BEACH PARADISE
Comfort and Luxury By The Sea
by John Leicester
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With over 3,000 kilometres of coastline and myriad tropical islands, Thailand has beaches to spare and three ‘S’s’ in abundance. All are rich in soft sand — white and golden, powdery and packed — water you can see your toes in, a warm tropical climate, year-round sunshine, lots of friendly, smiling Thai faces, and even relaxing Thai massages under shady umbrellas.
Awesome vacations are there for the asking on Thailand’s appealing beaches; each beach has an unusual quality so where should you go for your once-in-a-lifetime vacation? What beach is for you?
The secret for the well-to-do traveller is not the three ‘S’s’, but the more important three ‘A’s’ — access, activity and accommodation. While the aesthetic beauty of nature is a big plus, satisfy the three ‘A’s’ and your holiday in Thailand will be ‘Awesome’.
THE ‘ROYAL PARADISE’ OF HUA HIN
Thailand's First Seaside Resort
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| Photo © TAT |
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Let’s start at the beginning. Thailand’s first holiday resort of Hua Hin was established as a fashionable summer retreat during the 1920’s for royalty and the aristocracy when the railway from Bangkok finally arrived. Today, Hua Hin continues to be the weekend getaway for aristocrats and well-to-do families from Bangkok, comfortable in the resort they shaped themselves, and bolstered by modern inducements — luxury resorts, rich spas and tasty, trendy restaurants. With His Majesty the present King in residence at the Summer Palace of Klai Kangwon, Hua Hin proudly maintains a distinctive regal aura.
While the railway offers romantic access, particularly if you choose to ride the stately Eastern & Orient Express to Hua Hin’s quaint railway station with its magnificent royal waiting room, the journey is much slower than the three-hour drive from Bangkok by fast highway.
Hua Hin’s beach is simply magnificent. Curving from the rocky headland in the town centre that gives the resort its name (Hua Hin means rock heads) to the distant Chopstick Mountain (Khao Takiab), its white sands offer a dignified, tranquil retreat from the everyday world. Where once it was lined with aristocratic summer homes, today international brand hotels, small guesthouses and luxury condominiums offer superb accommodation leading directly onto the sand.
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| Photo © Sofitel Central Hua Hin Resort |
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| Photo © TAT |
None is more majestic than the Sofitel Central Hua Hin, perched elegantly on the beach near the town centre. Formerly Hua Hin’s first hotel, known as the Railway and built in 1926 to coincide with the railway’s arrival, it has in recent times been transformed through a touch of French magic into an elegant beachside property that retains its glorious history and garden shrubs carved in the shape of animals.
Surprisingly for the gentle Gulf of Thailand, Hua Hin beach has seasons. “The best time to come is the low season from May to September,” explains Hyatt Regency Hua Hin’s General Manager Nick Heath. “The sea is calm like glass. We have gentle breezes and lots of sun, plus more attractive room rates. In the high season, while the weather is cooler, the sea becomes rougher and the strong breezes attract windsurfers, kite gliders and sailors.”
That’s the time to turn to golf. The resort has six splendid golf courses, from Thailand’s first 18-hole course, Royal Hua Hin, next to the railway station, to the Jack Nicklaus-designed Springfield layout. All are just ‘a pitch and a putt’ away from the beach, inviting a round of golf followed by a cooling dip in the sea, and maybe even a beachside massage.
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| Photo © Chiva-Som |
More rewarding, however, will be a mind-soothing, pampering spa treatment. Hua Hin is full of outstanding spas, lead by the world-famous Chiva-Som International destination spa, where you can ‘enjoy’ an austere regime of diet, exercise and meditation, or succumb to the expert ministrations of professional therapists. The five-star hotels offer a seductive, pampering experience of body treatments, facials, aromatherapy and, for the incautious, soothing help when suffering from too much sun.
For all its modern amenities, Hua Hin’s old world charm and fishing village aura are its major attractions. Here you can dine on seafood made from freshly caught produce at restaurants clustered around the fishing pier, stroll through tiny lanes lined with small shops and restaurants offering cuisines from around the world, explore the stalls in the Night Market, or simply sit in a pedal-driven trishaw for a leisurely tour of the town.
CHA-AM: THAI LIVING. THAI WAYS.
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| Photo © Veranda Resort & Spa |
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| Photo © Dusit Resort Hua Hin |
Just 25 kilometres north, and nearer Bangkok, Cha-Am beach is a very Thai experience, with small hotels, chalets and other beachside accommodation lining the casuarina-fringed beach. During the week the beach is quiet and tranquil, much like Hua Hin formerly was, a place to sit in the shade and simply relax.
At weekends, however, families and friends from nearby Petchburi town, or even further afield, bring a buzz to the resort with deckchair space at a premium. All along the beach small groups gather to sing, play guitar, snack, laugh and enjoy themselves.
Out on the bay, jet skis, motor boats, and skiers race about, with occasional squeals of delight as banana boat riders are flung into the sea. Vendors ply their trade, selling sweet smelling squid, fried chicken, toasted fish in banana leaves, ice cold drinks and freshly peeled fruit.
As Cha-Am beach meanders southwards towards Hua Hin airport, noise and activity diminish, to be replaced by upmarket resorts selling friendly isolation and deliciously quiet beachfronts.
Newcomer Veranda Resort & Spa has injected a touch of ‘hip and cool’ sophistication favoured by Bangkok’s trendy ‘Hi-So’s’, while the splendid Dusit Resort is dropping its ‘Polo Club’ suffix for lack of horses. Instead you can relax in its newly opened, sumptuous Devarana Spa or join in the occasional cricket matches on its sports field.
PRANBURI: NEWCOMER
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| Photo © Evason Hua Hin |
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| Photo © Evason Hua Hin |
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| Photo © Aleenta Pranburi |
A further 30 kilometres south of Hua Hin, the small town of Pranburi is attempting to carve a tourism niche for itself. On Paknampran beach, the exotic Evason Hua Hin Resort & Spa is making highly attractive overtures to international travellers and corporate meeting groups wanting to really get away from it all.
The enclave offers superb pool villas and attractive rooms in rich, rustic décor, meeting facilities, trendy restaurants and even its own wine-tasting cellar, plus lots of water sports activities. For those who don’t really want to get away from it all, the resort has daily shuttles to Hua Hin and excursions to nearby Three Hundred Peaks (Sam Roy Yod) National Park, a fascinating coastal sanctuary for water birds which is riddled with caves, hidden beaches and interesting treks.
Next door, Six Senses Resorts are putting the finishing touches to the even more exclusive Evason Hideaway in a super-luxury Thai village setting with its own delicious spa. It is scheduled to open in November, 2004.
Evason has started a trend in Pranburi.
Further down its delightfully deserted beach, a number of tiny boutique resorts have opened right next to the sand, offering luxury in small doses.
There’s the 12-room Aleenta with a splendid rooftop spa and the cloistered 14-room Praseban Resort, ideal as a romantic getaway for couples and honeymooners.
PATTAYA
Thailand’s first beach resort to gain international fame
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| Photos © Royal Cliff Beach Resort |
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| Photos © Royal Cliff Beach Resort |
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| Photo © TAT |
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If the west coast sounds a little too quiet and sedate, Pattaya on the east coast will provide a turbo-charged energy boost. Just a 90-minute drive from Bangkok on a convenient-to-drive motorway (soon to become a mere 60 minutes from the new Suvarnibhumi International Airport when it opens in early 2006), Pattaya is Thailand’s first beach resort to gain international fame — and occasional notoriety --and is located on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand.
Hyper-activity rules the resort. At first light, Pattaya bursts into life as tour groups head to the beach. Not to splash in the sea or toast themselves on the sand (Pattaya faces west, so the sun hides its face until the afternoon), but to board dozens of waiting boats for the daily dash to the offshore islands of Larn and Pai, and the attractions of sparklingly clear waters, scuba diving among glamorous coral or just relaxing on beaches which face the sun!
Once Pattaya awakens, it never seems to stop. Jet skis, catamarans, banana boats, skiers, paragliders and speedboats whiz around the bay, which curves in a gentle arc from the luxurious Dusit Resort on its northern promontory to the bars and seafood restaurants that enliven South Pattaya’s nightlife.
The beach offers a refuge from marine action; you can sit in a deckchair under a large parasol and be offered scrumptious Thai snacks and fruit, ice-cold beers, and even a tingling Thai massage under the gentle hands of your friendly beachside masseuse.
However, Pattaya is more than just seaside activities. On the other side of the new-look promenade, the resort buzzes with restaurants and pubs catering to many nationalities, shopping plazas packed with boutiques and designer brand offerings, street vendors, open-air bars with friendly hostesses and amazing cabaret shows all jostling side by side with an abundance of accommodation from simple guesthouses to five-star resorts.
The luxurious Royal Cliff Beach Resort has been instrumental in Pattaya’s emergence in recent years as an attractive destination for international meetings and incentives, after it built the Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall (PEACH) capable of hosting events for up to 5,000 delegates.
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| Photo © TAT |
Not only is it attracting events, it is also bringing more international hotel operators, such as Marriott, Hard Rock, Sheraton, and Accor, into the resort, while others are evaluating future investments. Their presence is in turn attracting up-market travellers, who appreciate that Pattaya has 18 international standard golf courses close by, a motor-racing circuit, horse riding opportunities, elephant trekking, scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, year-round sailing activities at Royal Varuna Yacht Club, and at the marina with boats for charter just down the coast, and even an award-wining wine club at the Royal Cliff.
New attractions are complementing the growth of this upmarket family resort, such as Ripley’s Haunted Mansion next to its popular Believe It Or Not Museum, the amazing Underwater World, and Alangkarn, a cultural extravaganza featuring elephants, music and dance that rivals the Phuket FantaSea.
PHUKET – THE ETERNAL FAVOURITE
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| Photo © TAT |
Way down south, its shores washed by the Andaman Sea, the island of Phuket continues to be Asia’s most popular playground with three ‘S’s’ and three ‘A’s’ in abundance. Its international airport works overtime to cope with the influx of direct flights from all over the world.
Visitors jet in for relaxed corporate meetings and leisure vacations, weekend getaways for golf and superb seafood, or as a base for waterborne activities. Phuket is the region’s yachting centre, with three active marinas and numerous yachts for charter, and some of the world’s best dive sites offshore. In fact there is so much to do that you can come back year after year and still discover new attractions to explore.
Some of the popular beaches, such as Kata Yai and Kata Noi, are on Phuket’s west coast. Here the small beaches are quiet and romantic, linked to lanes with small pubs, beach bars, and tempting restaurants. Here Mom Tri’s Boathouse has a legendary kitchen and wine cellar, while the beachside Club Med offers bags of exciting activities for families and children.
However, the most interesting developments are the growing number of five-star resorts on the northwest coast of the island, offering unadulterated luxury, secluded surroundings and a different style of vacation.
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| Photo © Amanresorts |
At chic Surin beach next to ‘millionaire’s row’ and the reclusive Chedi and Amanpuri, Twin Palms is about to open its ultra-contemporary doors, with 76 spacious rooms linked to water, a gourmet dining facility, martini bar and heavenly spa. There’s even a tuk tuk to take guests down to the beach, 175 metres away.
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| Photo © Trisara, Phuket |
Further north on quiet Naithon beach, Trisara targets high rollers with its 33 immense pool villas (240 square metres each), perched on the hillside next to the beach, each exquisitely decorated and full of the latest IT capabilities. Guests can dine at its gourmet beachside restaurant, adjacent to a well-stocked wine cellar and cigar room, or relax in the gigantic spa (opening soon) with six private treatment suites surrounded by pools. If you need to ask the rate, don’t bother to come!
Trisara’s neighbour, the Andaman White Beach Resort has had its attractive layout featured in ‘The Beach’ and ‘The Quest’ movies, conveying around the world just how beautiful Phuket beach resorts can be.
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| Mandara Spa Photos © JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa |
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On the island’s northernmost tip, JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa plays regularly to a full house, with a mix of corporate meetings, FIT travellers, discerning groups looking for something different, and guests from its neighbouring time-share property, all enjoying the aura of this upmarket property with popular restaurants and award-winning spa.
Its beach is unique — 17 kilometres long and almost totally deserted. Actually the beach strip is a national park, where turtles come ashore to nest. The resort has set up a foundation for the turtles and encourages its guests to participate in protecting them. It just goes to show there is more to Thailand’s beaches than meets the eye.
BANGKOK-HUA HIN AIR SHUTTLE SERVICE
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To provide easier access to Hua Hin's hidden gems, SGA Airlines now operates a new 30-minute shuttle flight from Bangkok to Hua Hin four times daily from November 2004, using a 12-seater Cessna aircraft.
Web sites
Aleenta — www.aleenta.com
Andaman White Beach Resort — www.andamanwhitebeach.com
The Boathouse — www.momtrisboathouse.com
Dusit Resort Hua Hin — www.dusit.com
Evason Hua Hin — www.sixsenses.com
Hyatt Regency Hua Hin — www.huahin.hyatt.com
JW Marriott Phuket — www.marriott.com
Praseban Resort — www.prasebanresort.com
Royal Cliff Beach Resort — www.royalcliff.com
Sofitel Central Hua Hin Resort — www.accorhotels.com/asia
Trisara – www.trisara.com
Twin Palms — www.twinpalms-phuket.com
Veranda Resort & Spa — www.verandaresortandspa.com |
