Last week the kids saw snow for the first time … in Thailand! How? I took them to Dreamworld, a theme park on the northern outskirts of Bangkok. As well as a lot of cool rides, Dreamworld has an indoor Snow Land. A wonderfully fake winter wonderland. The kids loved it, especially the toboggan.
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“It was FFFRRREEEEEZZING” was Hayley’s verdict.
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Of course tropical clothes, even with a jacket and boots aren’t really adequate protection against the cold of even fake snow. After 20 minutes of tobogganing and snowballs we were ready for rollercoasters.
So what’s a theme park in Thailand like?
GREAT! Of course it’s not as fancy as Disney Land, but we were impressed. Dreamworld has a great range of rides for kids 90 – 140 cm high, and lots of attractions that will appeal to under 10s. There are lots of rides for teens and adults, but a lot of the attractions are more geared towards under 10s.
After the snow, our next stop was Fairytale Land. As you’d expect, Fairytale Land is filled with recreations from the most popular fairytales. Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretal and a few more. We visited the Giants Castle from Jack and the Beanstalk. The kids had a lot of fun with the over-sized furniture.
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We pulled the sword from the stone. Hayley is absolutely convinced that Noah and her will be a king and queen when they are grown up now.
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A word of warning though – if your child still has trouble separating make-believe and real don’t visit the Witches House. As soon as you walk into the dark interior sinister a loud witches cackle booms from inside. Hayley ran out screaming. Across wet pavers, through puddles and mud as fast as she could, screamimg the whole way. A week later she’s still talking about it (Just adding … two years later it still bothers her!).
There’s also a haunted castle. Even Noah, who’s old enough to know it’s all pretend got too scared to finish the house. But he happily played with the vampires, skeleton and headless men outside.
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After Fairytale land it was onto the more serious rides. Paddle boats, 4D movie, train rides, a monorail and the mini roller-coaster, which was far less scary than the witches castle …
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There’s also one of those spinning helicopter things that go up, down, around and backwards at speeds that delight kids but are just fast enough to make mums sick. Of course they wanted to go on it twice and just as mum was feeling really sick, Hayley accidentally spun the cart around backwards where it got stuck until the end of the ride.
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The surprising hit of the day was paddling the ultra-fake canoe …
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And of course more helicopter style rides, this time in a slower one that didn’t involve Mum coming along …<>
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And what would a day at a Theme park be without sugary snacks, like pancakes on a stick.
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Dreamworld
Dreamworld Theme Park is located out past the old Don Muang Airport to the north of Bangkok. It’s a good 1.5hrs from the city centre depending on traffic.
Entry costs 550 baht per person or 700 baht per person if you want to go to Snow Land. That price includes entry to all rides. Children over 90cm are full price, children under 90cm are free. Thai locals and expats have the option of a cheaper ticket that just covers entry and then you can pay per ride. For foreigners, tickets can be bought at the information centre near the gate, not in the main ticket queue. Some hotels offer package deals including transport to Dreamworld.
While there are a lot of rides suitable for children, for some you need to be over 110cm tall. Hayley is 108cm so they let her on to some of them with me, but others they wouldn’t. Still there were probably 10 rides she could go on, plus Fairytale land, snow, movies and other attractions like the giants house and paddle boats. The park has some shade but most rides are in the full sun. We went on an overcast, wet day and that was actually perfect. The park was quiet so we never waited more than 2 minutes for a ride and we were cool. Food inside was cheap, with the option of local foods, ice creams, corn on the cob and even a KFC.
Bangkok has many interesting points for kids. Before planning your holiday, check the top 10 family friend hotels in Thailand which includes a very good recommendation for Bangkok stay.
