Getting to Pattaya From Bangkok: Every Option and What It Costs

From Suvarnabhumi airport

The airport bus to Pattaya is 130 baht and still running, which makes it the cheapest sensible way to get here after a long flight. It leaves from the transport level rather than the arrivals hall — Level 1, around Gate 8, signposted for Pattaya and Hua Hin. Allow about two hours for the journey, a little more if you have hit Bangkok's traffic.

A private car or taxi is about 1,200 baht. For two or more people with luggage, or if you land late, that is the one I would take — it is door to door, it costs about what a single airport transfer costs in most of Europe, and it saves you the onward journey from the bus station at the other end.

From Don Mueang

A private car or taxi is about 1,200 baht, the same as from Suvarnabhumi, though the drive is longer because you start on the far side of Bangkok.

If you are connecting from Don Mueang and the timing is awkward, it is worth pricing a car against the faff of crossing the city to a bus terminal first.

From central Bangkok

Ekkamai — the Eastern Bus Terminal, on the BTS — is 130 baht and the obvious choice if you are staying anywhere along the Sukhumvit line. Mo Chit is 140 baht and makes sense from the north of the city.

Both run frequently through the day, and both take about two hours — call it two to two and a half depending on how bad Bangkok is on the way out. That is the same as driving, which surprises people: the bus is a direct run with only brief stops in Bangkok and at Jomtien, not a milk round. There are minivans as well, but with buses this cheap and this regular there is little reason to bother with one, and many of the minivans take long detours to drop people off that the buses simply do not.

Where you actually arrive — the part nobody mentions

Most buses terminate at Pattaya bus station on North Pattaya Road. Some services run to Jomtien bus station instead, which is better if you are staying south and worse if you are not, so it is worth knowing which one your ticket says before you board.

Neither station is in the middle of things. From Pattaya bus station, a Grab to Pratumnak is about 50 baht and to most central hotels less than that. A songthaew from outside is 15 baht if one is running your way on its normal loop — though arriving with luggage is exactly the situation where drivers will offer you a private charter at around 100 baht instead, which is a fair price for the service and worth knowing is optional.

This is the single practical advantage of the private car: 1,200 baht gets you to the door, with no second journey to arrange while standing in the heat with a suitcase.

Which to choose

Travelling light, on a budget, arriving in daylight: the bus, every time. 130 baht is hard to argue with and the buses are comfortable.

Two or more people, luggage, a late arrival, or children: the car. Split between two, 1,200 baht is 600 each and removes every moving part from the journey.

Either way, allow more than two hours if you are travelling through Bangkok's rush hour. The drive is genuinely quick in light traffic and genuinely not at five in the afternoon.

Coming back

The same routes run in reverse from the same stations, and the airport bus back to Suvarnabhumi is the one to book ahead in high season, which here means November to February.

Give yourself a wide margin for a flight. Two hours of road plus Bangkok traffic plus the airport is the kind of sum that goes wrong once and never gets forgotten.