There are countless places around Pattaya you can visit within a single day. I’ve been to many of them, but I’ll tell you about my favorites. What all these places have in common is this: you can wake up in the morning, want a change of scenery, and just go. No planning required.
- Nong Nooch Tropical Garden
- Koh Samet
- Koh Larn
- Sattahip
- Bang Saray
- The Italian Village
- The Floating Market
- The Chinese Market
- Ramayana Water Park
Nong Nooch Tropical Garden
This isn’t a garden, a park, an entertainment center, a botanical project, or a tourist attraction. It’s all of those at once. There’s a lot you can do here — walk around, admire the plants and learn about them, hug and feed elephants, take photos, watch various shows, marvel at dinosaur sculptures, visit a car museum. I’m probably forgetting something, but I think you get the idea — it’s a very varied place where everyone can find something to their taste.
The botanical garden (which is its official name) was founded by the Thai couple Tansacha in 1980, and today it covers around 272 hectares, with more than 18,000 plants arranged into an entire system of landscaped compositions. That’s part of what makes it so pleasant to spend time in. I’ve been there many times and would happily go again.
Koh Samet
This is a small island and also a national park, about 90 km from Pattaya. It’s my favorite place to visit as a day trip.
Koh Samet is a small island, around 5 square kilometers in area. In a single day, you can relax on one beach, head to the far end of the island, take a walk to enjoy the views, and return via a different beach.
The island has around a dozen beaches, all with soft white sand and turquoise water. The most popular is Sai Kaew. But the best one, in my opinion, is Prao Beach — calm, quiet, fewer people, with a good restaurant at the resort nearby.
Koh Larn
Another small island, but one much closer to Pattaya. Early on in my time living in Pattaya, I used to go there, but I later stopped enjoying it because of the large crowds and the particular kind of island infrastructure.
That said, the beaches there are almost as nice as on Koh Samet, and if you’re just Pattaya on vacation, it’s worth going there simply to save on travel time. But if you live in Pattaya, don’t settle for it — go to Koh Samet instead.
Sattahip
I’ll close out the beach topic with Sattahip. It’s essentially a small town surrounding military bases. Not a touristy place at all, which is exactly what makes it so pleasant.
First, there’s a temple on Wihan Luang Pho Dam hill, with lovely views and a fairly beautiful setting, along with several interesting military installations.
Second, the beaches. White sand (though not quite as white as on the islands), blue water, and pine trees — turns out the subtropics have their own pine trees. On top of that, the beaches are mostly visited by locals (I’ve hardly seen any foreigners there), which makes for a very calm, friendly atmosphere. The best-known beach is Sattahip Military Beach, though there are others as well.
Bang Saray
This place could be called a small village south of Pattaya, though it’s actually a proper town. I ended up there by chance and kept coming back, again and again, to walk along the pretty street that runs through the town parallel to the sea, ending at a park and a good beach. On Google Maps and in every address, the street name is written in Thai, so I won’t include it here — but it’s the only street closest to the sea, and you’re unlikely to get lost. I love simply walking around with my camera and stopping into cozy cafés. Bang Saray has plenty of Instagram-worthy spots, and if you want photos that don’t look like everyone else’s, it’s worth a visit.
The Italian Village
Not far from Nong Nooch is another interesting spot, also great for Instagram photos. I call it the Italian Village. It’s an artificial village built for tourists, but the design is convincingly Italian. It’s easiest to find by looking up the restaurant names: Silverlake, and a bit further on the other side of the road, Castello Di Bellagio. Very atmospheric and stylish — also a great spot for a styled photoshoot.
The Floating Market
Another staged tourist attraction, this one built around Thai history — specifically, how people lived (and still live) in villages built along rivers. There are no actual residents at Pattaya Floating Market, but there are plenty of walkways, cafés, restaurants with tasty local food, souvenir shops, and boat rides.
The Floating Market is especially pleasant in the low season, when there are few tourists and you can wander the mock streets in peace.
The Chinese Market
Another authentic spot, but this time not staged — the Chak Ngaew Chinese Market. It’s a real Chinese market that developed naturally in a village historically settled by people of Chinese descent. It’s only open on Saturday afternoons.
What makes it interesting is the immersion into a real culture, not something built as an attraction. The food isn’t adapted for outsiders, and in many cases I couldn’t tell what dishes were even being offered. Some of it was delicious, some less so to my European taste, and some I simply couldn’t figure out at all.
Ramayana Water Park
This is the only water park I’ve ever been to. I’m not generally a big fan of rides, but my husband talked me into going, and I ended up really enjoying it.
It has everything from a “Lazy River” to some genuinely terrifying rides where you just drop. If, like me, you’re not a big fan of that sort of thing, start with the very simple, almost kid-level rides. I started with the medium ones and then spent about an hour and a half just soaking in the Lazy River. In the end, I decided to go through the whole park again, this time starting from the simple rides, and by the time I reached the medium ones again, I actually enjoyed them. But I never made it to the hardcore rides.
