Last year, I went with my office in Bangkok on our annual outing. It’s a three day trip my whole company of 1,000 employees and their families take, and this year was at Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. On the first day, we left Bangkok early in the morning and our first stop was Thong Somboon Club in Nakhon Ratchasima, near Khao Yai. Thong Somboon Club is a large adventure park that’s incredibly popular with Thais.
Located in the middle of the most beautiful Thai countryside, Thong Somboon Club offers fun and adventure for adults and kids alike. You can ride ATV vehicles, take a ski lift, drive the luge, roll down a hill inside a plastic ball filled with water or lying on a huge inner tube, and much more. Thong Somboon Club has a wild west theme, with covered wagons, cowboys and indians and rodeos. If you’re looking for a fun day out for yourself, your friends or your family, then you can’t beat Thong Somboon Club and here’s why.
Location of Thong Somboon Club – Where Thong Somboon Club is located has to be one of the most beautiful areas of Thailand – Nakhon Ratchasima. Set atop a hill overlooking a gorgeous green valley with mountain peaks rising in the distance, just looking at the view is worth the trip. Coming from Bangkok, where the pollution is a daily menace, it was wonderful to step off our bus and breath crisp, fresh air while taking in the beauty of the unspoiled Thai countryside. It’s also only about two and a half hours out of Bangkok, so it’s not too far and the drive there is lovely too
Thong Somboon Club Offers Many Adventure Rides – Thong Somboon Club is a popular adventure park for Thais and I could immediately see why. It has so many rides and fun activities to offer for both adults and kids, that it’s easy to spend an afternoon or whole day there. You can ride an ATV around a large track, get on the go-carts if you like even more speed or the kiddie go-carts if you’re only a little tyke. There’s an enormous plastic ball that you climb into and then it’s pushed down a huge plastic sheet on a hill. You roll down the hill inside the ball, while water is sloshing around inside it. You get out incredibly wet and a bit dizzy but my friends said it was fabulous (I’m a bit of a coward, so I stayed away from that one!)
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| Water slide at Thong Somboon Club – really fun! |
There’s a ski lift to ride, a luge track with small luge cars you can drive down a hill, bumper boats, and a Flying Fox – a harness that you’re strapped into and then off you go careening down a long rope to the bottom of the hill. I rode the ski lift and laid on an enormous inner tube, which is then pushed and it slides down a sleep hill on a surface of water – really fun, by the way.
Food At Thong Somboon Club – If you want to eat at Thong Somboon Club, there’s a selection of Thai food stalls to choose from where you can buy the usual fare of Pad Thai, several versions of curry with rice, fried rice, noodles and some veggie dishes, as well as a few places selling snacks and drinks.We didn’t eat as we’d stopped at an outdoor restaurant for lunch before we got there, but the food looked delicious and there was a good selection of dishes. They even have a coffee shop where you can buy a pretty decent latte or iced mocha for half the price of Bangkok.
The Prices – If you want to join in any of the adventure rides, the price per ride is 150 baht (around $4.25). To say that some of the rides are things that, in the US or Europe would be a lot more money, the price is quite reasonable I thought. You buy a few tickets at a ticket kiosk at the entrance of the park and you can even buy them in single tickets if you’re not sure how many rides you want to go on. The park isn’t that spread out either, so if you want to go back to get more tickets it’s only a couple of minutes walk to do so.
Accommodation at Thong Somboon Club – If you’d like to get out of Bangkok for a couple of days and would like somewhere relaxing to stay, Thong Somboon Club is also a nice place to stay overnight or for longer. For accommodation it fits right in with the wild west theme with a choice of log cabin, indian teepee (but very nice inside with proper beds, a TV, air conditioning and a small bathroom, and will sleep 6-8 people), or a covered wagon just like the wild west, which again will sleep 6-9 people. If you have a larger group, a school or club group, you can also stay in a very large dormitory-style hut that will sleep 100-500 people. Prices start at 1,500 baht per night ($42) or only 200 baht per person (about $5.50) for the dormitory-style hut.
Thong Somboon Club is a great place for all the family. It’s especially nice if you want to experience the Thai countryside in a place where there’s no distractions except to have fun and to relax. Whether you’re riding an ATV vehicle around a field or just sitting on the porch of your log cabin, it’s a fun place to get away from it all for just an afternoon or a few days. I spent a lot of our time at Thong Somboon Club just walking around and watching other people on my group on the adventure rides – that in itself was a blast!