage, budget extra time for that walk and the queue. It is organised, but it is not a kerbside pickup at the door.

We reached the hotel around 4:45pm. Street view on the way in was typical Sathorn: overcast sky, a pedestrian overpass, a tangle of overhead wires, and Bangrak Medical Center on Sathon Tai Road.

Hotel — Best Western Click Sathorn 11

This was a budget trip. We stayed at Best Western Click Sathorn 11 Bangkok. The staff were friendly and helped with bags as soon as we arrived, which matters when you are ten people and two of them are small.

7-Eleven, then CentralWorld

Everyone was hungry, and we had older relatives and toddlers in tow. A few of us walked to a nearby 7-Eleven and brought food back to the rooms.

Thailand’s 7-Eleven is not a Singapore convenience store with extra snacks. There is a wide range of food, they will heat it for you, and many branches have a barista counter as well. For a family landing mid-afternoon, it is the fastest way to eat without committing to a restaurant.

By the time we had eaten, it was past 6pm. We booked a Grab van to CentralWorld.

The mall is huge. The original plan was Haidilao. The wait was one hour. With the group we had, that was too long, so we went to a nearby food court for local food instead.

The food court runs on a stored-value card. You top up at a machine and it prints a receipt. When you are done, take the same receipt back to the machine and refund whatever is left. Do not throw the slip away at the table.

We also stopped at KHIRI Thai Tea — ceramic teapots on backlit shelves, and drinks that look like they belong on a review more than a food-court tray: frozen Thai tea, a thick layer of orange shavings, cream on top.

If you are at CentralWorld with women in the group, NaRaYa is worth a visit. You can buy original bags at proper quality here, rather than guessing at a night market.

We also queued for Karun Thai tea. It was late; the stall had seven cups left and we were fifth in line, so they would only sell us one. We bought it anyway and shared it so everyone could taste it.

Shops were closing, so we Grabbed back to the hotel, made a last 7-Eleven run for supper, and called it a day.

Day 2 — Erawan Shrine, Siam, then ICONSIAM

Breakfast was at the hotel. First stop was Erawan Shrine (Thao Maha Phrom / Phra Phrom), at the Ratchaprasong intersection. You can take the BTS there. With ten of us, we booked a Grab van instead.

We came to pray for career, family, love, and the children. The shrine is four-faced. Walk clockwise from the entrance and pray at all four sides:

Order (clockwise from the entrance)	Side
1	Career (faces the entrance)
2	Love
3	Wealth (the back)
4	Health

We did the usual round of prayer and put some notes in as an act of kindness. If you make a wish and it comes true, the custom is to come back and repay it by hiring the dancers who perform in front of the shrine.

From Erawan you can walk to Siam Paragon on the connecting bridge. No need to get back in a van for that stretch.

The mall was packed around the food. We split across tables in the basement to eat whatever we could get. Once we were done, we walked to Nextopia, which is inside Siam Paragon. Entrance is free, and it is an easy place to bring kids. The basement of Nextopia has a few restaurants and, when we passed, it was relatively empty. We should have had lunch there. Our stomachs were already full, so we skipped it.

There is a MELAND indoor playground inside Nextopia. Check the boards at the door before you commit — with a large family the numbers add up quickly. When we visited, a small toddler was about 860 THB for three hours, older kids about 1,380 THB, a parent 280 THB, and non-slip socks 80 THB a pair (required). Overtime was 90 THB per 30 minutes. All-day tickets were single entry and non-refundable. Prices change; treat the photo as what the screens said that day.

After Nextopia we walked to Siam Centre, next to Siam Paragon. It is more young-adult than Paragon: fashion, less of the high-end floor. We found a Pop Mart and tried our luck on the Coffee Factory series. My wife wanted the Crybaby figure. After comparing the boxes, the Crybaby felt slightly heavier than the other three. We estimated by hand, picked that one, and hit it.

Next was a Grab van to ICONSIAM. Traffic was heavy. We sat in the van for almost two hours. Long enough that the Grab app decided the driver might be making unnecessary stops and asked whether I wanted to report it to the police. I did not. The jam inched forward, we crossed the bridge, and we arrived.

The basement at ICONSIAM is Thai boat-and-street food, and it was crowded. With the group we had, we went upstairs for a restaurant instead.

We sat at Laem Charoen Seafood. There was not much of a queue, and the food was genuinely good. The waitress worked hard to look after us even though her English was limited. You could see the effort: warm, a little brave, and she made sure the orders landed.

Inside the mall there is a light-and-laser waterfall between Level 4 and Level 7. Worth a photo if you are already there.

We then looked for Japara perfume. There is no official store in ICONSIAM; the official one is at CentralWorld. My mother-in-law wanted a car fragrance pouch for her nephew. We did not find the scent he wanted, so we gave up and did supermarket shopping in the basement instead.

Closing time arrived while we were still in the mall. Pickup is at the coach and taxi area: narrow, humid, warm, and full of people waiting for the same vans. After a wait, our Grab van showed up and we went back to the hotel.

Day 3 — Samyan, Cloud 11, Song Wat, then Jodd Fairs

The plan for the morning was a local wet market. We picked Samyan Market.

I wanted to try the BTS properly, so I went on my own: National Stadium station, then a 22-minute walk. The stretch in between is greener than the malls — parked scooters under trees, a blue sports court behind a fence, then a wide paved plaza with shade.

Samyan Market sits among expensive neighbourhoods, and the market itself is small. We did not find the dried goods we were looking for. Apart from stall food, there was no proper eatery. Fried rolls, roasted duck, trays of thong yip and foi thong on banana leaves, live seafood in tanks — it is a working wet market, not a food hall.

We walked over to Samyan Mitrtown. It has a Big C, MUJI, and Chagee. We were too early: most eateries were still closed. We ended up at The Coffee Club. It is a decent cafe. Not every waitress spoke English. That was manageable — Google Translate, or they fetch the colleague who can.

Next was Cloud 11, a new mall. Most units still had no tenants. Level 2 was given over to exhibitions: no entrance fee, walk around, take photos. We found a cafe where a DJ was playing rock while the barista brewed. It is a good mall if you have small children. They can run on Level 1 while you sit on a bench and watch.

Then Song Wat, the old street near Chinatown. Narrow lanes, wet ground, string lights, cafes. Street-art photos are easy. Finding a toilet is not. It was crowded with tourists.

From there we walked into Chinatown for a foot massage. A clean, decent centre was 500 baht. After that we Grabbed to Jodd Fairs Ratchada, the night market.

Guess what we found there.

After the market, we called it a day.

Day 4 — 7-Eleven, then Suvarnabhumi

I would not call this a full day. The flight was 1:50pm local time, so we had to leave the hotel at 10:30am. We bought quick food at 7-Eleven, let the children eat in the room, then took a Grab van to Suvarnabhumi.

For a group of ten, that is the right last morning: no extra temple, no extra mall, no second pin-code adventure if you can avoid it.

What I would repeat

Bangkok with toddlers and older relatives works if you treat Grab vans, 7-Eleven, and mall food courts as infrastructure, not as failures of taste. The shrine, the markets, and Song Wat are worth doing. The long jam to ICONSIAM is the thing I would plan around next time — leave earlier, or stay on the BTS side of the river until later in the day.