This is a very late JBR - hence the title Not Just Back Report
We booked a car with driver and set off from Bangkok on the trip and had a bit of a look at Cha Am on the way to Hua Hin.
We thought it looked ok and made a mental note to call in on the way back to Bangkok.
The trip took over 3 hours.

We couldn’t help but notice how much development has occurred since our last visit to Hua Hin about three years ago. Hotels and condo developments have popped up everywhere with lots more at various stages of construction. There are lots more shops too. All along the road to Takiab Beach, there are now lots of restaurants, bars and shops where there used to be little shops and hut type bars.
Prices for accommodation and restaurants have also gone up accordingly.

Although there are hotels in town and a beach too, we wanted to stay in Takiab Beach area. Prices were pretty high in February and although we fancied Wora Bura, we didn’t fancy the price (around 7000 baht.)
We chose another hotel, Napalai, that looked to be in the right location but seeing it was rather new, we couldn’t find any reviews.
We realized our mistake when the car headed right at the fork in the road and away from the beach. From our hotel, we needed to cross the road, walk for a few hundred metres to a side road and walk down that for several hundred metres more……….. all up between 10 and 15 minutes’ walk to the sand.

The hotel itself was nice enough – central pool rather small but ok. Rooms were very nice – ceramic tiles on the floors, good beds with nice linen and silk runners, very good aircon and nice bathroom with big bath and walk-in shower. Our balcony overlooked the pool – and had a distant view of the see.

There were a couple of small restaurants across the road – both good for breakfast. The pub further down the road was a good choice for evening meals too.

The beach at Takiab is very popular – lots of little beach bars dotted along the sand and all of them had their own sunbeds and/or deckchairs – 100 baht a day seemed to be the norm. After we chose our spot, the guy asked if we wanted “sun or shadow” and brought the umbrella over. During the day he came back to adjust the umbrella so we had more shade.
We spent a few afternoons lying about on Takiab Beach.
The Anantara resort is on this stretch – it looked a nice enough place and you could walk straight out of the hotel onto the sand, where they have sunbeds. This stretch of sand outside the Anantara is ‘reserved for guests’

One thing about this area ………… whatever it is you need or want, you don’t have to go anywhere to get it because it comes to you!! During the afternoon, I actually counted how many vendors came along asking me to buy something…….30! They had sunglasses, caps, sarongs, shirts, ice cream, sandals, tshirts, shorts etc. etc. I ended up buying a beach wrap and had a pedicure.

For our trips into town we used songtaews (public open-sided vehicles with bench seating in the back) These generally cost 10 baht for short trips around Hua Hin or to and from Takiab into town.

We visited “Market Village” – a multi-level shopping complex with a lot of small stands and stalls as well as some midrange ‘name’ shops and restaurants – then went to the beach opposite this complex.
There were a couple of beach bars on the sand with lots of sunbeds and deck chairs set up. Some people were lying on sunbeds and having massages.
One night we went to a restaurant recommended to us by a guy in our hotel. It’s called Take 5 and is near Smor Spa resort. This place offers good Indian, Western and Thai food and you can sit outside in the garden or inside. Very nice.

We took a sontaew into town and went to the night market which we found a bit of a disappointment - nothing different to what’s available in the shops or on the beach but several small seafood restaurants and bar areas.
After dinner at a small place in the town and walking around the shops we decided to head back to Takiab. All the songtaews cease to be public vehicles after a certain time at night and become available for private hire, charging 100-150 baht back to Takiab area.
Outside the main department store near the market we saw a guy holding up a Taxi sign and he wanted the same price as the songtaews, so we opted for the comfort and aircon and went with him.

On the way back to Bangkok we stopped at Cha Am for lunch. We thought it was a good spot and think that if we visit this part of Thailand again, we’d stay in the central part of Cha Am (not where the big hotels are) as it seems pretty quiet and has a more laid back feel to it than Hua Hin which seems to have lost something as its grown bigger and bigger .
Many people like Hua Hin and would disagree with what we think, but we prefer our beach holidays to be a bit less 'tourist town'.

Interesting read!

We're going to HH in June so thanks for the tips about eating, shopping and transport.

It's always difficult to judge what a place is like as we all want different things from it but that's what JBR's (or even NJBR's) are all about.

That's why we all love reading them!!!

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Alison

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It's Better to Burn Out than just to Fade Away!

In Hua Hin you have the old town part. Above the water are restaurants, all offering seafood. What you will have to know is that price varies more then the quality of the food!!!

The most popular restaurant, is the one with the fishtanks in the income. It is also the most expensive!!! I thought that the diffrence in price could never justify this, and I tried the restaurant next to it, direction Hilton. That one was not so busy, but the food was excellent! I talked to an American couple, found of thai food like myself, and they confirmed that the popular restaurant was in no way better.

So I saved some "baht", had a very nice diner.

Hi Kimbo

Great report- thanks for the read

We usually stay for a while at both Hua Hin and Cha'am when we visit Thailand. Cha'am is very quiet during the week and gets going on the weekend when the Thais come for the weekend. We have found some good eating places in Cha'am- I wouldn't call them restaurants but the food is good and well priced. There are also a couple of reasonable retaurants as well. In Hua Hin we have stayed at the Sofitel - a bit of luxury but worth it and plenty of excellent eating places around the hotel area.

Did you try Forest Park, a couple of miles outside Cha Am on the road to Hua Hin? It's full practically every evening , very popular with Thais and the food is excellent, especially the seafood and fish..... only downside is that the waiters speak practically no English and are a bit wary of acknowledging your existence in case they (or you) lose face, so you could find yourself waiting for some time before someone plucks up courage to come and take your order.

As a general rule of thumb,

-If a restaurant is packed with Thai people, this is nearly always a reliable indication that the food is very good and reasonably priced (if not dirt cheap).

-If a restaurant is packed with foreigners, that's another matter.... it could be the restaurant is mentioned in guide books, could be that tourists see other foreigners eating there. It doesn't necessarily mean that the food will be particularly good or particularly good value. The only time I've ever had food poisoning in Thailand was after eating in the Falang Bar in Chumphon. As the name suggests it caters mainly for falangs and it was by no means deserted, quite busy in fact.

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