5 Days in Pattaya: Getting Out of Town

Days one and two — the city, unhurried

With five days you can do the city properly instead of at a march. Morning on Pratumnak for Wat Phra Yai and the viewpoint, lunch above the bay, an afternoon on the sand below. The Sanctuary of Truth at Naklua on the second morning — go early, it is exposed — and an evening market after.

This is also the time for the things that get squeezed out of shorter trips: a Muay Thai card at Max, Tiffany's if a cabaret appeals, or an hour on the go-kart track at Bali Hai. None of them need a whole day and all of them fill an evening.

Day three — Ko Samet, and stay the night

Ko Samet is 82 km by road to Ban Phe pier and then a ferry, which makes it a long day return and an easy overnight — two or three nights is the ideal if you can spare them. The sand and water are a clear step up on anything on the mainland here, and the island is small enough to cross in minutes.

If an overnight does not suit, Koh Larn is the alternative and far closer — three kilometres to Bali Hai pier and about forty-five minutes on the public boat. Less good, much less effort.

Do not over-plan around the sea on either of them. The boats run through most weather and it takes a genuinely rough day to stop them, which happens a handful of times a year at most and is likeliest between July and September. Worth a check the morning of, not worth building your week around.

Either way this is the day that justifies the longer trip. A five-day stay without a proper island day is a three-day stay with two extra evenings.

Day four — the navy beaches at Sattahip

South past Na Chom Thian, the beaches inside the naval area at Sattahip are the clearest water you can reach without a boat — Nang Rong, Nang Ram, Sai Kaew, Kinnaree and Toey Ngam. They are not all the same distance, which matters if you are picking one: Sai Kaew is about 30 km by road, Toey Ngam 35, Kinnaree 40, and Nang Ram and Nang Rong are the far pair at 47 and 48. Usefully, the best water of the lot is also the shortest drive — Sai Kaew, though it is the one with the gate procedure, so take your passport or ID. Nang Rong is the one I would pick with small children, for the shallow gentle water and the restaurants right behind the sand.

They are also the trip that most rewards reading first. Each beach has its own entrance and its own procedure — an ID swapped for a pass at one, a fee and multiple checkpoints at another — and navigating to the sand rather than to the correct gate is exactly how people end up at a barrier being turned around. The individual pages carry the details.

Take a car or a scooter. There is no useful public transport down there.

Day five — inland, or a water park

Two good closes. Inland, Khao Kheow Open Zoo is about an hour north, traffic depending, with large enclosures and enough walking to fill the day, and Nong Nooch is a botanical garden with an elephant show and a dinosaur park attached.

Or the water: Ramayana bills itself as the biggest water park in Thailand — 184,000 square metres when it opened in 2016 — and is a full day on its own; Columbia Pictures Aquaverse is smaller and more themed. Both are in Na Chom Thian, twenty-odd minutes south.

Finish with sunset at one of the Na Chom Thian clifftop restaurants, which is the right last evening of a week here — book a lower terrace and get there before the light goes.

If you would rather ride than sightsee

Five days is also enough to treat Pattaya as a base rather than a destination. The road trips start at around two hours: Khao Yai for the national park, the eastern islands at Trat, or the hill roads inland. Those are proper overnight runs rather than day trips, and they are the best argument for a longer stay I know.

Closer in, the off-road operators at Pong and Bang Sare run half-day ATV, buggy and enduro tours on trails you would never find alone, and Bira Circuit has both a kart track and a road circuit.