Our family of 5 is taking the overnight train from CM to Bangkok in Dec, then needing to get to our beach hotel in Pranburi. We were thinking about renting a car for our time in Pranburi, but don't necessarily need to rent from Bangkok. Any suggestions for the most efficient way to get from the Bangkok train station to either Hua Hin or Pranburi? Would we do better to wait and rent a car down there and take some comfortable public transit (minibus, taxi, etc) from and to Bangkok?

Thanks for the advice. I always learn a lot on this forum!

There are trains that go south from Bangkok to Hua Hin (and beyond).

There are minibuses running from Bangkok (Victory Monument) to Hua Hin, but I'm not sure about Pranburi. If you are 5 people with a lot of luggage, it's not a comfortable solution anyway. A taxi would be quite expensive, and not comfortable either (4 people in the back). If I were you, I would either rent a car from Bangkok and drive down to Pranburi (the road is in good condition), or I would take the train.

Hi. It's usually worth scrolling through the last couple of pages of threads in the sub-forum to see if there is anything relevant (and/or do a Thaivisa forum search). About a couple of weeks ago there was a thread here that you will find helpful ... something like "by train from BKK to Hua Hin".

We did the same trip at xmas ... CNX->HH via BKK by train then rented a car in HH & returning via car w/driver and air.