Walking Street Soi Bintabaht

Think of this as a scaled-down version of the walking streets in Pattaya, Phuket or Bangkok, and that's the appeal. It's short, it's casual, and the volume never quite reaches the point where you have to shout. Bars, food, a few places with live music, and a heavy concentration of massage parlours. There's a bar-girl element to the strip too, which is worth knowing before you wander down with the family. Plenty of people just come for a beer, a game of pool and an hour of watching the street go past.

Timing matters more than anything here. In the afternoon it's close to dead, shutters down, no reason to walk it. After dark it fills out, and Monday feels very different from Saturday. My advice is to arrive in the evening and treat the first bar as a scouting mission rather than a commitment.

The one genuine complaint in the reviews is price. Several drinkers reckon the strip charges well above what the beach bars nearby ask for the same beer, and I'd take that seriously. Wander, look at what's being poured, then sit down.