Paradise Beach - Try To Get You To Pay To Swim

[flamingtodd]

what's 100baht anyways?

It's like 3 dollars! Are you crazy? I bet you are a huge tipper. I would tell him to get F#cked. Allowing these people, half of whom don't really "own" anything, to charge you 3 dollars/person to swim on a public beach is ludicrous. The people who own the land and the street are NOT the same people who work the beach. They are Mega rich Thai's and could care less about your measly 100thb. If I go and stand on a beach, having no affiliation with said beach and charge tourists 100thb, I guarantee 70% would just pay, 20% would complain and leave, and 10% would just leave.

Me? I never fall for this. He is just scamming you, and he seems to be good at it. Threatening violence or calling the cops is stupid. The cops won't come for that. They would barely show up if you decided to beat the crap out of him.

Most Thai threats are empty. I am not condoning violence, but I really don't think a 100thb issue is going to make the Mafia, the hitmen, or the cops get upset about it.

You get ripped off, and it makes it seem like he can do it to everyone. Stand up to them. And always threaten to call the TOURIST POLICE. When he says something to you, say you are calling them to verify if it is a legitimate fee.

9/10 times, he will buckle and walk away. I even take a camera-phone photo of them. They run away then.

The King owns all the beaches. They can't charge you for accessing them. This comes from a high authority.

todd

[canadianmonkey]

3$ is 1/20th of a decent hourly salary.

for a clean beach its worth it after seeing patong beach and rawai's beaches.

[LivinginKata]

They can't charge you for accessing them.

They for sure can charge you (or deny you) access over their land to the public beach. So just accept that as a legal fact.

[Adriana]

WRONG...that is TriTrang beach in front of the Merlin and in the pic above.

Paradise Beach you go past TriTrang, up the hill and then about another 1.5kms over the hill and down the other side. There is a tarmac/concrete road all the way to it now completed earlier this year.

No, that photo is not TriTrang Beach... now way, as looking over the TriTrang sand you look away from Patong. Emerald Beach is on the other side of the road from the Merlin, looking over to Patong.

The photo is not Paradise Beach. If anyone wants to see what Paradise Beach looks like, then check at this website:

www.phuket-info.asia/Paradise.html

[ALFREDO]

Phuketrex is right,

it seems here are not so many Phuket experts.

You drive to the south end of Patong beach, than up the bridge and hill to the left, straight is to a Hotel.

Follow the concrete road passing by the Merlin Hotel and up again the coastline mountain always straight, the road gets than narrower and climbs up and down steep until to Paradise beach.

I am sometimes there, when low tide than full of rocks and not suitable for swimming.

I cannot say something negative there.

"Private" beaches with similar problems are also,

the FREEDOM Beach not far away, more beautiful, only allowed to acces by Longtailboats from the surrounding beaches.

The NUY Beach, acces same by boat tour or by bad road after the view point, 500m turn right.

Some years ago full with a lot of cheap travellers and Motobikes the owners son has turned it now in an exclusive beach, where you have to pay 200 or 250 B. to acces it, including bed and drink?

The KWAY-Banana Beach, south of the nearby NAITHON Beach.

The land above the beach is fenced, but the beach bars owner on the beach want you to come down the steep hill to the nice beautiful beach where also boats bring customers.

The fence is pulled down on one or two places so ecces is not difficult, but a liitle steep the walk.

Food and chairs here are also a little more expensive than usual.

NAITHON Beach instead is a good spot, but now huge developments there are in the finishing state,

will bring never seen crowds to that until recently quiet spot.

[neverdie]

There is a free access to this beach....you can swim in from any of the neighbouring beaches!

[stevenl]

Phuketrex is right,

About what? Many things were said on this thread, so your statement needs to be more specific.

[Old Croc]

Phuketrex is right,

it seems here are not so many Phuket experts.

You drive to the south end of Patong beach, than up the bridge and hill to the left, straight is to a Hotel.

Follow the concrete road passing by the Merlin Hotel and up again the coastline mountain always straight, the road gets than narrower and climbs up and down steep until to Paradise beach.

I am sometimes there, when low tide than full of rocks and not suitable for swimming.

I cannot say something negative there.

"Private" beaches with similar problems are also,

the FREEDOM Beach not far away, more beautiful, only allowed to acces by Longtailboats from the surrounding beaches.

The NUY Beach, acces same by boat tour or by bad road after the view point, 500m turn right.

Some years ago full with a lot of cheap travellers and Motobikes the owners son has turned it now in an exclusive beach, where you have to pay 200 or 250 B. to acces it, including bed and drink?

The KWAY-Banana Beach, south of the nearby NAITHON Beach.

The land above the beach is fenced, but the beach bars owner on the beach want you to come down the steep hill to the nice beautiful beach where also boats bring customers.

The fence is pulled down on one or two places so ecces is not difficult, but a liitle steep the walk.

Food and chairs here are also a little more expensive than usual.

NAITHON Beach instead is a good spot, but now huge developments there are in the finishing state,

will bring never seen crowds to that until recently quiet spot.

Thanks for clearing things up Alfredo.

[ALFREDO]

Steven,

sorry, I read only the first two pages and thought the thread is finished and wrote my answer.

In the second page phuketrex showed a foto of Paradise beach

and gave the right information how to get there.

So that is what i ment he is right, but I did not have any problems with the people there.

Some other Posters on the first page gave completely false statements and fotos.

Neverdie,

Swim to the beaches? -I am not so sporty! Sorry.

Old croc,

thank you for a kind word. Seldom in this days.

See you in Phuket, Alfred

Edited December 27, 2008 by ALFREDO

[taxin]

I have been going to Paradise beach for over 20 years. You could only ever get there by boat in the past. The food is very good and extremely cheap for Phuket, you don't have to sit on a sunbed, I've sat there all day at the restaurant and never been asked for nothing.

The people who own things there are extremely nice and keep the beach spotlessly clean and provide nice toilets. Even if you did have to pay 100 baht for a sunbed that is also extremely cheap. At Surin beach they are up to 350 baht a day at some places.

These people only have a small window to make a few bucks during the year, they provide great food at a fair price so I would disregard the whining from these people. 600 baht to feed how many?? Get some perspective please...........

You sat all day at the restaurant. So you didn't venture onto the beach.

The "whining' as you put it is because I have been going there for many years. We ate at the restaurant...by the way the 600baht was just for a single dish, a bit of rice and a soft drink each. Fair enough if we'd just pitched up on the bikes and walked straight onto the beach and had a swim I could accept the hassle to make a contribution but the fact we had already spent money to then get pressured to pay for something we didn't want was taking the p1ss.

350baht for a sunbed at Surin beach!!! I find that hard to believe.

You better believe it ! Go to the Catch restaurant on the beach (owned by Twin Palms), 700 baht for 2 chairs. But I do think you get a towel with it

[MyphuketLife]

I had a problem 1.5-2 years ago, drove their on my motorbike road was mostly finished.... Parked the moped, looked around and got stormed by a man telling me i had to pay, I told him I did not come to swin was just checking the beach out, then he said I had to pay to park... I told him where to stick it and that was that, I left and will never go their, and have told many people about his attitude.

Funy thing is I had heard about how great the beach was (and it looks really nice), I was just checking out to take the GF the following weekend, if he would have not been hostile I would have been back the next weekend, baught the beach chair, lunch, and probably told every one how nice and peacefull the beach was.