Pattaya Beach, Koh Lipe

Pattaya Beach is the busiest beach on Koh Lipe because this is where majority of the speed boat and ferry services arrive and depart from. Pattaya Beach also has lots of bars, restaurants and hotels.

Pattaya Beach is located on the south side of Koh Lipe and the island’s busiest street, Walking Street, starts about half way along the beach.

About Pattaya Beach

Pattaya Beach is a gently curved beach approximately 1.1 km long with fine white sand, and some good snorkelling spots near the headlands at each end of the beach. Pattaya Beach should be an absolutely fantastic beach, but unfortunately it’s not. Sunrise Beach on the other side of the island is much better.

What ruins Pattaya Beach is the large number of boats which use the beach as a harbour. Except for a certain times of the year when the boat leave Pattaya Beach for more sheltered bays on the other side of the island, most of the shoreline along the whole beach has boats moored or boats arriving or departing. There are no designated safe swimming zones, although swimming near either end of the beach is the best idea as the boats avoid this area in order stay clear of the large rocks.

Although the ferries arrive and depart from the large floating pier moored off Pattaya Beach, speed boats and the local wooden long tail boats that ferry people to and from the ferries, are all small enough to make it into the beach itself. Pattaya Beach has two plastic floating piers moored to the beach where speed boats arrive and depart constantly during the day.

Sunbathing on Pattaya Beach during the day time is not recommended either. The beach is great but you will constantly have large groups of people wandering past you with with their luggage heading towards Walking Street which the main throughway to other parts of the island.

Pattaya Beach, however, is much nicer place from later in the afternoon and into the evening. In the late afternoon the number of boats arriving and departing reduces dramatically. Koh Lipe is a long way out to sea and boat departures stop early because no one wants to do the sea crossing as the light fades into night. You get great sunsets from Pattaya Beach and a popular activity is to go there to enjoy the sunset with a cold drink.

Pattaya Beach becomes very lively in the evening. There are lots of beach bars and restaurants and in some ways Pattaya Beach becomes an extension of Walking Street when the sun goes down. Like the rest of Koh Lipe, Pattaya Beach doesn’t quite become the noisy party zone which Lao Dalum Beach in Koh Phi Phi becomes every night, but there are people drinking and there are fire shows and some moderately loud music.

Hotels on Pattaya Beach

Pattaya Beach has a good range of hotels. Despite the beach being busy there are some advantages to staying there, and the thing to remember is that Koh Lipe is such a small island that you can very easily walk to one of other beaches, the centre of Sunrise Beach, for example, is about 700 metres walking distance from the centre of Pattaya Beach.

Some of the hotels on Pattaya Beach are good value for money. Sita Beach Resort and Bundhaya Villas, both on Pattaya Beach, are priced more towards the luxury end of the market and are perhaps the two most comfortable places to stay on the island. The two Pattaya Beach resorts which we think are worth special mention are Daya Resort Bungalows and Chareena Hill Resort. Daya Resort Bungalows have classic Thai style wooden beach bungalows located right on the beach front for about 1,000 THB a night, some with fans and all normally booked out months in advance because they are great places to stay and a type of accommodation which is becoming very difficult to find in Thailand now.

Chareena Hill Resort on Pattaya Beach is more expensive. Expect to pay around 4,000 THB a night for a standard room. What is great about Chareena Hill Resort is that the rooms have panoramic views across the length of Pattaya Beach from the resort’s vantage point on top of the headland. Pattaya Beach may not be the beach where you want to spend a day swimming and sunbathing but it’s great to look at from the balcony of one of the rooms at Chareena Hill Resort, particularly in the evening.

Location of Pattaya Beach

Pattaya Beach is located 350 metres from the Lantern Inn.

Next see Ferry times from Koh Lipe to Langkawi