Hua Hin Hotels in Hua Hin

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 Royal Paradise of Hua Hin

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 and 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.

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.

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 Beach: Thai Living. Thai Ways

Just 25 kilometres north of Hua Hin, 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 and 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.