Patts to Swampy by car - how much time do you allow ?

[MrWorldwide]

International flight (Laos ), I'm thinking I need to leave Patts 4 hours prior to the plane's scheduled departure at 11:45am this Sunday. If you know of anything that will impede my driver's progress to Swampy this coming Sunday 6th July, speak now or forever hold your peace. Recent return trip BKK-Patts took almost 3 hours courtesy of unexpectedly heavy traffic through Chonburi City and the industrial wasteland surrounding it - hopefully that shouldnt be an issue outbound.

Sane feedback greatly appreciated. .

[Upnotover]

Regularly takes me 70-75 minutes (Soi Siam Country Club - BKK). I do not exceed 120km/h. Chonburi City?

[bkkjames]

Leave at 7am on Sunday you should be at Swampy by 830 worst case scenario if you take the motorway.

If you get there too early, so what, better than stressing about missing your flight.

[LennyW]

Better to go #7 straight to airport, avoid Chonburi / Amata.

[Rimmer]

Troll post coupled to a personal attack removed, also the reply to it

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Chonburi City? Someone took you the scenic route, which is OK if you're into it. As someone else said, take Hwy. 7 all the way to the turnoff for the airport. Less than hour and a half to Departures level.

Edited July 1, 2014 by Kaoboi Bebobp

[MrWorldwide]

Sorry - I meant 'the stretch of highway near Chonburi City', although several of my drivers do take me down some very ordinary pieces of road presumably to avoid traffic elsewhere. Given that we agree on the price up front I dont know that they can gouge me - I'm not paying them by the km.

[NanLaew]

Typically, I leave Pattaya three hours ahead of departure time but it only takes just one heavy downpour south of the 'real' motorway (before the Chonburi turn-off) and just one fender-bender anywhere on the route to cause gridlock and throw a +30 minute spanner in the works (always seems like a lot more). Four hours is nice and comfy and you don't need to break no land-speed records either. If I get there early, it just means more lounge time.

Edited July 1, 2014 by NanLaew

[MrWorldwide]

Thanks NanLaew - initially it seemed OTT but its not as if the shops at Swampy are the single worst place to spend an extra hour. The foodcourt downstairs, however .....

[Swiss1960]

Agree with NanLaew, one consideration is traffic and traffic jam due to accidents and / or rain and specially on a Sunday evening when every Thai heads back to BKK from his weekend in Patts and Bang Saen. Second thing is airport checkin time, Swampy is pretty busy in evenings, lot of international flights leaving and if you don't fly business (meaning you get VIP channel route), you might get stuck in security and passport control for pretty long, worst I ever encountered was 1 hour queue.

So for me, leaving Pattaya 3 hours before boarding time is the minimum, the time in lounges in Swampy is not so bad.