Taking a Bus from Pattaya to Huahin
Pattaya and Huahin are two prominent beach towns in Thailand. Pattaya is popular with foreigners, while Huahin is favoured by locals (although still attracts a lot of foreigners). They are both easily accessible from Bangkok, but what if you want to travel between them? How can you travel from Pattaya to Huahin?
What are your options?
In the past there was a ferry between Pattaya and Huahin. It didn't survive Covid, and as of writing remains suspended so you're going to need to travel by road.
Taxis are great value in Thailand, especially if you have several people travelling. A taxi from Pattaya to Huahin starts at 2,899 baht. Splitting that between four people could make it decent value. However, as I travel alone I'm going to focus on travelling by bus.
Option 1 - Take a direct bus
One company, Roong Reuang Coach, offers a direct bus service from Pattaya to Huahin. In the past this was a great option because they used to have an early morning bus. Unfortunately they now only have one bus going from Pattaya to Huahin per day, and it doesn't leave until 3:30pm. As the journey takes 4+ hours that means you aren't going to arrive until the evening.
If you're travelling in the other direction, the once-daily bus leaves at 9am, which is far more palatable.
Before going onto the other options, it's worth checking if they've reinstated the early bus since the writing of this article. If they have, then it's the best option. Buses depart from the North Pattaya Bus Terminal and arrive at the Roong Reuang Coach bus station in Huahin, which is up by the airport and way out of the centre of Huahin. For an extra 100 baht you'll be offered a shuttle to your hotel, which I suggest you take because it'll be waiting for you when you get off the bus and is decent value.
Tickets cost 473 baht and can be bought at the North Pattaya Bus Terminal in person, or on the Roong Reuang Coach website with an additional 50 baht "online service charge".
Options 2, 3 and 4 - Change buses in Bangkok
Unless you're willing to arrive in Huahin after sundown, you're going to have to cobble together a trip by changing buses in Bangkok. I can confirm from experience that there are three places in Bangkok with buses that serve both Pattaya and Huahin:
There may be others - perhaps the Southern Bus Terminal or Don Mueang Airport. As I don't have first-hand experience travelling to Pattaya and Huahin from these terminals, and as they're kind of out of the way, I'm going to omit them from consideration here.
From Pattaya, buses go to the Ekkamai Bus Terminal and the Northern Bus Terminal in Bangkok, from the North Pattaya Bus Terminal. In Ekkamai there's one company that offers a minivan service to Huahin, roughly once per hour. I'll go into detail on this below. There are several companies with services to Huahin from Bangkok's Northern Bus Terminal.
To get to Suvarnabhumi Airport from Pattaya, the best option is Roong Reuang Coach, which departs from Jomtien Bus Station (more on this below). There are also buses to Suvarnabhumi Airport from the North Pattaya Bus Terminal.
There are nine buses per day from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Huahin. These are also operated by Roong Reuang Coach.
Which option did I choose?
I went with option 4 - changing at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
For how late it'd arrive, the direct bus wasn't an option for me, and seeing as traffic in Bangkok can be mortally painful, if I can avoid going into Bangkok just to leave again, all the better. Suvarnabhumi Airport is far enough outside Bangkok that traffic is not an issue there.
I was also staying walking distance from Jomtien Bus Station so it saved me having to take a taxi to the North Pattaya Bus Terminal (which can often be a bit of a shit-show given the number of lost tourists there).
How did it go?
Shit.
It started well. A day prior to travelling I wandered down to Jomtien Bus Station and bought a ticket for the 7am bus the next morning. My rationale for getting that bus was I wanted to arrive in Huahin as close to 2pm as possible (my hotel check-in time). Buses from Jomtien Bus Station to Suvarnabhumi Airport leave on the hour every hour from 6am to 10pm and cost 143 baht (they can also be booked on the Roong Reuang Coach website for a 50 baht surcharge).
Buses from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Huahin leave at 7:30am, 8:30am, 9:30am, 10:30am, 12:30pm, 2:30pm, 4pm, 5pm and 6:30pm. They cost 325 baht each (and can also be booked on the Roong Reuang Coach website for a 50 baht surcharge).
I figured that if I took the 7am bus then I should arrive at Suvarnabhumi Airport in time to take the 9:30am bus to Huahin, but if I was delayed for any reason, I'd only have to wait an hour until the 10:30am bus. A fool-proof plan, right?
As I wasn't certain I'd arrive in time, I didn't buy a ticket from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Huahin in advance. That was a mistake.
It's called Jomtien Bus Station, but really there's just this one ticket office in a parade of shops in the car park of Food Mart. The buses park-up in the car park and depart from right in front of the ticket office.
Leg 1 - Jomtien Bus Station to Suvarnabhumi Airport
I arrived at Jomtien Bus Station at 6:37am. There were already two buses to Suvarnabhumi Airport there with passengers on, but many empty seats. Note that in the ticket office, there is a sign that says you'll be charged extra for any baggage, and when I handed my bag to the driver he asked me how much it weighed. I replied "17kg" in a 'I've been up since 5:20am so don't be a fucking prick you fucking prick' voice, and that was good enough. I got waved onto the bus without having to pay extra.
My boyish good looks were again a curse as once there were no double seats remaining, I was the first person to have someone next to them. There were a small number of empty seats on this bus, so it wasn't necessary to have bought a ticket in advance.
We departed at 7:08am and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 8:43am.
Buses depart every hour on the hour from 6am to 10pm. Travel time is listed as two hours, but for me it was less than this. On the sign at the right of the picture is the list of baggage surcharges. Unfortunately I didn't get a better picture than this, but for a normal-sized bag it was an extra 20 baht.
Suvarnabhumi Airport
We were dropped-off on the departures floor (the fourth floor) of Suvarnabhumi Airport. Public transport at Suvarnabhumi departs from the first floor, so I took an escalator down there, went up to the Roong Reuang Coach kiosk, and was greeted by a sign saying "Next bus to Huahin, 14:30." What the actual fuck?
I politely enquired, and the attendant told me that all buses before then were sold out from people booking online.
Well fuck me then I guess.
As if I didn't understand, some smug prick behind me in the queue felt the need to reiterate "you need to book online because these buses sell-out."
Yeah, thanks mate.
For a moment I thought about waiting until the 2:30pm bus, but then thought fuck-it, I didn't get up at 5:20am this morning to arrive in Huain at sundown. I'll figure-out some other way. So I wandered down to the taxis and jumped-in one, telling the driver to take me to Ekkamai Bus Terminal.
The Roong Reuang Coach kiosk at Suvarnabhumi is actually slightly inconspicuous. You have to get very close to it before you see the company name anywhere, so this is what you're looking for. A bright orange sign that says 'Huahin' on it. I hate people that can't even stand in a queue for two minutes without taking a selfie. Don't be that girl.
Leg 2 - Suvarnabhumi Airport to Ekkamai Bus Terminal
Ekkamai was the closer of the Bangkok bus terminals, so I figured it was my best bet. Having taken minibuses from Ekkamai to Huahin in the past, I knew that they departed roughly once per hour, so I was hopeful I could make it in time for the 10am bus.
I got in the taxi at 8:58am, and instead of sitting in the Bangkok traffic in a bus, I was now sitting in the Bangkok traffic in a taxi with the metre running. Great.
It was touch-and-go as we had long periods not moving, but we pulled-into Ekkamai bus terminal at 9:54am. The fare for that taxi was 259 baht plus the 50 baht airport surcharge. With a tip it cost me 350 baht.
Leg 3 - Ekkamai Bus Terminal to Huahin
Thankfully there was a minibus was due to depart at 10am. My ticket cost 200 baht, and I was one of the last people to get on. As all bus drivers in Thailand seem to do, the driver looked aghast that I was travelling with a suitcase like it was some huge inconvenience that he, a bus driver, now had to accommodate a suitcase.
I wasn't in the mood for his shit either, and when I'm like that I think people can tell quite quickly, and he reneged on any thoughts of adding an extra "baggage fee" (that goes straight into his pocket) as minibuses in Thailand are quite well known for.
We departed at 10:05am which I was happy with. The comfort of the bus, I was not. I'm 5'11" on a good day, and these minibuses are not designed even for people like me, particularly with someone sat by the window next to me. He got off with about an hour left in the journey, which made things more comfortable, but this was not a fun trip.
There was only one stop of note - a toilet stop at the Mae Klong rest area at 11:52am. We left again at 11:57am, so there wasn't even time to get food or take a shit.
The advantage of these minibuses over the Roong Reuang Coach buses, is that they basically let you get off where you want. It's useful if you can speak Thai for this, because the drivers typically don't speak English.
Several people got off in Cha-am at 1:05pm, making the bus feel much more spacious. We then arrived in Huahin, and most people got out next to the Huahin Clock Tower at 1:34pm. If you don't know Huahin or don't know the route of this minibus, this is the default place where most people alight.
It's worth noting that, while it didn't happen this trip, in previous journeys with the same company from Ekkamai, I've had the driver stop at a random place in Huahin, a "taxi driver" (the bus driver's mate) then gets onto the bus and targets any foreigners, telling them that they're in Huahin and they need to get off. They can quite pushily try to get them to leave the bus so they can charge them an extra fee to take them to their hotel in their car.
Be aware of this. Only get off if you're where you want to get off, and don't be pressured to get into anyone's car. In fact I'd avoid it altogether, and if you do need a taxi then order a Grab.
The minibus will continue down Phet Kasem Rd. Market Village is a common stop, where we arrived at 1:37pm. I continued onto Blueport shopping mall as it was a short walk from my hotel. I got off here at 1:39pm.
It'd been a bit of a shit journey, but I still made it to my hotel before 2pm, so I guess it could have been worse.
Final thoughts
If it's at a time that's palatable to you, then taking the direct bus is definitely the best option.
Failing that, don't make the mistake I did. It turns out that buses from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Huahin do sell-out, so book a ticket in advance online. The journey from Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi took well under two hours, so you should safely make any bus you've booked.
That being said, despite the frustration of not being able to get a bus from Suvarnabhumi, this trip was still pretty successful.
We'd left Jomtien at 7:08am, and I got off the bus in Huahin at 1:39pm, so it'd only taken me six hours and thirty-one minutes to get here. And despite the cost of almost an hour in a taxi, the total I paid was only 693 baht for the taxi plus the two buses.
If I'd booked a ticket from Suvarnabhumi to Huahin, the total cost of my trip would have been 618 baht (including 50 baht online surcharge and minibus to the hotel), and I wouldn't have arrived that much earlier. So despite the hiccup, it wasn't a terrible journey.
I'll definitely book online next time to save the frustration, but I guess the lesson is that it's pretty easy to get from Pattaya to Huahin, and even when things go wrong you can still make it there quickly. And as an absolute last resort you can just take a taxi the whole way. So don't worry much about it.