Bangkok and Pattaya in 5 Days: City, Coast and a Private Island
Two days of Bangkok at its best, a two-hour drive south, then three days of Pattaya beaches, Koh Larn and the Nong Nooch garden — the easiest two-city trip in Thailand.
Bangkok and Pattaya are two hours apart on a good road, and that single fact makes this the most efficient two-city trip in Thailand. You do not need a domestic flight, you do not lose half a day to an airport, and you do not have to choose between a capital city and a coastline. A private car costs less than four one-way flights would, and you leave after breakfast and arrive in time for lunch. The two Bangkok days here are deliberately not the temple circuit. If this is a first trip you will want the Grand Palace, and it belongs on a different itinerary — but if you have seen it, or you are travelling with teenagers who will not thank you for a fourth wat, this pair of days is the better version of the city. Day one stays in Sukhumvit: EmQuartier for the afternoon, then a hidden sky bar for dinner. Day two is the modern city — the glass skywalk on the 78th floor of Mahanakhon, where the floor beneath your feet is transparent and the drop is 310 metres; a dinosaur experience in the afternoon; and then Rajadamnern in the evening, which is the older and more serious of Bangkok's two Muay Thai stadiums. Rajadamnern is a real fight card in front of a real crowd, not a tourist show, and it is one of the few evenings in Bangkok that children and adults both remember. Pattaya has an image problem that is roughly fifteen years out of date. The stretch that earned the reputation is a few hundred metres of Walking Street, and this itinerary does not go near it. What the rest of the city has is a very good family coastline, the best-value beach resorts in Thailand, and two genuinely world-class attractions on its southern edge. The Sanctuary of Truth is the first: an enormous all-teak temple on the seafront, entirely hand-carved, still unfinished after forty years, with carvers working on it while you walk through. There is nothing else like it in the country. Nong Nooch is the second — six hundred acres of botanical garden including a French formal garden, a cycad collection of international importance, and a dinosaur valley the children will head for first. Between them is Koh Larn, forty minutes offshore by ferry, where the water is clear in a way that Pattaya's own beach is not. Monkey Beach on the far side is the quiet one. Go early, come back mid-afternoon, and finish at a beach club for sunset. Budget roughly USD 1,300–2,400 for a family of four across five days, excluding flights. Pattaya is the cheaper half by a wide margin — five-star beachfront there costs what four-star costs in Bangkok.
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Budget Estimate
Accommodation
1,800-4,500 THB/night
$50-$125
Hilton Sukhumvit Bangkok from 3,500 THB, Centara Grand Mirage beachfront Pattaya from 3,200 THB, a solid Pattaya 4-star from 1,800 THB
Food & Dining
400-1,200 THB/day
$11-$34
mall food courts 150-250 THB, Pattaya seafood sold by weight 600-1,200 THB, fine dining at Harlan's 1,500+ THB
Transport
200-500 THB/day
$6-$14
BTS 20-60 THB per trip, private Bangkok to Pattaya car 2,200-3,000 THB one way, Koh Larn ferry 30 THB, songthaew 10-20 THB
Activities
500-1,600 THB/day
$14-$45
Mahanakhon Skywalk about 880 THB, Rajadamnern Muay Thai from 1,500 THB, Sanctuary of Truth 500 THB, Nong Nooch about 700 THB
Total Estimated
11,500-21,000 THB
$325-$600
for 5 days per person, mid-range comfort including the private Bangkok-Pattaya transfer, the Koh Larn ferry and Nong Nooch (about $1,300-$2,400 for a family of four)
Trip Map
Day-by-Day Itinerary
5 days of adventure and exploration
Land and stay local. Sukhumvit is the easiest district to arrive into — the airport rail link runs straight to it, the BTS covers everything else, and you are not fighting old-city traffic on a day when nobody has slept. EmQuartier fills the afternoon: three connected buildings around a hanging garden and a five-storey waterfall, with a large halal food selection on the upper floors. In the evening, Vertigo TOO is the quieter alternative to Bangkok's famous rooftops — same skyline, a fraction of the queue, and you can actually hear each other talk. It is the right first night: no transfers, no early start tomorrow, and the city introduced from above before you go into it.
Three connected buildings on Sukhumvit built around a hanging garden and a five-storey indoor waterfall, with a large halal food selection on the upper floors. Directly above a BTS station, which is the point on an arrival day.
The Helix floor spirals upward through the restaurants — walk it once from the top down rather than trying to choose from the directory.
A rooftop restaurant and bar with the same Bangkok skyline as the famous towers and a fraction of the crowd. Quiet enough to hold a conversation, which is not true of most rooftops in this city.
Go at dusk rather than after dark — you get the skyline in daylight, at sunset and lit up, all from one table.
