Pattaya construction and transport report

Pattaya is on the eastern side of the Bay of Bangkok in Chonburi province. I visited Pattaya in January 2025 after visiting Sri Racha. This report covers walkability, construction notes, and future transport projects for Pattaya.

Sri Racha and Pattaya are only 30 km apart, but there is no bus or van service between the two cities (or at least none that are obvious). I ended up getting a Grab, which always feels like a transport fail when I have to resort to a taxi. The two cities are part of the Pattaya-Chonburi Metropolitan Area, and Chonburi is in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), though there doesn’t seem to be any plan to make it easier to integrate the cities with buses. There is the high-speed rail plan (more on that below), but they should have better bus integrations first.

Sri Racha is known as the Little Osaka of Thailand, and this got me thinking about how the Bay of Bangkok/EEC area should strive to have an integrated transport system like Osaka Bay or Tokyo Bay.

Walkability and bad street layouts

Pattaya (and Thailand cities in general) are not great for walkability, but one thing that Pattaya has got right is the beachfront promenade. The main beach walk is about 2.8 km (a 39-minute walk according to Google Maps), and the path is smooth and without any obstacles.

I went for a walk when I arrived, and I saw three wheelchair users during my walk. I don’t think I’ve seen three wheelchair users in a week while walking around Bangkok.

After walking this long promenade, I realised that there is a lack of beach promenades in Thailand. Hua Hin is a good example of a city beach having no promenade. The beachfront in Hua Hin is occupied by hotels, and it’s difficult to find the beach entrances if you are unfamiliar with the beach.

Going inland from the beach, there are long, narrow roads that lead to the next main road (Pattaya 2nd Road). There are no crossroads here, so once you are in this lane, you have to go all the way to the end to get out of it. This is a similar design to the roads in Bangkok off Sukhumvit Road.

For example, here is Pattaya 4, which is a road that connects the beach to Pattaya 2nd Road. Pattaya 4 is 400 metres long with no crossroads.

The absurdity of this street design is highlighted when you book a Grab taxi and see the route they take to get to you.

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