Baby Friendly Hotel

My parents often overhear passive aggressive comments from other people around us like "Why would you bring a baby here?"

Places we hear this statement include:  upfront cabins on planes, pools at W Hotels (see photo here w/ the disgruntled Thai man in a speedo), fancy restaurants, strip clubs, group excursions/tour buses, high stakes blackjack tables, and romantic honeymoon-type resorts.

I'm a baby, so I find their complaining annoying and stupid.  But then again, my father explained that sometimes people want to enjoy the moment without having a screaming infant with an inner ear infection making a massive fuss in the background as her parents scream about who should change the diaper.

I understand my father's counter-argument, but that's B/S.  Basically, I've found that the complainers fall into one of three categories: (a) younger people who don't have children, (b) angry people who have ugly children they don't want to be around and (c) entitled people who think they're upper class because they paid up for their flight/dinner/hotel room.

So when we read up on the Conrad on TripAdvisor, I started to wonder if we'd be facing a week of dirty looks and angry stares as the hotel was one of those aspirational "once-in-a-lifetime" type of resorts for honeymooning newlyweds or 25 year anniversaries.

But I was so pleasantly surprised upon our arrival.  Not only are kids welcome here, but they're actually encouraged to come!

At the time my father booked our reservation, he also informed the hotel that he and my mother would be coming with me and requested a crib for the room.

Almost all hotels that cater to families have cribs readily available, and even many hotels that cater to romantic couples still offer a free crib (if available), but sometimes you get a shoddy pack-n-play or a very basic metal jail on wheels. I wasn't expecting much at the Conrad, but when I saw this beauty of a crib, I knew I was going to enjoy my stay here.

This stunning crib and nice bedding alone would have been an impressive sign that Conrad Koh Samui loves babies, but then we turned on the television.  To my surprise, they had the Disney Junior channel in English!  What more could a 15 month old need?

Well, I could also use some complimentary personal bathroom amenities. So next we went into the bathroom and found a baby bathing set, potty-training toilet along with baby shampoo, baby powder and baby lotion.  Uhhh-mazing!

The villa even came with a baby bottle sterilizer. I started to look for mini baby slippers and a baby bathrobe, but my mother said I was pressing my luck.

But that was inside our villa.  How about the rest of the resort property? Were their restaurants baby friendly as well?

In New York City, a good way to tell if restaurants are baby friendly is to call ahead. But you can't just ask, "Are babies allowed?" Are you expecting that anyone would say, "No, we don't allow babies"? That's like asking a new boyfriend if they're going to dump you later. Duh! So instead, you ask if they have high chairs.  If they sound hesitant or have to ask, then my parents know it's probably a pass and look for other dining options. 

 But if they confirm the high chairs, then we know we're good to go. Out of courtesy (and fear of a shameful baby blow up), however, my father still try to have us eat dinner on the early side along with the elderly (around 4:30-5:30PM) so as not to bother the regular dinner crowd. Apparently, my father doesn't mind inconveniencing old people though.

So when we called Zest, the Conrad's more casual restaurant, they said they definitely had high chairs. Not only did they have chairs for me, but they also had:

1. a kid's dish/cup set;
2. a separate children's menu (with actual kid food instead of smaller portions of the adult menu);
3. a fun place mat; and 
4. colored pencils to keep me entertained while my parents scarfed down their food before I started to get bored and freak out.

During our meal, every waiter came by to say hello to me and touch my little hand to welcome me to the restaurant. Gotta admit - I loved the attention.  Sometimes, I threw out a cute smile once in a while to acknowledge my new fans, but I didn't stop to talk (Stranger Danger and all).

The next morning, it was beautifully warm and sunny, so we walked around the rest of the resort to see what they had to offer.  Of course, there was a pool and a gym, but those aren't really of interest to me since I had my own private pool by our room. But then someone suggested I visit the Turtle Club.  Hmm...Turtle Club? Sounds like something I'd like.

The Turtle Club (or TC as I like to call it) is a kid's play room.  Unfortunately, it was closed when we got there even though the hours were 9AM-6PM.  We found out that we had to call ahead to have it staffed since the resort was only 50% full this week and probably not with too many kids.

That was fine because I was planning on spending the week with my parents, but it was good to know I had the TC option if I got sick of my father constantly telling me how lucky we were to be here.