The quaint seaside town perfect for golfers and sun-lovers
This seaside hub used to host King Rama VI every summer. These days it’s more likely to attract golfers and sun-lovers.
This seaside hub used to regularly host King Rama VI. These days it’s more likely to attracts golfers and sun-lovers.
1 See the royal palace
King Rama VI of Siam (as Thailand was then known) designed and built this magnificent seafront pile in 1923, a time when the Hua Hin-Cha Am coast, south of Bangkok, was coming into vogue. The sprawling, two-storey teak structure overlooking the Gulf of Thailand north of Hua Hin features long, raised walkways that lead to breezy pavilions, including the king’s own writing room. As a poet, playwright and Shakespeare translator, he’d have found its blue walls and ocean vista to be either the perfect writer’s retreat or an endless temptation to simple daydreaming. The extensively restored palace has two names, Mrigadayavan or Maruekathayawan, or just “The Wooden Palace”. It also claims the unique title of Longest Golden Teak Palace in the World. Enter through Rama VI Thai Army Camp, Cha Am; there is a dress code.
2 Go to the markets
In a country that specialises in markets – morning, noon and night, flowers, fish and much more – Hua Hin’s best-known event is its original Night Market, a mid-town melee that stretches along several closed blocks of Soi 72 and sells everything. Its scores of stalls that flog T-shirts, trinkets, fast fashion, footwear and gifts are bordered by busy shopfront restaurants. Or you can pull up a stool at hawker’s table for quick satay, stir-fried prawns and pad Thai snacks, or duck into a pub with live music and cold beer, and then return to the fray. Meanwhile, other night shopping contenders have emerged, including Chatsila market (Soi Dechanuchit) and the Grand Night Market (Petchkasem Road). A little further down the coast there’s more room to move at the large, open-air Cicada Market, a purpose-built, tourist-focused space that also features musicians, theatre, art, handicrafts and plenty of dining-drinking opportunities.
3 Where to play golf
When the Royal Hua Hin course first opened, golfers could step from the Bangkok express, cross the tracks and, after their caddies had chased an occasional tiger from the fairway, tee off. The Hua Hin-Cha Am region remains Thailand’s premier golfing destination, with nine quality courses catering to local and international players, plus the area’s large expat community. Among the courses are the svelte Banyan Golf Club, top-drawer Black Mountain, Majestic Creek, Imperial Lakeview and others. Just south of town, a rocky headland known as Khao Takiab – Chopstick Hill – rises above the coast. Topped by an ornate temple, complete with giant golden Buddha, its views are panoramic but avoid the macaque monkeys . Stretching south, the beach is wide and uncrowded, the water is warm and calm and a row of seafood restaurants waits below shade trees.
4 Visit a temple
Hua Hin is surrounded by the long coastal province of Prachuap Khiri Khan. Khao Sam Roi Yot (Mountain of Three Hundred Peaks) National Park, 23km south of town, is a wilderness of jungles, waterfalls and empty beaches. Its most-visited spot is Phraya Nakhon Cave, an open-air cavern where King Rama V prayed in 1890 and within it a surprisingly delicate, temple-like pavilion perched on a sunlit mound. It’s worth the excursion and mild exertion. If your interest in exploration tends more spirituous than spiritual, go 30km inland from Hua Hin to wine country. Thailand produces more “new latitude” wines than you might have known. At Monsoon Valley Vineyards and its Sala bistro, settle in for an afternoon of hill views, good food and varietal wines.
5 Railway station
The railway line running from Bangkok to British Malaya and Singapore opened in 1921.
Accompanying it came Hua Hin’s elegant railway station, followed a year later by the Railway Hotel and Royal Hua Hin Golf Course, the country’s first – both established by a royal prince. The heritage-listed railway station and Royal Waiting Room on its platform functioned for a century until a giant new station complex opened nearby in late 2023.
They remain the most visited and photographed sites in Hua Hin. Meanwhile, the Italian-designed Railway Hotel, now the Centara Grand Resort, has been expanded over the decades but has held to its original “look”, especially in the classic Old Wing. Occupying 13ha of sea-front, its lawns are famed for their monumental topiary, a menage of giant rabbits, elephants and other, kid-enchanting creatures.
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