Bangkok to Pattaya

Roong Reuang Coach, which locals just call the Pattaya Bus, runs the route from three Bangkok points. From Ekkamai (on the BTS, which is the whole trick: Sukhumvit hotels are a short Skytrain ride from the terminal), departures run roughly hourly from 05:00 to 22:00 at ฿148. From Mo Chit 2 it's ฿158 and a touch longer. The coaches are proper air-con intercity buses with luggage bays, and they terminate at the North Pattaya Road terminal, a short baht-bus or Grab ride from Beach Road and central hotels.

Landing at Suvarnabhumi with Pattaya as your first stop? Skip Bangkok entirely: bus 389 leaves from the airport's Level 1 around Gate 8, roughly hourly from about 07:00 to 21:00, for ฿130–151. It terminates at Jomtien bus station on Thappraya Road, which is handy if you're staying Jomtien-side and a short songthaew hop from central Pattaya otherwise.

Minivans from Ekkamai and Mo Chit leave when full and shave a few minutes, in exchange for knee-room and luggage tetris. With the coach this frequent and this cheap, I'd skip the van unless one is boarding as you arrive.

Ordinary train no. 283 leaves Bangkok's Hua Lamphong station at 06:55 on weekdays only and rolls into Pattaya around 10:35: third class, ฿31, no reservations, ceiling fans, windows that open onto rice fields and backyards. (Curiously, this is one route where the old station still applies. Bangkok's southern sleepers moved to Krung Thep Aphiwat, but the Eastern line to Pattaya still departs Hua Lamphong.) As transport it's slow and the weekday-dawn timing suits almost nobody. As a ninety-five-cent slice of old-school Thai rail, it's genuinely charming. Treat it as the excursion, not the commute.

At weekends the picture changes. Special No. 997, SRT's air-conditioned Sprinter railcar, leaves Hua Lamphong at 06:45 every Saturday and Sunday and reaches Pattaya at 09:13, about two and a half hours, ฿170 each way, and it continues down the coast to Chuk Samet (10:10) for the navy beaches. Unlike the 283 it can be booked in advance on SRT's D-Ticket site or app, which is worth doing on long weekends. The return, No. 998, leaves Pattaya at 16:26 and arrives back in Bangkok at 18:55, so a day trip by train works without touching a bus.

A metered taxi or Grab runs ฿1,200–1,500 plus about ฿200 in motorway tolls and takes 1.5–2 hours door to door, the only option that's faster than the bus. Split among three or four people with luggage, it's competitive. Solo, it's ten times the coach fare. I'd ignore the ฿2,000+ flat rates touted at hotel desks: the app price is the honest one.

Pattaya's public transport is the songthaew, the dark-blue baht bus, and its fare went up in April 2026 for the first time in decades: ฿15 on the central fixed loops (Beach Road runs one-way south, returning via Second Road), ฿20 out to Jomtien or Naklua. The system: hail it, hop in the back, press the buzzer near your stop, pay at the end. The one mistake that costs money is announcing a destination before boarding. That converts your ride into a private charter at charter prices. If a driver quotes you a fare upfront, that's the charter game, and I'd wave him off and take the next one on the loop.