Thread: Cha am beach revisited

Its been quiet a while since I've been to Cha am but my visiting mum wanted to see the sea for a few days after her exertions tramping around Hellfire Pass in Kanchanaburi. Her only qualifier was that she didn't want to spend more than a couple of hours getting there. Since we live in on the west of Bangkok that more or less dictated either Hua Hin or Cha am. As there are a few things I don't like about Hua Hin , vis .... no beach road , a bit pricey and usualy more tourists we decided on Cha am. I wasted a couple of days surfing the net trying to find a suitable place , i.e. cheap , clean, on the beach and with pool but finding nothing we decided to just go and see what we could find.

We left Bangyai at 10.30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning and 2 hours later we were at Cha am and turning onto the beach road. As usual for midweek, it looked pretty quiet which was good and being a Wednesday ( beach cleaning day ) there were no umbrellas or deckchairs out spoiling the view :






Hitting the beach, we turned left and a started asking around at likely looking places but found nothing to fit in my price range ( under 1000 ) with all my requirements. Heading in the opposite direction I saw this place set back from the beach :



A few enquiries later we were being shown the various rooms on offer. The bungalows along the driveway from the entrance were from 800 and were nice but had no view ( although they did have a bath tub for a hot soak ) The two story ones at the back were slightly posher with their own car port and were priced at 1000.
IMO , the rooms in the main block were outstanding value at 600 baht, those on 3 and 4th floors having a see view. They were spotlessly clean with a super comfortable bed , fridge, air con and UBC. Balcony was just the right size too and was in the shade in the afternoon :



Breakfast area and mezzanine floor :







The swimming pool was also perfect with car parking underneath so even my coupe enjoyed its stay without gettin g hot and bothered :





Just a 50 yard walk to the beach :



Oh yes, and for the lazy, American breakfast was available until 11.00 am for just 50 baht. Very convenient. I've lost the name card of this place but I think it was the Nirindorn or something very similar.
Along the beach there were plenty of air con places with prices around the 350 mark but without a pool and a bit more run down. What I personaly like is that you can park right on the edge of the beach so no problem finding a place to stop for a picnic. At night time we had no problem finding plenty of places to eat and we had such a nice time that by the end of the evening the three of us had put a bottle of Tequila to bed without noticing.

I have read some critisism of Cha am on other threads and the mention of too much mafia ? Well maybe if you rent something you might run into this but I can't say I felt I was about to get caught in the crossfire of any gangland feuds. In fact it was very laid back and quiet. I am sure that on the weekends when all the Thais hit the city from Bangkok then the whole place could turn into a replica of hell but for a short midweek break it was perfect. Just as a matter of comparison here is a picture of Chao Lao beach which for my money looks very similar in terms of sand and trees. The difference was in the total lack of tourists at all at Chao Lao. In fact , I've been down to Bang Saphan and the beach and pine trees still look much the same , just very quiet and cheaper than Chao Lao.



As for girlie bars. Well, nothing much for those looking for a horizontal holiday but that is to Cha ams credit rather than detriment.