Pattaya V Phuket V Samui

[KunMatt]

Go to Pattaya for two nights ( just to see it ) then hire a car ( about £6 each a day )and drive to Koh Chang.

Great little island, nice beaches go go girls if you want. If they like Pattaya then stay but I hate the place and I am a northern lad in my thirties.

Two weeks in Pattaya sounds like hard work but two weeks in Koh Chang is a holiday.

Samui is nice but a bit like Pattaya in places as in too busy, however Lamai beach is the most unspoilt but with enough nightlife if you want it.

Phuket is also a spoilt island over built and over priced.

I don't agree with sending a bunch of 30 year old lads to Chang for a great holiday, Chang is boring even if you're looking for a quiet time away and it hasn't got any of the touristy raucus aspects they are looking for. If you want to be in bed by midnight then go to Koh Chang.

Pattaya is the obvious choice as it has everything, it's the cheapest and the food there is the best of all three places you are comparing. Stay in Soi 7 or Soi 8 as it's in the middle of tonnes of bars, strip clubs and restaurants and you can get anywhere on beach road, second road or to Walking Street very easily. It also about 50m/100m from the beach depending which hotel you choose. The beach is quite shitty really and I've never been near the water but it's still nice to sit on the beach with a beer for a bit. The thing I hate most about Pattaya is all the pissed up Brits and thousands of bar girls everywhere there, so this is probably the place for you!!

Phuket is expensive, the food is poorer quality there and taxis are a nightmare. You can hire a scooter, car or chopper but then you have to drive pissed or hungover, and like someone already mentioned Samui and Phuket have a ridiculously high number of tourists crashing bikes out there. Phuket is a good place for a rich ferang to live in my opinion but not holiday so much.

Samui is a better than Phuket for a holiday for the younger crowd and it's much easier to get around by taxi, diving is great and cheap, and the nightlife is awesome but it's rammed with trourists in Chaweng now and getting heavily over-developed. Lamai is cool but not really a hotspot for a crowd of blokes. Also, the full moon party across in Koh Phan Ngan is something else of you're there at the right time, if you're not then there's still half moon and black moon parties every week in Samui.

Your best bets are;

1. Pattaya - Soi 8 or 7

2. Samui - Chaweng Beach

3. Phuket - Patong beach.

Wherever you go, last bit of advice, don't go near any drugs at all, anywhere!

[koheesti]

Go to Samui by rail and boat. Samui has more charm for sure. If you fly there it will cost you.

Phuket is OK but is there any beach you can sit on with a bit of shade without having to pay 200 baht?

At least Samui has nice trees on the beaches and is pretty hassle free. If you sit on a chair in Samui you won't get ganged up on.

You can find cheap hotels in Phuket at the moment because it's low season but in Samui you can STILL get huts on the beach for 150 baht in Maneam.

Don't use taxi's anywhere. Rent a motorcycle and try to get a weekly deal.

Your friends may like Koh Pha Ngan or Koh Tao which are a boat ride away.

In my opinion the Thai food is much better in Samui. It's more Thai and more reasonable if you go where the locals go.

I can't really speak for Pattaya. Been there twice with the missus and thought it was a bit of a hole...

Be careful on the scooters. Isn't Samui the #1 place in Thailand for foreigners getting hurt? I know when I have visited, you see plenty bandaged up while sitting in the bars...but getting around without one is a real pain...mafia really controls transportation there.

A friend of mine just got put in the hospital from a bike accident on Phuket. He'll live.

[shawndoc]

September in Phuket is rainy. Kata Beach usually has a surf contest, the waves are usually about the biggest of the year! It's monsoon season. Patong in Phuket is like Pattaya for girls and bars. Other parts of the island are quiet and the water is much nicer than Pattaya. Never been to Samui. I have one friend that likes it, most don't.

Overall, I'm not a fan of Samui. The same money gets a better hotel in Phuket than it does in Samui, and the beaches are much nicer in Phuket, and there's better snorkeling. What I do really like about Samui, and I wish was the same in Phuket, is all the restaurants on the beach at night.

While in most parts of Phuket I've been warned against going to the beach at night, Samui is the exact opposite. Hotels are built along the beach, with most having a restaurant the borders the beach, with dining being done Chiang Mai style. Mats and pillows to sit on, food brought out to you. Just walk down the beach, enjoying the lights, until you find a restaurant that appeals to you. Then just sit down without leaving the beach and enjoy a good dinner.