Bangkok Airport to Pattaya

Suvarnabhumi's public taxi counter and its ticket kiosks are on Floor 1, the level below arrivals, between Gates 4 and 7, and they run 24 hours. Inside Bangkok those taxis go by the meter. Pattaya is outside the provinces the airport lists for metered trips, so the fare there is agreed with the driver before you set off, and Airports of Thailand's rules add a ฿50 surcharge and make the passenger pay the Motorway 7 tolls. That's fine if you know the going rate, and awkward if you've just stepped off a long-haul flight.

The app is the easier version of the same ride. Bolt's own route page shows about ฿930 for Economy, ฿1,010 for its standard car and ฿1,080 for a licensed taxi to Central Pattaya, with ฿1,716 for an XL that takes more luggage, and the price is fixed when you confirm. Grab works the same way from its pickup point at Gate 4 on Floor 1. Some drivers ask you to cover the tolls on top, so check before you leave the curb.

What I'd book, though, is a car with the price agreed before you land. Pattaya's own transfer firms charge ฿1,000 for a sedan from Suvarnabhumi with the tolls included, ฿1,200 to ฿1,600 for an Innova and ฿1,800 to ฿2,000 for a ten-seat van, cash to the driver, who waits in arrivals with your name. On 12Go the same trip is mostly ฿1,600 to ฿1,750 for a sedan, paid in advance by card. After an overnight flight with suitcases, that's the one with no decisions left to make.

If you're traveling light, the bus is very good value. Go down to Level 1 and walk to Gate 8, where Roong Reuang Coach's counter sells two different Pattaya buses. The ฿135 bus goes to the North Pattaya terminal seven times a day (07:30, 09:30, 11:30, 13:30, 15:30, 17:30 and 18:30). The ฿158 bus runs hourly from 06:00 to 22:00, stops on Sukhumvit Road for North and Central Pattaya and opposite Big C South, and ends at the Jomtien terminal on Jomtien Second Road. Both take about two hours and allow 20 kg of luggage free.

Bell Travel, the same company's door-to-door brand, shares the counter area and runs a van to your Pattaya or Jomtien hotel at 08:30, 10:30, 12:30, 14:30, 16:30 and 18:00 for ฿300 to ฿450. From the bus stops in town, a Bolt to Beach Road costs about ฿80 to ฿120, and the songthaew drivers at the North Pattaya terminal ask a flat ฿50 to take you to your hotel. The full departure list for every Bangkok terminal is in our Bangkok to Pattaya guide.

The last bus leaves at 22:00, so for a late arrival it's a car or an app, and both work all night. A car booked ahead means the price is settled before you've cleared immigration.

Landing early, there's one train. Ordinary No. 283 calls at Lat Krabang, one stop down the Airport Rail Link from the airport, at about 08:00, and reaches Pattaya at about 10:35 for ฿31 in third class with fans and open windows. It's a nice ride if you've slept on the plane and have one bag. Anyone else should take the bus.

Don Mueang, where Thai AirAsia, Nok Air and Thai Lion land, is on the far side of Bangkok, about 153 km from Central Pattaya and two hours by car. Transport Co., the government coach company, runs bus 999 from the counters at Terminal 1, Gate 1 and Terminal 2, Gate 11, at 06:30, 07:30, 10:30, 12:00, 13:30 and 17:30 for ฿167, with four stops along Sukhumvit Road in Pattaya.

A fixed-fare sedan from Don Mueang costs ฿1,400 with the Pattaya firms, tolls included. Our Bangkok to Pattaya guide also covers the slower bus-and-BTS route through Mo Chit.

Going back, four different coaches run straight to Suvarnabhumi, and every one of them drops you opposite Door 8 on Level 4, the departures level. Roong Reuang's buses leave the Jomtien terminal hourly from 06:00 to 22:00 for ฿158, and the North Pattaya terminal seven times a day for ฿135. Bell Travel's three-across VIP coaches leave its North Pattaya office from 06:00 to 19:00 for ฿190, or ฿300 with a pickup from your hotel. Transport Co.'s bus from its office on Sukhumvit Road near Soi 45 is the cheapest at ฿122, at 06:30, 10:30, 14:30 and 16:30. Our Pattaya to Bangkok guide compares the four.

A car is ฿1,000 for a sedan with the Pattaya firms, or mostly ฿1,650 to ฿1,850 on 12Go. Either way, allow two hours for the drive and add an hour if you're leaving on a Sunday afternoon, when Motorway 7 fills with weekenders heading home. For an international flight I'd leave Pattaya about five hours before departure.

Suvarnabhumi, if you can. It's where nearly every long-haul flight lands, it's the closer of the two Bangkok airports, and it's the only one with a direct Pattaya bus every hour. Don Mueang is the budget-airline airport and the slightly longer trip.

U-Tapao, the airport 30 km south of Pattaya, has no scheduled flights from either Bangkok airport. It's the right choice only if Pattaya comes after the islands, since Bangkok Airways flies there from Koh Samui and Phuket, and from U-Tapao it's about 40 minutes into town by Grab or taxi.