End of summer getaway

For Hong Kong international school students and their families, the closing days of summer come all too soon. The kids get off school at the end of June, and then before you know it they’re due back on campus by mid-August. So with the new school year looming ahead, we planned a last minute holiday to Phuket with Ashley’s side of the family at the start of the month. It was one of those “book a large resort and let the kids run wild for a few days” kind of trips, except we’d never actually done this before.

Ashley and I had made a few concessions in the transition from traveling as two adults to traveling as two parents with two young kids, such as earlier start and end times, freer schedules, and lots more breaks, but we still had the whole family out and about from breakfast to dinner most days. The kids have been champs, trekking all over various cities in Japan, China, South Korea, and Canada these last few years, but we did start picking up on how much more excited they seemed be at the hotel rather than at some sight or attraction we’d dragged them out to on a random holiday.

And the kids had an amaaaaazzzing time at the hotel in Phuket, especially with their cousin also joining us on the trip. They got familiar with the hotel layout, they knew what they wanted to eat at every meal, they had opinions on what activity they wanted to do at any given moment – basically living the dream. It was great for the parents too. Food at the hotel was very decent – the Thai iced milk tea at the breakfast buffet was killer – and we got a family room that had a separate kids’ room with a giant bunk bed to give them their own space (and our own space!).

We were there for four days and they blended together nicely. We swam lots, we ate lots, we did some yoga (not as fun), we visited an elephant sanctuary (very fun!), we had dinner one night at the resort where White Lotus was filmed, and we enjoyed some beautiful sunsets. And that’s how our summer came to an end.