Greetings! :-)

As recently as two years ago, if someone wanted to rent a serviced condo for a long term rental period (one year) in one of Thailand's beach cities.....and they required that the city have

1. reliable high speed internet access
   
2. international caliber hospital
   
3. well equipped gym
   
4. full service large grocery store
   

....that person was pretty much dealing with two options, Phuket and Pattaya. The other beach cities, while gorgeous and in many ways superior to Phuket and Pattaya, just didn't have the overall infrastructure to provide for those needs.

Have things changed? Which other beach cities now provide for those needs?

CHEERS!

D

I suppose ChaAm & Hua Hin might qualify, if one doesn't mind living in Sleepy Hollow.

Thailand is like any big western country where all roads lead to the big city (BKK) when it comes to leading edge medical care. Gyms are everywhere, as are supermarkets. Downside is you need a car and driving in Thailand is flirting with the leading cause of non natural death.

I suppose ChaAm & Hua Hin might qualify, if one doesn't mind living in Sleepy Hollow.

Thailand is like any big western country where all roads lead to the big city (BKK) when it comes to leading edge medical care. Gyms are everywhere, as are supermarkets. Downside is you need a car and driving in Thailand is flirting with the leading cause of non natural death.

I dunno.........I have driven in phuket, Samui and Krabi and have not only survived the experience, but thoroughly enjoyed it too...........but then I come from the UK and so drive on the right side of the road (which of course, is the left) as do the Thais (mostly).

I wouldn't want to drive in Bangkok, but that's also true of Athens, Rome, Paris and a number of other european capitals.

Krabi town has those things, but it seems pretty boring.

1. reliable high speed internet access
   
2. international caliber hospital
   
3. well equipped gym
   
4. full service large grocery store
   

....that person was pretty much dealing with two options, Phuket and Pattaya.

As far as Phuket goes, it does not have item 1. Yes there are high speed internet connections available but they are not reliable - could be down for days on end.

Item 4 - Yes there are large supermarkets on the island but many European food products are difficult to find.

As far as Phuket goes, it does not have item 1. Yes there are high speed internet connections available but they are not reliable - could be down for days on end.

I don't think thats necessarily true. My home isp in Phuket (TOT) is remarkably reliable considering how cheap it is, and has been for the last 3.5 years. The main problem is you can't rely on their tech support so have to diagnose your own problems.

We also use KSC (leased line) and CSLoxinfo (ADSL business package) in the office and rarely have problems.