Khao Takiab Beach

Come here for a long walk rather than a postcard. The sand at the southern end of Hua Hin is brown, not white, and the water can look a little cloudy depending on the tide, so if your idea of a beach day involves turquoise shallows you'll be disappointed. What you get instead is space. The strip runs for kilometers, wide enough that even when people are about it never feels busy, with the forested hill and its temple community standing at one end as a backdrop.

Mornings and late afternoons are the best of it, when the light shifts and the fishermen are working. Restaurants line the back of the beach, and sun loungers tend to be free for hotel guests and rentable for everyone else, though a few visitors have turned up to find no loungers or vendors at all. Jet skis, banana boats and horse rides along the shore are the usual offer. Treat it as a half-day out within a wider Hua Hin trip rather than the reason you booked the flight.