News Forum - Hua Hin to re-open to international tourists from October 1

[dmacarelli]

It is a fun town, if everything is open, and you know your way around. Huge choice of resorts and also alot of good, lower priced hotels. Some nightlife, decent bars, and alot of good food. Also good shopping. 

Not really a beach town, from my point of view. But, alot of great hotel pools, that any foreigner can use, for the price of a drink or an appetizer. 

An older, more affluent and civilized ex-pat crowd. 

But, not an international destination. They are dreaming, spinning or stumbling. 

[Jason]

I can only hope that Hua Hin's sandbox is run better than Phuket has been. The critical thing about sandboxes is that you need to guarantee that the holiday destination is as free of covid as can be. Why would fully vaccinated tourists come to any place than doesn't have strict controls in place. The foreigners who take the risk of coming, have already jumped through hoops to come. Two doses of vaccine, Negative PCR tests before travel, on arrival ad during their stay and so many documents and applications. If you want people to come to Thailand, tighten controls in the area and make it more straight forward.

[AlexPTY]

  On 9/7/2021 at 10:16 AM, Soidog said:

Correct. It’s just a nice beach not too far from BKK. It’s generally not full of dirty crude foreigners like Pattaya is. That’s about it. It has some nightlife but not a great choice of hotels. It has a shopping centres and a monkey temple. Good to get away for a night or two from BKK if you are a hard city working Thai, and a nice place for a few days as part of a wider tour of Thailand, but that’s about it. 

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That's why I am wondering what tourists do there. Nice place, much more hiso than Samed for BKK Thais. I understand the reason for the pitch, but I think they should market it for Thais. It's a stable market 

[Donga]

  On 9/7/2021 at 10:33 AM, dmacarelli said:

It is a fun town, if everything is open, and you know your way around. Huge choice of resorts and also alot of good, lower priced hotels. Some nightlife, decent bars, and alot of good food. Also good shopping. 

Not really a beach town, from my point of view. But, alot of great hotel pools, that any foreigner can use, for the price of a drink or an appetizer. 

An older, more affluent and civilized ex-pat crowd. 

But, not an international destination. They are dreaming, spinning or stumbling. 

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There are many farang retirees, annual snowbirds and more younger families settling in Hua Hin. We have a good choice of restaurants, two reasonable beaches very popular for walks, and a lively expat community. Plus many excellent golf courses. http://www.bangkok.com/huahin/attractions/top-ten.htm

Hus Hin airport would get good throughput from farang and visiting Thais alike.

[HolyCowCm]

  On 9/7/2021 at 8:54 AM, TheDirtyDurian said:

Don't think anyone said it was world class, whatever that means. But it is very popular with Thais and foreigners alike. 

For Thais it's proximity to Bangkok, for foreigners it's got a lot to offer too as can be seen by the numbers of them walking around.

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I first visited that place probably near 25 years ago +. Don't get me wrong. I am not knocking it for a quick getaway, and as a single person or with a friend it is a lot of fun. I know lots of Thai people who go there and I have been there over probably a dozen plus times. It was a phrase I misquoted AlexPTY saying world class when I should have said International tourist destination originally. But what I can tell you is my Thai family and my extended Thai family in Bangkok, we all went were there together and went down to the area you mentioned, and maybe it was the wrong time, but the garbage in the water was atrocious, and there were jelly fish. Do you know where I am referring to which is the very end of Beach Rd where that little hill is and then you have to make a right turn? The problem is for me and my family is when we go to Bangkok to stay with our family, it has usually fallen on huge or big holidays and that made the driving from Bangkok to there and back miserable. Would never do that again on a holiday, but I do plan to take my friends there for a night or two on my way south. I could live there as it still is a beach area and I grew up near the beach from where I am from. So please excuse me if you took offense since you live there, but I know the area and have been there lots before over the decades, but yes you are correct it does get better there and a bit more south than that. Just when Covid closed everything I was planning on taking my kids down to have an island adventure, but that was spoiled by the Wuflu. My next trip to HH is whenever the country open up and my friend can visit me, but as NCC or someone said, unfortunately the Pattaya to HH ferry shut down and that was my plan rather than sitting in a car or van. So it was going to be Pattaya -
HH - south. Cheers.

[HolyCowCm]

  On 9/7/2021 at 6:42 AM, Stonker said:

To live? Quite possibly.

For an international holiday? Why bother - it's a long way to go just for "nice".

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Exactly. I definitely could live there, but other than a few days of holiday, then for a full entire holiday - probably not. And I have a good amount of visits there over the decades to be able to say this. But in reality on international travel I always tend to move around.  

[HolyCowCm]

  On 9/7/2021 at 10:57 AM, AlexPTY said:

That's why I am wondering what tourists do there. Nice place, much more hiso than Samed for BKK Thais. I understand the reason for the pitch, but I think they should market it for Thais. It's a stable market 

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They also have river rafting up in the hills part. Nice river and was a fun little resort as I remember. Been there and also did that years ago. 

[HolyCowCm]

  On 9/7/2021 at 10:57 AM, AlexPTY said:

That's why I am wondering what tourists do there. Nice place, much more hiso than Samed for BKK Thais. I understand the reason for the pitch, but I think they should market it for Thais. It's a stable market 

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Cha Am used to be fun to stay at. Get a bike and stay at a place next to the beach which is across the small road. And before there were some nighttime places to have someone to talk to, drink and then take a walk and go sit on the beach. 

[Zool]

  On 9/7/2021 at 10:57 AM, AlexPTY said:

That's why I am wondering what tourists do there. Nice place, much more hiso than Samed for BKK Thais. I understand the reason for the pitch, but I think they should market it for Thais. It's a stable market 

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I live in Hua Hin and I am told the golf courses here are good, although I don't golf.

[JamesR]

Nice place, very good sea food restaurants, not seedy like Pattaya hence it attracts a better type of tourist. 

A lot of expats (mostly couples) live there.

[Zool]

  On 9/8/2021 at 6:36 AM, JamesR said:

Nice place, very good sea food restaurants, not seedy like Pattaya hence it attracts a better type of tourist. 

A lot of expats (mostly couples) live there.

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Yup, I'm married with children here. I see lots of western families with kids in tow on holiday here(pre-covid I mean). The King's summer palace is in Hua Hin; that may explain why they keep the bars to a small area off the beaten track.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Zool

[JamesR]

  On 9/8/2021 at 7:38 AM, Zool said:

Yup, I'm married with children here. I see lots of western families with kids in tow on holiday here(pre-covid I mean). The King's summer palace is in Hua Hin; that may explain why they keep the bars to a small area off the beaten track.

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Yes I have driven past the King's palace lots of times, that is also why they keep the bushes, flowers etc in pristine condition too on the main highway. 

[JamesR]

  On 9/7/2021 at 1:13 PM, HolyCowCm said:

Cha Am used to be fun to stay at. Get a bike and stay at a place next to the beach which is across the small road. And before there were some nighttime places to have someone to talk to, drink and then take a walk and go sit on the beach. 

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Cha Am, I stayed there once about twenty years ago with my young family at the time.

The hotel was free as an in-law worked for the Thai tourist authority.

We stayed one night and left and paid for a hotel in Hua Hin as there was nothing much to do in Cha Am, it was mostly a Thai tourist area and if you were not into just eating 24 hrs a day Thai style there was nothing to do there.

[HolyCowCm]

  On 9/8/2021 at 8:02 AM, JamesR said:

Cha Am, I stayed there once about twenty years ago with my young family at the time.

The hotel was free as an in-law worked for the Thai tourist authority.

We stayed one night and left and paid for a hotel in Hua Hin as there was nothing much to do in Cha Am, it was mostly a Thai tourist area and if you were not into just eating 24 hrs a day Thai style there was nothing to do there.

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For me and the family for a day that would be fine as it is directly walk across the street to the beach how we like it. Has restaurants and some bars before CV-19. Beach is rather big and not so bad as things go. When we go to the beach we aren't looking for malls or anything else but seafood and kicking back and swimming, and if we did want something to do we would just hop in the car and drive to it. HH is the big night time scene, but if with my family that is not so important.

[HolyCowCm]

Cha Am stretch

Ch

[Kes]

  On 9/7/2021 at 3:40 AM, AlexPTY said:

is Hua Hin really an international tourist destination? i know BKK people love to go there for a weekend, but what's good there except for beach. I just Googled it and cannot find any reason to fly there from overseas

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I'm 40 years in Thailand. Been to HH once. Won't go again. Not my cup of tea. 

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

  On 9/7/2021 at 4:51 AM, HolyCowCm said:

To me the beaches aren't that great there at all either. But it is a beach area and has tropical water.

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And lots of horse excrement up and down the beach, careful where you walk and swim.

[HolyCowCm]

  On 9/8/2021 at 10:03 AM, AdvocatusDiaboli said:

And lots of horse excrement up and down the beach, careful where you walk and swim.

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I used to see dead fish and ugly water yellow foam at about 6 pm-ish every night in some certain some areas there. And this was throughout the years. You knew when to get out of the water really fast.

[PapayaBokBok]

16 hours ago...the duality of the thai mindset.....sigh

[JamesR]

  On 9/8/2021 at 2:58 PM, HolyCowCm said:

I used to see dead fish and ugly water yellow foam at about 6 pm-ish every night in some certain some areas there. And this was throughout the years. You knew when to get out of the water really fast.

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I hope that taught you not to pi** is the water anymore  :)

[PapayaBokBok]

  On 9/7/2021 at 11:47 AM, HolyCowCm said:

garbage in the water was atrocious, and there were jelly fish.

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recalls swimming in thai waters to think i spotted a jellyfish, was a plastic bag...lesser evil I suppose....

[PapayaBokBok]

  On 9/8/2021 at 8:02 AM, JamesR said:

Cha Am, I stayed there once about twenty years ago with my young family at the time.

The hotel was free as an in-law worked for the Thai tourist authority.

We stayed one night and left and paid for a hotel in Hua Hin as there was nothing much to do in Cha Am, it was mostly a Thai tourist area and if you were not into just eating 24 hrs a day Thai style there was nothing to do there.

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Explains thier reopening names   Charming Chiang mai, etc...and Cha-am is Cha Am....meh! 555

[Benroon]

  On 9/7/2021 at 3:23 AM, Pompies said:

And just where are the tourists coming from? As Phuket discovered there are very few who want to travel long distances, stay in an open prison, be denied a drink in a bar or restaurant, have no nightlife to go to and be treated like dirty farangs while they are here.

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All the bars are opening on October 1st as well so you won't have a problem with being denied a drink anywhere.

[Benroon]

  On 9/8/2021 at 10:03 AM, AdvocatusDiaboli said:

And lots of horse excrement up and down the beach, careful where you walk and swim.

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Not true - the owners pick it all up or they get a very heavy fine!

[Benroon]

  On 9/8/2021 at 4:30 AM, Zool said:

I live in Hua Hin and I am told the golf courses here are good, although I don't golf.

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They are exceptional, absolutely superb - Black Mountain was ranked 59th in the world though most golfers in HH would say that's not even the best one !