Cha-am
Where to lay your head
Where to lay your head
Along the beach road and its side lanes, dozens of small hotels and guesthouses join a few larger properties that get busy on weekends, when rates jump by around 20%. Many of the cheapest guesthouses are found on Soi 1 North and Soi Bus Station, but note that the latter has a line of seedy bars running down the centre of it.
With a great location near the centre of Cha-am Beach, Bann Pantai is a slick resort with a palette of turquoise and light grey in clean rooms set around an enormous lagoon-style swimming pool. Reached by a footbridge that spans an offshoot of the pool, cushy superiors in a two-floor stack represent outstanding value. While you don’t get a view of the pool in these, frangipani and palm trees... Read our full review of Baan Pantai Resort.
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The small Cha Inn looks more like a trendy cafe, but head upstairs after ordering your super-sized iced latte to find nicely kitted-out rooms, some with sea views and all with more style than most places. Oversized rooms (for a shopfront set-up) are reached by broad wooden staircases with exposed steel supports—they must have totally gutted the existing building to craft this—and offer... Read our full review of Cha Inn @ Cha-am.
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Anantachai is a passable choice if you’re looking for a cheap room with a sea view near the centre of the beach road. Doubling as a shop selling floaty toys and swimsuits on the ground floor, the acid-green converted shophouse has a few types of rooms on offer. We’d go for the spacious seaview editions sporting plastic chairs on balconies along with air-con, widescreen LCD TVs, desks,... Read our full review of Anantachai Guesthouse.
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A step up from most of Cha-am’s cheap guesthouses in terms of atmosphere and cleanliness, Pa Ka Ma is a small family-run place on Soi 1 North just off the beach road. You can tell there’s something different about Pa Ka Ma after being asked to take off shoes at the Japanese-style wooden entranceway and seeing the soft lanterns, flags and fairy lights that decorate the polished concrete... Read our full review of Pa Ka Ma Guesthouse.
First off the rank as you reach the beach road and turn south, Talay Hotel is worth keeping in mind for a centrally located room if Cha Inn is full or you require a swimming pool—even if it’s a tiny one. The main “hotel” part of the property is a bland four-storey block of concrete—formerly JJ Hotel—that Talay made somewhat more enticing with pastel paintjobs and some... Read our full review of Talay Hotel & Villa.
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Set in an imposing 1980s building that has been fully refurbished in recent years, the Methavalai remains a popular full-service resort across from the area’s best patch of sand. The main building looks something like a white cruise ship and is designed in a series of progressively recessed tiers with a pyramid shape, meaning that rooms on all four floors have sunny private balconies with... Read our full review of The Cha-am Methavalai Hotel.
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