Pattaya beaches

When preparing this article, I looked at articles by other authors – some of them listed a couple of dozen beaches in Pattaya and a dozen more “other beaches in Pattaya”. It seems that the authors of these articles have a very superficial acquaintance with Pattaya or have never been here at all. In these articles the same places are called by different names, sometimes they give coordinates of places where there is nothing. “Pattaya beaches” also include beaches in the area of the city of Sattahip – I was in this city, foreigners are not allowed to go everywhere there, since there are Thai naval bases in the area of this city. Without personal transport, you need to get to Sattahip by minivan or white tuk-tuk. In general, I can’t imagine that anyone would want to go there on their vacation. In any case, this is a different city and these are not “Pattaya beaches”.

I visited all the places that I will talk about, I took pictures of these places myself. I hope I didn’t miss anything (if so, write in the comments!), but I definitely didn’t add fiction – that’s why there are only a few beaches in my post.

Map of Pattaya beaches

Pattaya Beach (Central Beach)

The most eventful and people-filled beach.

This beach runs along Beach Rd – from the part that turns sharply after Dolphin Circle, and goes all the way to Pattaya Walking Street.

By the way, the Dolphin Circle as such no longer exists – there is neither a circular movement nor dolphins.

The peculiarity of the location of hotels along this beach is that they are all separated by a road (the same Beach Rd) – there is not a single hotel directly on Pattaya Beach.

Near this beach there is Central Festival, Soi Buakhao and the already mentioned Walking Street. If you went to the beach from any of these places, then it was Pattaya Beach.

In recent years, the beach has been significantly expanded – the amount of sand has been increased. Although the struggle for sand with the elements in the form of rain continues, as streams of water constantly strive to wash the sand back into the sea.

Most festivals and beach events take place on Pattaya Beach. This is the central place of the city.

It is here, usually in the Central Festival area, that various installations dedicated to a particular event are installed: New Year, Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, and so on.

The pedestrian part of the embankment is wide. And at the same time, it is always crowded, so you can only take a relaxing stroll here in the morning. At all other times, both day and night, life is in full swing here and there are a lot of people, so you have to make your way through the crowd.

There are many sunbeds for rent here. Good service in terms of food and variety of drinks, since there are quite a lot of tourists. Depending on the time, there may be high or low occupancy of sunbeds, but there is no crowding. In terms of relaxing in the sun and swimming in the sea, it’s normal here – there are quite a lot of people, but there is enough space for everyone.

In the evening and at night, the sunbeds are removed, but there are not much fewer people – many vacationers on the beach sit on rugs they brought with them or rent rugs right here.

In the evening and at night you can enjoy music from the bars across the street. If you wish, you can find a quiet place, but there will still be quite a lot of people there.

In the evening, many people jokingly call the pedestrian embankment from Central Festival to Walking Street “Coconut Bar”. “Coconut” because there are a lot of coconut trees, and “Bar” because there are a lot of girls selling sex under the palm trees.

As for other tourist attractions, for example, Speed Boat to Ko Larn, parasailing, banana boat, etc., this is the place with the most offers.

Jomtien Beach

Jomtien is a large area located some distance from the rest of Pattaya.

The length of Jomtien beach is more than four kilometers and in addition there are a couple of small beaches adjacent to it.

Jomtien Beach is heterogeneous, in the part that is closer to Pattaya, it resembles Pattaya Beach – many sun loungers for rent, good service and a lot of people at any time of the day, except in the morning.

Of course, there are still fewer people than on Pattaya Beach, but the pedestrian promenade is also narrower, so the crowding sensation is similar.

As you move away from Pattaya, there are fewer sunbeds, but there are still a lot of people.

The similarity with the central beach of Pattaya is further enhanced by the fact that in recent years the beach here has been noticeably expanded due to an increase in the amount of sand.

Speed Boat to Ko Larn, parasailing and more are available here, especially in areas where there are crowds of people and sun loungers.

You can also play beach volleyball here.

A short video from Jomtien Beach:

By the way, starting from March 2024, Jomtien Rd is now one-way traffic – from Pattaya towards Najomtien.

Dongtan Beach

Dongtan Beach is adjacent to Jomtien Beach and is separated from it only by a corresponding inscription, without which you would not have guessed that this is a different beach.

Dongtan Beach has some features compared to Jomtien Beach.

This is the largest concentration of volleyball courts.

There are also quite a lot of palm trees growing on the beach, especially in the part close to Jomtien. It is pleasant to relax here under the natural shelter from the sun in the form of palm leaves.

In other places on the beach you can rent a sun lounger.

As for tourist services (sunbeds, food, drinks, water activities), this place is similar to the previous ones.

At night, the road running along the beach should be closed to vehicles. Thanks to this, it should become especially quiet. I say “should” because during the hours I was there, I did not see the road actually closed.

This beach has not been expanded with sand, so it is noticeably narrower than Jomtien Beach.

In the evening, street aerobics classes are held on the pedestrian promenade, next to the Dongtan Beach sign.

A short video from Dongtan Beach:

Yinyom Beach

This beach is located at the junction of Jomtien and Phratamnak. It is quite small – about 500 meters.

The peculiarity of this place is that there is a small (very small!) park where you can walk along a path under tropical trees.

There are two view points here.

There is also a 7-Eleven with tables on the shore. You can buy something in the store and take any free table overlooking the sea. This is a unique place – I don’t know any other 7-Eleven like it in Pattaya.

The beach is relatively small and is rocky in some places. The number of sun loungers is relatively small.

Even in the evening there are quite a lot of people here.

If you like to walk along the promenade, then you can start your journey from Yinyom Beach, pass Dongtan Beach and then move along Jomtien Beach. The same pedestrian promenade runs along all these beaches, meaning you won’t even notice that one beach has been replaced by another. Thus, you can walk along the embankment for about 5 km one way.

Paradise Beach Pattaya

We finally move to Phratamnak.

Paradise Beach Pattaya is a very small beach, 250 meters long.

I walked along Phratamnak many times and did not know that this beach existed, although I passed by the entrance to this beach many times.

The beach is not very wide.

On the beach there is a cafe and sun loungers with umbrellas – quite a bit.

Despite its small size, I would not call the beach crowded with people – apparently, few people know about it.

Where is the entrance to Paradise Beach Pattaya

I marked the entrance to the beach on the map as “Entrance to Paradise Beach Pattaya”, because if you don’t know this passage, it’s quite difficult to guess that there is a beach and an entrance to it somewhere here.

A short video from Paradise Beach Pattaya:

Cozy beach

And another beach along which I walked several times, but did not know that it existed.

The beach is about 500 meters long.

Although the beach is small, there are a lot of people here, and there is also a developed tourist service.

There are quite a few umbrellas and sunbeds for rent.

There is also a Speed Boat to Ko Larn and other neighboring islands, as well as other tourist activities such as snorkeling, delivery to sunset viewpoints and more.

It is quite an atmospheric place, with a variety of vegetation and views.

Where is the entrance to Cozy beach

Separately, it is necessary to note the passages to this beach – there are two of them with public access.

One is located in The Chocolate Factory area. If I understand correctly, it should be open 24 hours a day. On the map I marked this place as “Entrance to Cozy beach”.

The second one goes through the Kliff Beach Club. A sign stating that there is access to the beach appeared relatively recently. Kliff Beach Club has opening hours and may not have access to the beach outside of these hours. On the map I marked this place as “Entrance to Cozy beach #2”.

Wong Amat Beach

We are transported to North Pattaya.

In general, beach holidays in North Pattaya are worse compared to other areas of the city. The main beach here is Wongamat.

The length of this beach is slightly more than one kilometer. To date, this beach has not been expanded. The narrow coastline is mostly hidden under water during high tides.

There is no pedestrian part of Wongamat Beach, as luxury hotels and condominiums are located along the coast.

Since the sand line is narrow, there are quite a few sun loungers here – there is just nowhere to put them.

A special feature of Wong Amat Beach is that there are five-star hotels and expensive restaurants right on the shore. If that's exactly what you're looking for – a hotel on the beach or a restaurant on the sand, then you'll find it here.

At night there are fewer people here, some parts of the beach “fall asleep” after dark – it is dark and there is no one.

It was about Wongamat that I heard stories that it supposedly has the cleanest beach and the most turquoise water. This cannot be true even in theory – how can this place be different from Pattaya Beach, located a hundred meters away and considered a different beach only for the reason that people came up with a different name for it?

Don't expect anything special from Wong Amat Beach. This is an ordinary beach in Pattaya, and by modern standards it is also very narrow.

Bamboo Beach

Bamboo Beach is a small beach less than 200 meters long.

To be more precise, “Bamboo Beach” is the name of the restaurant in this place. This beach itself is either nameless or is a continuation of Wong Amat Beach.

There is a luxury condo and several sun loungers for rent.

Rocky beaches north and south of Wong Amat Beach

During low tides, you can continue north through the rocks and get to the area that I called “Coastline in North Pattaya” on the map above.

There you will see stones and a passage to a small beach. This beach has some pretty nice views and you can also see the Sanctuary of Truth Museum from here.

If you continue moving south from Wong Amat Beach, you can see the shores, which on the map above I called “Coastline in North Pattaya #2”.

There are several stone cliffs, crossing which you will see new sections of the coast.

The small areas of sand are very narrow and appear to be completely hidden under the water at high tide.

There is a low view point where the view is almost completely obscured by a large tree.

There are places with beautiful views for photography and simply secluded places.

There are several restaurants with sea views. Overall, this is a typical Wong Amat Beach.

Najomtien Beach

Najomtien Beach is somewhat of a new beach. The area itself called Najomtien has existed for a long time – it is located behind Jomtien, even further from Pattaya. But the beach in this area has been greatly improved and expanded over the past year.

So that there is no doubt that this is a new beach and not Jomtien Beach, there is such a large sign.

Although on this column, located right in the center of Najomtien Beach, “Jomtien” is written in Thai, that is, this is the first kilometer.

The beach is wide and good. In the part of the beach adjacent to Jomtien Beach, there are sun loungers and umbrellas.

The problem of this place is the narrow road – in the evening, traffic collapse begins here. Work is currently underway to widen the road. The road will be widened and parking space will be added. Apparently, the expansion will be done at the expense of the sandy part of the beach – because there is simply nowhere else to expand. But the sandy part is huge – a slight decrease in it will not be particularly noticeable. A wider road will make traffic in the area much easier.

Video from Najomtien Beach:

Ban Amphur Beach

Ban Amphur Beach is located outside the city – about 10 km from Pattaya. This is not a bad beach, it is quite possible that you will want to visit it even despite its remoteness.

Hotels with private beach

If you want a hotel right on the seashore in Pattaya, then you need to know that in most places hotels are separated from the sea by a large road.

You will find hotels on the seashore in the Wong Amat Beach area, as well as several hotels on the Phratamnak beaches.

Although you might think that Wong Amat Beach has a narrow strip of sand and is generally not very interesting for a beach holiday (and it is!), you need to know that the hotels in the same place have nice, wider beaches. The fact is that the hotels have expanded the strip of sand deep into their territory, on which there are also swimming pools and sun loungers. I stayed at the Pullman Pattaya Hotel G and the gorgeous sandy beach was etched in my memory. And subsequently, wandering around Wong Amat Beach, I could not understand for a long time how this is possible if there are no wide and good beaches here.

You also need to know that in Thailand the beach cannot be private territory. That is, if you stay in a hotel or condominium “with its own beach,” this does not mean that random tourists cannot walk along this beach. A hotel may have its own beach access and beach improvements (for example, by extending it onto its property and installing sun loungers), but the waterfront is in any case publicly accessible to everyone.

Long relaxing video from the beach in Pattaya

So that you can feel the uncrowded atmosphere of the sea in Thailand in the morning, I made this video for you.

How are Pattaya beaches different?

To be honest, before writing this article, I thought that there was only one beach in Pattaya and it was called “the beach”.

The fact that there are several beaches came as a surprise to me 10 years after meeting Pattaya. The thing is that the beaches are not much different from each other – there is sand and sea. The opinion of some authors that “there is clean water on this beach” makes me dumbfounded – the same water is everywhere there. It cannot be different there since the beaches are usually separated from each other by a small rock cliff (sometimes literally a few meters).

I would also classify conversations about “gay friendly” beaches as legends. Yes, some owners of sun loungers nearby plant a rainbow flag, but this is rather the interests of the owners of sun loungers and is not a characteristic of the place as a whole. Although, of course, Pattaya is a very tolerant city in general and I would call the whole city “gay friendly” (although, to be honest, I don’t understand what is meant by this term) .

In general, in short, if you want to go to the beach, then just leave your house and go to the nearest one – there is no point in going to the other end of the city if you live next to one or another beach – everything is about the same everywhere.

If you want turquoise water and snow-white sand like on advertising brochures, then you need to go to the island of Ko Larn – it is next to Pattaya, but there are no such places in Pattaya itself.

Nevertheless, this article should not be completely useless for you – perhaps you simply did not know about some beaches or where exactly the entrance to them is. Sometimes the entrance to the beach is not obvious, especially at first glance.

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The best beaches in Pattaya. How many beaches are there in Pattaya?