Visits to Thai beaches in Bang Saen and Hua hin in the past 2 years

 Even though I prefer to live in a rural area, and my YouTube and Blogspot themes are more catered towards rural Thailand, I do love beaches just as much as anyone. The reason I prefer to live rural is I don't want to live amongst the tourist scene or in crowded places.

I want to say I've been to other beaches in Rayong, Kho Samet, Phuket, Pattaya, Jomtien etc. but it was before I met my wife. 

In the last 2 years, me and my wife decided on a family tradition in which on December 26 of each year, me, her and our son will travel to a new seaside location.

I didn't take my son to a beach earlier because of the Pandemic, and before then he would have been too young to remember. Plus, my wife has always been more of a mountains & waterfalls type of lady. 

The reasons the first 2 seaside locations I choose to take my son and wife were Bang Saen and Hua Hin is because they're part of the Thai mainland, which means no need to hop on a plane, (my wife is scared of flying) and they're closer to where I live (Phetchabun), than the beaches in Southern Thailand.

It was exciting for me as the trip to Bang Saen in 2022 was the first time I had taken my son to a beach, and I hadn't been to a beach myself since 2017.

Il show photos of the beaches I visited in Bang Saen.

My son stunned to see a sea shell.

The reason I cropped this photo is people walked in front.

I visited multiple beaches in Bang Saen. To be honest, the beach on the 2nd day in Bang Saen (I can't remember it's name), was the best, simply because it didn't have hard rocks all over the sand when you go deep in the water.

The beaches were cluttered with food vendors, chairs and umbrellas, which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. I prefer more natural, cleaner beaches, but some people like the convenience, and the food vendors say being able to sell food in the beach is their livelihood.

Here is what I mean by the beaches in Bang Saen being cluttered 

Yes I know I'm hypocritical, since I rented one of the chairs, but other beaches don't have anywhere as many chairs, umbrellas and food vendors.

I will say I like the palm trees at the beaches in Bang Saen, even though they're planted 

Here is a view from the hotel we stayed in, named Seabreeze.

The room cost 600 baht per night. The next cheapest hotel I could find in Bang Saen that's similar quality on Agoda was over 2000 PN.

The room we stayed in was clean, felt more like an apartment (hence cheaper monthly rates were available) and there was a gym.

Seabreeze had no restaurant, although they did serve breakfast, including American breakfast and a few basic Thai dishes, and only until mid-day.

Bang Saen had nice things, such as a young weekend getaway style vibe, since it's only 1 hour drive from Bangkok, it's not far for families and groups of young people to  travel to.

I liked seeing groups of young people sitting next to the beach and playing guitar (acoustic guitar so not too loud,), and singing. It gave a warm feeling.

I didn't see any girly bars or naughty massage places in Bang Saen, I'm not saying they're not there but it makes it more suitable for families, young couples and young groups of friends whom want a relaxing getaway.

The zoo in Bang Saen (I forgot it's name), was good for the kids, has the train cart that can transport you around the zoo (needs be paid for of course), and the zoo has an Australia zoo, as well as Tigers, hippopotamus in a tank (my wife was stunned to see the hippo swimming through the glass), and things children would like such as turtles.

I won't post photos of inside the zoo, as it'll make this blog too long.

Another thing, Bang Saen looked like 90% Thai and 10% foreigners, so you don't need to deal with huge crowds of tourists.

There's still plenty with food places suited for westerners though, such as Burger King, pizza restaurants etc 

Anyway now I'll talk about Hua Hin.

I had heard many great things about Hua Hin, it is 3 hours drive from BKK, which meant an extra 2 hours drive for us since we were travelling from Phetchabun.

Anyways, I can say the extra 2 hours was definitely worth it.

First, I'll show photos of Suan Son Pradipat Beach, in Hua Hin.

The photos might make it look like a plain, ordinary beach, but that's what I love about it. 

It's not cluttered with food vendors and umbrellas. There were some chairs on the beach you could rent, but nowhere near as much as Bang Saen.

Although I love palm trees because they give a nice tropical feel, I like how they didn't plant palm trees along Pradipat beach, they kept everything looking natural.

The vibe I got at Pradipat Beach was a calm, secluded one.

There were places you could buy food next to the beach, a one minute walk, but I like how they keep food sellers off the beach itself.

The food sellers next to the beach were inside a food court, to give people a place to eat and dispose of their rubbish, to keep the beach clean.

Next I'll talk about the hotel.

I stayed in a hotel named Mandarin Lodge. 800 baht per night.

Mandarin Lodge was set up like a village resort. Colourful rooms.

The room interior might look basic, but it gave a more laid back vibe, the WiFi was fast. Room still has a TV, fridge, hot water. Not everything needs to look posh.

The resort has a restaurant with a good menu selection of Thai and Western food, and is open from morning until after evening. Don't underestimate this, because if you've spent many hours travelling, and you arrive late in the afternoon, and just want a nice, quiet meal in your room, you have this option.

Mandarin Lodge also has a swimming pool. People might be thinking, why need a pool if Hua Hin has nice beaches? Well if you don't feel like travelling 15 minutes to Pradipat Beach, let's say it's late afternoon and you want a quiet, relaxing time with your family and want to do some swimming, option is there.

I found the staff at Mandarin very friendly (the owners are a Thai lady and Euro guy), and they go out of their way to help you, make you feel comfortable, smile etc. TBH, I felt the staff at Seabreeze acted as if they didn't want to be there and as if my wife inconvenienced them when we asked could they call us a taxi.

So there is some truth to "you get what you pay for". 

Other things to do besides going to the beach, me and my wife and son visited Venezia.

It's a theme park with a Venice style theme, and other nice things to see. It used to be a very lively place according to reviews, but it never recovered after COVID. 

Not many people were there, so not much atmosphere. But what I did see of it looked nice, but felt like a ghost town.

Other forms of entertainment included when me, my wife & son went to Market Village, expecting to have a nice dinner at Sizzler, I was amazed with how everything with lite up and beautiful, a band was playing Tina Turner's "Simply the Best" in the background to add even more amazing atmosphere.

Inside the complex there is even water fountains.

Just walking to the Sizzler was breath taking enough, and as I said in my YouTube video when I recorded all this, "being in Thailand makes me feel so alive".

Sizzler was nice as expected. People can say what they want about Sizzler, it's a nice family restaurant with a buffet included.

I had a nice cheeseburger and fries for 400 baht, with the buffet bar included. Buying a Whopper at Burger King would cost roughly the same, without the buffet. My son enjoyed his grilled chicken, fries, chocolate mousse and jelly desserts.

It was cool to have our order delivered by a robot.

The next day, me, my wife and son went to Pradipat Beach again, because why not? It was perfect the day before, and it was our final full day in Hua Hin, so I went with the "if it works, don't change it" belief 

I loved Pradipat even more the 2nd time, it felt like me and my family were away from the world's problems when we were there.

Another thing I like about Pradipat, is it has extra things to make it exciting, such as having a whale skeleton on display in front of the beach.

The final night in Hua Hin, we went to Hua Hin night market, very crowded but great food selection.

I bought myself and my son a Kebab

We then went to a restaurant named "Bird Chilli", I looked it up on Google before going to the market, and saw it has Isan food for my wife, seafood for my son, and massaman for me.

The Gai in the massaman literally fell apart, it was delicious, aroi mak.

My son enjoyed his lobster, and I ordered some french fries for us to share, and he had some massaman, and seafood fried rice.

My wife is different to me in that she doesn't like to organise and plan, she likes to wonder around and look for food she likes.

Problem is, she is picky about food and mostly eats Isan food, but not many restaurants near the hotel or where we want sold the Isan food she wanted, she wanted larb, as well as Isan style som tum.

This restaurant had both, but my wife was stubborn to admit it was a good idea to research online for a restaurant at Hua hin Market that sells the food we want, rather than going to the market and wondering around like a chicken with it's head cut off, hoping to find what we want.

Here's my wife's face when she doesn't want to admit I was right, still beautiful though.

Other final notes about Hua hin, it also has a relaxing seaside city feel, it has a much higher ratio of foreigners than Bang Saen, maybe 30% or 40% of people I saw were foreigners (remember, I was mostly in touristy areas).

Many foreigners in Hua Hin are of European background. I like how many buildings in Hua Hin have a colorful style to them.

I just want to point out, don't be put off if this is your first glimpse of Hua Hin beach

This was across from our hotel, not Pradipat beach. This section of the beach is used for fishing and near many restaurants, so you'll see a fair bit of rubbish. However, the beach across from Seabreeze in Bang Saen has much rubbish on it and in the water, maybe from the fishing boats and food stalls.

I hope this blog explained the pros and cons of both Bang Saen and Hua Hin.

I think it's fair to compare them both, because the hospitality industry in both these places aims for the same types of tourists, families and couples.

I won't compare either place to Phuket, because a fairer comparison would be comparing Phuket to Krabi, since they are islands with limestone cliffs and in Southern Thailand.

I'm glad I visited both Bang Saen and Hua Hin, my son enjoyed both places and I'll always have great memories of both places and hope to come back to them one-day.