Altogether, I lived in Pattaya for about 2 years, and I consider it the best place in Thailand specifically for full-time living. Bangkok is too big and hectic, Phuket is impractical for daily life, and from any of the islands you can “fly away” and forget about life altogether. Over those 2 years I’ve built up some experience, and I want to share it.
- Moving Into an Apartment in Pattaya
- Electricity and Water Bills in Pattaya
- Where to Buy Groceries in Pattaya
- Getting Around Pattaya by Scooter or Car
- Where to Buy Clothes in Pattaya
- Where to Eat in Pattaya: Restaurants, Cafés, and Night Markets
- How to Relax in Pattaya
- Taking a Real Vacation From Pattaya
Moving Into an Apartment in Pattaya
I’ve written about districts and finding housing in other articles, so now it’s more useful to cover the practical side of things.
Apartments almost always come fully furnished, even with dishware. So in theory, you don’t need to worry about anything — unpack your suitcase and enjoy life. But for me, the first week after moving in was always full of chores — washing everything, stuffing what I didn’t need into drawers, buying what I did need. I always bought new dishes and utensils — it feels better to me that way. Although I love good-quality, expensive dishware, in this case I stuck to a solid mass-market level, because you can’t take dishware with you when you leave. In my view, the best places to buy are Lotus and Index Living Mall.
Small appliances — blenders, kettles, convection oven — I bought at Lotus or Big C. Again, I had to sacrifice my preference for good, expensive appliances for the sake of practicality, because a $15 blender will last just as many months as a $100 one. But it’s easier to part with later.
Electricity and Water Bills in Pattaya
Everywhere I lived, the electricity and water bill arrived on the first or second of the following month. That’s the only utility cost you’ll need to pay as a renter. For my husband and me, for a 1-bedroom, it came out to around 3,000–3,500 baht (about $90–$105) a month, with the air conditioning running almost constantly. You can pay at any 7-Eleven, by bank transfer, or directly at reception.
Where to Buy Groceries in Pattaya
In one of my articles, I mentioned that I prefer cooking at home because of the amount of chemical additives — MSG in particular — in food from markets and restaurants.
I bought vegetables and fruit at the market — they’re always the freshest and tastiest there, and at very attractive prices. I bought fish at Lotus, because frankly I was too lazy to get up at 4 a.m. and drive from Pratumnak to Naklua for the fish market. I also bought groceries at Lotus. In general, Lotus and Big C are very convenient hypermarkets where you can get everything you need in one trip.
Everyday small things, like eggs and milk, you can get at 7-Eleven — they’re pretty much the same there.
I also want to recommend the Food Mart store, located at Jomtien Bus Station. You’ll likely find familiar products from your home country there, as well as decent cheese and reasonably good bread.
The one thing that made cooking at home a little sad for me was the lack of an oven. In all my time living in Thailand, I never once came across an apartment with an oven, and I love cooking in one. A convection oven helped a little, but it’s no substitute for the real thing — baking was something I simply had to let go of.
Getting Around Pattaya by Scooter or Car
There are long-term residents in Pattaya without their own scooter or car. Honestly, I don’t understand it. Renting is easy, and if you’re staying more than 6 months, it makes sense to consider buying.
Parking isn’t a problem — on the street, at malls, at business centers — free parking everywhere. At least, I never came across anything different. Condominiums have parking too; you just need to get a sticker from the management company — anywhere from instant issue to a couple of days, and it costs $3 to $10.
The only thing to watch for is street parking — parking along a red-and-white curb is prohibited, with a fine and towing.
Where to Buy Clothes in Pattaya
Pattaya is rich in shops, markets, beauty salons, and other places where you can buy anything and get any service.
I’ve already mentioned the malls, and you can buy any clothing there, from H&M to Dior. Honestly, I don’t see the point in buying expensive brands here. If you ride a scooter, wear on your clothes increases significantly due to constant road dust, humidity, and salty air. Second, at the local market you can buy Dior knockoffs, and locals wear $3 t-shirts with trendy logos. Expensive brands are essentially devalued here by cheap goods.
Thailand has its own clothing brands, and they’re often decently made. I have a few pieces from local manufacturers and I like them, but I always found it hard to pick clothing because the sizing is a little different from what I’m used to..
That said, sometimes you can find surprising things at the markets. I once went on a motorcycle trip around Thailand and needed to buy a sweatshirt that I’d be able to throw away after a month. Road dust, sun, sandblasting — I figured all of it would turn it into something unwearable. I bought a plain grey sweatshirt for $5 at the local market and didn’t throw it away after a month. I don’t know what it’s made of, but it stayed the same color, didn’t fray, the fabric wasn’t damaged — I decided to keep it as my road gear.
Where to Eat in Pattaya: Restaurants, Cafés, and Night Markets
Pattaya has a huge range of places to eat, and you could skip cooking at home entirely and eat out — it would be tasty, varied, and only a little more expensive than cooking at home. Many foreigners live in Pattaya, and they open their own cafés and restaurants. You can find an Italian restaurant where the pizza tastes the same as in Italy. A French café with wonderful desserts. A Japanese restaurant with real sushi. And Thai food is something you should eat at local places.
From my own experience, I’ve learned it’s worth trying different places, because both the taste and the atmosphere vary. It took me several months to put together a list of favorite spots, and after that I mostly stuck to those.
Markets and street food carts are interesting at first, but over time I started feeling heavy after eating there. The ingredients are good and, remarkably, sanitary standards hold up, but there’s too much oil. That said, on my last stay in Pattaya, I kept buying roti from one family that ran a stall — it was really good.
How to Relax in Pattaya
Even though Pattaya is a resort town, with palm trees, sea, and beaches, everyday life here is the same as anywhere else — work, chores, errands. And naturally, you need to rest.
For me, the best forms of rest turned out to be: massages, watching the sunset, sport, walks in the park, trips to interesting places near Pattaya. Beyond that, there are plenty of different activities here. Fitness, yoga, and dance studios — though you can do all of that simply in interest-based groups along the promenades and beaches. You can find various workshops. Communities from different countries organize games. Once I was having dinner at a café and got invited to join some very interesting quiz. I would have loved to join, but the game was in one of the Scandinavian languages, which I don’t speak.
In Pattaya, there’s always something to do.
Taking a Real Vacation From Pattaya
I separate the rest a person needs every day from an actual vacation. And it’s quite funny to go on vacation from a place many people go on vacation to.
Thailand itself is very interesting and beautiful. So I liked traveling around the country while on vacation. The simplest and most wonderful option — take a car and drive to Koh Chang. Half a day and you’re on a paradise island, forgetting about everything. A bit more involved — also by car, to Chiang Mai, into the mountains, and again forgetting all your tasks and simply immersing yourself in the atmosphere of northern Thailand.
A more complex trip — to the western side of the “horseshoe”: Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Krabi, Khao Lak, Koh Tao, and so on. You can get there by car, but you need to set aside at least 2 days for the drive, sometimes more. To make it from Pattaya to Koh Samui in one day, I had to leave at 5 a.m. to catch the last ferry to the island. If you don’t want to rush, it’s worth stopping for one night in Hua Hin.
But there’s an easier way — flying. Domestic air travel in Thailand is very well developed, and ticket prices are pleasant. Of course, Koh Phangan and Khao Lak don’t have their own airports, so you’d have to get there via Koh Samui and Phuket respectively, and it still takes 2 days to get there — but that can be easier than driving the whole way yourself.
If you want a complete change of scenery, you can fly to Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines. Out of Suvarnabhumi (Bangkok’s airport) there are huge numbers of flights across Asia, with flight time ranging from 1 to 3 hours.
