hua hin
11/12/2025 - 11/16/2025
We took a quick easy non-stop flight from Chiang Mai to Hua Hin to enjoy a few days near the ocean. Hua Hin is south of Bangkok on the eastern coast on the Gulf of Thailand.
It is a nice little town that has far fewer tourists than many other Thailand destinations. There are a good number of expats living there and it is a town where locals go for R&R. We had read that the beach is under water during high tide, but we quickly discovered that the beach is under water pretty much all the time except during low tide (which was in the middle of the night!). We managed to walk on the beach a little bit in an area about 20 minutes south of our apartment at about 9pm, but that was the only time we were actually on the sand.
So we didn’t get a traditional beach get away, but it was all good. We stayed in an Airbnb that was right on the ocean with amazing views, a really nice pool (looking at the ocean) and a huge balcony, so we got plenty of ocean views which was what we were really after. The weather was spectacular and the ocean breeze was a welcome reprieve from the high humidity. All in all, it was a really nice get away. We didn’t do a lot… we spent much of our time just relaxing by the pool. There were a few local monkeys that cruised through past us while we were out there one day! Luckily they didn’t pay us any attention since we didn’t have anything of interest to them. We have read that they can be mean!
From our apartment we could see Khao Takiab (also known as monkey mountain) in the distance. It is a hill with a large population of free-roaming monkeys (we didn’t see any), several cool little restaurants, a gigantic gold Buddha statue and great views (once you climb the 200 steps to the top). We went down there for dinner one evening and again for lunch another day.
We visited the "7 Kings Monument" which features seven MASSIVE bronze statues of prominent Thai kings from different historical periods. Each statue is about 45 feet tall! It was built by the Royal Thai Armed Forces to honor Thailand's past monarchs. It was seriously incredible… way better than I expected!
There were several cool markets in Hua Hin. The Cicada (yes, like the bug) Market was our favorite. Actually, it was our favorite market of all the markets we had been to in Thailand thus far. It was very clean and in a space that allowed for nice wide walkways and no crowding. There was a lot of good food, several vendors that sold wine, and a lot of higher end different types of vendors and artists. And it had an amazing stage with café lights strung in the trees and tables in the grass where we could get a glass of wine and sit and listen to live music. The musicians were outstanding! One of them was completely blind. It was an incredibly enjoyable evening.
Saturday morning we had booked a food walking tour which ended up being just us and the guide and the tour was outstanding. After breakfast we walked to the market and grazed our way through the market. Our next stop was a little vegan restaurant where we tried a couple dishes. And our final stop was a really cool little restaurant for lunch (as if we were still hungry!). When we were finished with lunch, she took us out to see the fishing pier. There are all kinds of vendors set up that open in the evenings and tables are set up… if we had another day available, it would have been fun to go back there for dinner.
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