Family Friendly Vacation in Pattaya

After a 4 month hiatus, I am back in the blogging world and so ready to share some of the exciting things that have happened over the past 4 months.

Just last week, Ben and I set up a holiday in Pattaya.  Now, if any of you know the city of Pattaya you may be surprised that I would ever want to visit this city with 3 boys.  Believe me, I was feeling uneasy and cautious about the whole thing.

Our first experience with Pattaya was our first year in Bangkok.  We had only been in Thailand for 2 1/2 months and the city of Bangkok started flooding.  It was difficult to get food and water because shipments could not make it into the city.  Our landlord was kind enough to get us out of the city and dropped of us in Pattaya.  I had no idea what to expect, but for this self- professed "prude", this city was a major shock to the system.  I was thankful my kids were young enough at the time and were not able to read any of the signs and advertisements or really be aware what was going on around them.

Four years later, my boys can read and would probably be aware of how people are dressed and I wasn't sure this would be a great place to take the kids, but I am so glad we did!

Here is how we had a very family friendly vacation in Pattaya:

I found an amazing condo through Airbnb.  I have been having great luck with airbnb lately.  With the boys getting older, it is getting harder and harder for us to find a hotel that will fit all of us.  We booked the Atlantis Condo Resort for $30, yes $30 a night!! Check out the photos on the website because my photo just do not do it justice.  This place was so child friendly.  It had a huge pool that ran all the way through the resort.  There was a large water playground and also a water slide for the boys to play on.  At the one end of the pool, there was a huge pirate ship with water canons.  The grounds were just beautiful and it really did feel like we were at a very high end resort.

The restaurant at the hotel was wonderful.   I had some of the best green curry I have ever had.  The boys loved the club sandwiches and french fries.  Greyson complemented the chef and he ended up giving us 10% off our next visit!  Thanks Grey! We went back the next night because it was just so good.  Check out Souk if you visit this condo.  You will not be disappointed and you do not have to venture out into the city to get a delicious and reasonably priced dinner.

We spent two of our days relaxing at the condo, but one of our days we decided to head to the island of Koh Larn.  I did not have high expectations for this island because it is so close to Pattaya and the water is brown and the sand is filthy in Pattaya.  Boy, was I in for a surprise!  We headed to the Bali Hai  Pier and took a 45 minute ferry ride to the Naban Port .  The ferry is 30 baht a person and Britton was free.  Once we made it to the island we grabbed a Songthaew (basically the back of a pick up truck) and headed to Tien Beach.

This beach had white sand and crystal clear water.  It wasn't too crowed and the speed boats stayed to one side of the beach.  The day we went the Thai government was not allowing you to put up umbrellas or beach chairs so there was not any shade, but you can usually get those on the island. There are a few places to eat lunch too.  We spent about 5 hours at the beach and had a wonderful time. I think this may have been one of the cleanest beaches we have been to in Thailand and we have been to quite a few different beaches.

This was a great getaway trip and we are already planning on heading back on a long weekend.

Our grand total for 3 nights, food (we brought our own food for breakfast and lunch), ferry rides, a driver to and from Pattaya was $260!!

I cannot wait to go back.