The Thai Culture Experience by Surreal Holidays is a 12-day trip that takes you from Bangkok to the beautiful beaches of Phuket, with a variety of other interesting places in between. After being greeted by your personal guide, you will visit

on longtail boats and sea kayaking around the dramatic limestone cliffs and towers that characterise this coastal stretch, or cycling in the rain forest.Seven nights for a family of four in an Anantara suite costs from £2,100.For more details, tel: 00 66 7520

, Arabian Gulf and Far East, saving you up to £1,450 per family.Find out moreEssential Family Holiday TipsChildren are a joy, but we all know that long journeys, waiting at airports and just a change of normal routine can unsettle the most ‘laid back’ child

of £50 per person is available if you book by February 28 and travel before October. An Easter holiday departure, April 5–16, is available from £1,849 per person and £1,549 per child (including £50 discount), with further departure dates in July

north of Phuket, as well as enjoy the fine beaches. A nine-day luxury trip costs from £2,200 per person, £1,495 for children under ten.You can even acquire a new member of the family on your travels courtesy of a new Adopt An Orang-utan programme

villa on Hamilton Island. The tour costs from £1,230 per person, based on a family of four sharing. Visit www.wandotravel.comLook at our article Luscious landscapes Down Under in our fantastic Long-haul travel section. 

opening March 2012 for chilling out during the day or evening, an 18-hole championship golf course just a short stroll from the Resort, a Treehouse kid’s club, with activities for all ages of children and a kid’s spa and kid’s cafe, and one of the best

of the plane journey is sheer bliss. Barbados is a good place to start if you’re exploring the Caribbean for the first time or taking your first long-haul family holiday. It’s straightforward to get to; it’s highly developed, with some of the best family hotels

a helicopter to Castaway Island for three nights in a family beach bure, from £1,164 per person for a family of four, excluding international flights. To the north of Fiji, the island of Samoa has gorgeous beaches, dramatic mountains, waterfalls

at Chamarel, ending the day at La Vanille Reserve, home to 2,000 Nile crocodiles and over 1,000 giant tortoise, the largest numbers in captivity. For a few Mauritian rupee, we bought veggie treats to tempt these prehistoric creatures with and, once we got them