Can anyone recommend places that are fun and suitable for young kids (four and seven) to visit around Xishuangbanna? We are going there in a couple of weeks, planning some day or overnight trips out of Jinghong over five days or so.

Thanks!

GanLanBa is about 45 mins from JingHong by bus. It's three working Dai villages which you can wander around. You now have to pay an entry fee into the area, and there are evening dance shows at a central building (plus fake "water splashing" every day, a sad elephant/camel etc), but it's easy enough to avoid the tour-guided crowds, especially during the daytime. You can also sleep in some of the traditional Dai family houses which is fun, if basic. I haven't been for about 5 years, and it might have changed (for the worst), but I enjoyed it when I went and it's interesting enough to keep the children busy (temples, trees to climb, etc). There are also a lot of hotels with nice swimming pools in JingHong, if that's your thing.

The tropical botanical garden at Menglun (勐仑) is quite nice, I went there for the first time in November and was very impressed. One can easily spend a day or two there and still not see everything there is to see.

I really enjoyed the afternoon I spent there and only saw a fraction of what there was to see. My favorite part was a less-visited section of pristine rainforest in the back.

There's a hotel located within the garden compound where you can stay overnight, allowing you to essentially have the entire facility to yourselves.

If you choose to stay a day or so, you may want to stock up on food. There's plenty of tasty tropical fruit to be picked up in Jinghong or Menglun. If you want to have a picnic there it may be worth stopping by Wangtianshu Deli (www.gokunming.com/en/listings/item/wan_31347/) in Jinghong before heading out:

It takes about 60-90 minutes to get to Menglun from Jinghong by car. I'd recommend showing up around one or two pm, as during mornings the park has a lot of tour groups passing through. That gives you an afternoon with the gardens basically to yourselves.

If you don't mind taking a little extra time to get to Menglun, I'd suggest rafting from Jinghong downstream to Ganlanba (橄榄坝) and taking a car east from there. It is possible in Jinghong to arrange a driver to meet you at Ganlanba.

Enjoy your trip!