Journey Time Pattaya - Hua Hin

[THAI ROB]

How long does a taxi journey between Pattaya and Hua Hin take. Hopefully it is not via Bangkok making it a 5 hour trip.

[lomuamart]

Think again. Whats wrong with 5 hour trip?

[THAI ROB]

5 hours in a car is too long for me. I am planning my next trip which will be for a month. Will visit Hua Hin for the first time, make my annual trip to Pattaya, and also go up north this time to Udon Thani. Looks like i will also stop off in Bangkok to break up the Pattaya- Hua Hin road trip.

[Harry]

Is it not possible to travel by boat?

[Big Boy]

Yes, of course its possible by boat, its possible by rickshaw as well, but do you really want to go through the pain, grief and cost of chartering a boat?

Taxi or a bus/taxi/bus or train combination are the only real cost effective alternatives.

[PeteC]

Is it not possible to travel by boat?

There's no scheduled service. As BB says, you would have to charter either a speedboat with extra fuel tanks that would take about 5 hours and probably cost the better part of 35,000 Baht. Or, a slow fishing trawler that would take about 12 hours and probably 18,000 Baht. The costs would include the skipper's return trip as no return business for him HH to Pattaya unless he would get very lucky.

This is the time of the year to try it though if advernturous and wealthy, as low season and scores of boats sitting with nothing to do over here. Pete

PS: His Majesty did it once in a 10' sailing skiff. You could try that?

[Guess]

5 Hours is about right by Taxi and you only have to look at a very crude map to discover that it is ludicrous to sugest avoiding Bangkok. This subject has been covered in detail many times.

There is one pleasant and cheaper alternative though.

Get Taxi to U-Tapao. Fly to Koh Samui. Get the Lomprayah cat to Chumphon via Ko Tao. Then get train or bus to Hua Hin.

I can give exact details if required. The cost will be about 5000 Baht at most. The taxi will cost about 3500 baht and is definitely the second quickest method possible.

[Heebio]

There's no way of avoiding Bangkok, but you hit the expressway as soon as you enter the city, so the across town travel time isn't too bad, depending on what time of day you hit town.

Did a taxi to Pattaya in less than 4.5 hours before - cost 3000bt. On the way back took a taxi to Victory Monument (800bt) and got a mini bus straight down the road (160bt). Total travel time 4hr 30mins.

If you're travelling light, the alternative is to do the mini bus thing the whole way - everything connects at Victory Monument. Total cost less than 500bt and travel time approx 5 hours.

Depends on your budget and number of bags, but they're all about the same timewise. Taxi will offer more comfort but the mini bus ain't bad for legroom, and it's airconditioned.

[Harry]

Taxi will offer more comfort but the mini bus ain't bad for legroom, and it's airconditioned.

And the minibus driver won't bore you to death with incessant babbling on a variety of topics. I had one taxi driver ask me the other day if I'd ever been with a t/g. Cheeky bugger.

[STEVE G]

I drove from Hua Hin to Pattaya two weeks ago on a Friday and I would have been happy if it had taken five hours! It took me nearly seven hours, there were huge tail backs on all routes east through Bangkok and I tried several.

[Jaime]

Driving any sort of serious distance in Thailand takes forever. You have to write the day off in most cases in my experience and just accept it, like so many other activities in LoS.