Christmas Beach Resort Ideas Please

[kato]

Hi,

I am hoping to pick some of your brains. My parents have just told me today they plan on visiting me in Thailand for Christmas and New Year, which is great news. My mum also wants me to organise the accommodation and everything for their stay.

They will arrive on 19th Dec, and I will spend the weekend 20-21st with them in Bangkok.

Then we will all come back up to Lopburi from 22nd-24th so that I can work and they can see where I am living.

Then from 24th evening- 5th Jan I want a beautiful, fairly quiet beach 'resort'. It can be a small town or a bigger resort. An Island or mainland. It must have a beautiful beach, and nice places to stay. Accommodation doesn't have to be by any means 5*, but a decent hotel with a swimming pool, bar, English speaking staff etc is what I am after. Price isn't too much of a consideration, if the place is good, and I realise at this time of year prices are likely to be much more expensive in areas that cater for the Western tourist market. For this reason, a place that isn't featured in a Western holiday brochure may be preferable? But this isn't the most importnant thing.

One big consideration is that I will finish work on the afternoon of Christmas eve, and would like to be able to reach this beach destination by that night, so that we can wake up on Christmas morning on the beach. So, ideally I am looking for somewhere not too far away from Lopburi, so the coast close to Bangkok. or southern areas that serviced by regular flights from Bangkok, so we can get a night flight down to a resort, but then the hotel/town would need to be close to the airport at ht eother end.

I know this is a lot to ask and a bit of a ramble, but any help at all at this intial stage would be really helpful, as I know very little about the beach areas of the country.

Thanks a lot!

K x

[Kerppu]

More in a FYI basis because I have no experience of the place yet, but we're heading to Rayong for christmas with 2 families. Will stay in Laem Mae Phim, a small village which is not yet too popular with western tourists but quite popular among Thais. Laem Mae Phim should have a long beautiful beach, and you can easily make a quick trip to Koh Samet which has even more beautiful beaches as far as I understand. There are also several sheap seafood restaurants and a few shops. Maybe o half an hour drive from Rayong and Klaeng cities. We're staying in Lomtalay Chalet which still had room for christmas and new year last week. Have no idea if the staff there speak english, so I guess I'll try to print some handful sentences in thai before we go.

I've only been to bigger tourist resorts near Phuket so far, so this is the first time we're heading to a more quiet and not so touristy place.

Edit: Rayong city is about 180 km from Bangkok.

Edited May 8, 2008 by Kerppu

[kato]

Hi Kerppu, thanks for the information, I will definately check all out this evening. )

[roamer]

Laem Mae Phim would definitely not fit your requirements re hotel etc, they are really not much of a high standard and actually represent quite poor value for money, Thai daytrippers mostly and very quiet at night. Beach ok, no more than that.

Ko Samet far better beaches but hotels are pricey, quite a few boutique style and capture that sort of client these days, not much else to do there.

Ko Chang a good bet with good mix of accomodation, involves a drive or flight to Trat.

Samui, got the lot including zillions of tourists, does have quieter beaches though like Coral Cove or google somewhere like Samui Yacht Club.

I too will be on the beach at Xmas, but we'll fly from Bangkok to Langkawi Malaysia, thats an island that really does have everything !

Enjoy.