Welcome to Pattaya

Pattaya City lies about 150km south east of Bangkok making it the capital's nearest beach resort. Since the early nineteen sixties when it played host to thousands of US troops on R&R leave , Pattaya has seen steady growth from its roots as a small fishing village to a major city that now attracts over six million tourists per year.

Although the city boasts some nice beaches such as Jomtien and those on the nearby islands, the town’s main attraction to visitors is undeniably the outrageous nightlife. Unfortunately, being more famous for its “sin city” reputation sometimes over-shadows Pattaya’s attractiveness as a daytime holiday resort.

During the day Pattaya offers a wealth of activities to suit all tastes such as :

• Markets – next to Bangkok, Pattaya offers the best shopping of any of the major resorts.
• Sight-seeing – Pattaya has many unique attractions such as Underwater World, The Sanctuary of Truth and The Million Years Stone Park.
• Diving – Pattaya offers some of the best wreck-diving to be found in Thailand as well as sometimes great visibility at places such a Racha Yai.
• Adrenaline - sports such as bungy jumping (of course), sky diving, jet skiing and para-gliding.
• Ballooning – seasonal trips over the city and surrounds
• Tourist Submarine – large state-of-the art submarine is now fully operational and running regular trips throughout the year.
• Golf – several world-class courses at good rates are nearby.

For more information on Pattaya daytime fun, activities and attractions in Pattaya visit www.pattayasites.com. Pattaya Sites has a good list of links to the actual home websites of the various tourist operations which can be hard to find on Google due to the large number travel agent sites that get listed when you seach for any Pattaya holiday information.

While Pattaya may not compare so well with its main rivals, Phuket and Koh Samui in terms of scenery, it does have two significant advantages over them which ensures that it is still the most popular (more than 6,000,000 visitors in 2006).

The first, as mentioned earlier, is the nightlife. Come sundown the lights go on, the music gets turned up and the quiet seaside town transforms into something like the world’s largest red-light district. Street after street becomes lined with attractive Thai bar girls who, against a backdrop of flashing neon and a booming mixture of Thai and Western music, call out  “welkaaaam” to the masses of passing tourists encouraging them to enter their establishments. As the evening rolls on the and bars fill with people it can feel like one big party. Its an atmosphere that’s not for everyone but for others it can prove addictive and entices them back year after year.

The second big advantage is that the cost of things like food, entertainment shopping and especially hotels is lower than in the other resorts. If you wish to see an example of how much cheaper accommodation is we suggest you visit a price-comparison site like Hotel Price Hunter. As they extract information from all the major hotel websites databases, nearly all Pattaya hotels are listed with the added advantage that you can see at a glance who is offering the best deal.

With the new Bangkok airport being as close to Pattaya as it is to the capital city, many travellers are now opting to spend a few nights in Pattaya rather than face the traffic in Bangkok. This new influx of visitors is already having an effect on Pattaya's development with land prices increasing and many new building and tourist developments underway. These new visitors, however, are not lured solely by the city's party reputation so there is an active campaign by the Thai's to promote and develop the city as a seaside resort suitable for everyone. The future is looking very good for Pattaya.