Hua Hin Travel Blog

Hua Hin is one of the nearest beach destinations to Bangkok and one of the easiest to get to. It also has good weather in August when it stays pretty dry and sunny, so we decided to stop there for a couple of days on our way south to Malaysia.

To be honest I wasn’t expecting much from Hua Hin after reading very mixed reviews online, but was pleasantly surprised. It definitely isn’t a Thailand paradise island with crystal clear water, but it has a wide sandy beach than goes on for miles and lots of things for kids to do which is always a huge bonus. The few days that we were there in August had good weather with sunny spells and a few short showers that were easy to avoid. It was also pretty quiet so the beach was deserted in places, which was lovely and perfect for kids.

Getting to Hua Hin

Hua Hin is very easy to get to from Bangkok and other places in Thailand. It is also a convenient stop over on your way south to the Southern Islands, to Malaysia, or on your way north to Bangkok.

The main ways to get to Hua Hin are by train, bus and minibus. Hua Hin is on Thailand’s Southern train line and the train journey from Bangkok’s Hualamphong railway station takes 4-5 hours. You can check Thailand’s train timetable here or book online with 12go.asia. There are also buses and minibuses from Bangkok’s Southern bus station and Northern Mo Chit bus station to Hua Hin. These take around 4.5 hours.

Getting to Hua Hin from the Amphawa Floating Market and Mae Klong Railway Market

We wanted to get to Hua Hin from Amphawa Floating Market, but couldn’t find much up to date information on how to do this, so below is how we did it. Hopefully this information will help somebody trying to do the same thing.

From Amphawa Floating Market you can catch a songthaew to Mae Klong bus station, near the Mae Klong railway market, which takes 15 minutes and costs 20 baht per person. We were told that there were no minibuses going from the bus station to Hua Hin or Petchaburi so we had 2 options:

1. Head up to the highway and try to flag down a passing bus or minibus bound for Hua Hin from Bangkok. We weren’t too keen on this option, with 2 very restless young kids in tow, so took option 2 instead which was longer but kept things interesting.
2. Catch a rickety local bus from Mae Klong station to Ratchaburi which takes approximately 1 hour and costs 20 baht per person, then jump on a tuk tuk to Ratchaburi’s train station. From the train station you can catch an Ordinary Train to Hua Hin. A 3rd class seat costs around 25 baht per person and kids get a discount. The train from Ratchaburi to Hua Hin takes 2-2.5 hours and you can check train times here.

Where to stay in Hua Hin

There are so many accommodation options in Hua Hin, ranging from simple backpacker digs to luxury top end resorts. We were travelling on a budget but the kids were desperate for a swimming pool. So we found this little gem of a place called La-or Hotel Resort and I highly recommend it. The rooms are clean, a good size and very reasonably priced.

The hotel is in a great location 15-20 minutes walk to the train station, town and beach. It is near a lovely night street food market where you can pick up Thai dishes for 40 baht. It take 10 minutes to walk to the night street food market. There are 7-elevens nearby too.

The only minor grumble we had was that our 2 bedroom bungalow didn’t have a connecting door between the rooms. Instead both doors open next to each other on your own private veranda. This isn’t ideal with young kids, but probably fine with slightly older kids. I slept with our kids so it wasn’t too much of a problem for us, just thought I’d highlight it. The resort does have a proper family bungalow but it was more expensive.

The hotel laid on a simple free breakfast and tea/coffee making facilities. All in all La-or hotel Resort worked very well for what we wanted.

Click here to book La-or Hotel Resort in Hua Hin.

Please note that we only recommend hotels/hostels that we have really enjoyed and for no other reason. We are not being paid to recommend them just trying to help out other travellers like us. We do however have affiliate links to the hotels that we loved and if you click them it will give us a small commission to help fund this website.