Currently I'm in Hua Hin staying at the Veranda Resort and Spa (actually in Cha-Am). It is still a beautiful property with a great pool and right on the beach. Of course it is currently full since Thais have a long weekend celebrating the King's 60th year accession to the throne.

I thought I'd update on a few items: 1) ate a great thai meal at the thai restaurant in the Dusit Resort here - we eat here at least once every year and it never fails to impress. It is simlar in quality to the Thai restaurant at the Dusit Thani in Bangkok, also very, very good thai food.

2) We thought we might stay at a new resort here that is currently having a soft opening - it is called the AKA Resort and Spa (www.akaresorts.com) and is a member of Small Luxury Hotels. Although it looks nice in person and on the website, it is in the middle of nowhere! It is about 10kms west of Hua Hin (meaning not near the beach). The roads to get to it are nearly non-existent with huge ruts in them and the entire area surrounding the resort is made up of a construction worker village. I have no idea how this resort is going to make it as we were pressured to stay since outside of the staff it was practically vacant. How it got listed in SLH is another mystery to me since there is absolutely nothing nearby and it is in a location where there is no wind...very hot! They told us that after the soft opening rates will start at $300 USD a night..huh? What are they thinking? It is really kind of an uncomfortable place since they kept bragging about their chef who is from Provence (S. France) and just outside the compound are Thais struggling to afford rice....

Hopefully some of the other new resorts (i.e. http://www.putahracsa.com, Sheraton) will be a lot better! Although this one I'm fairly sure is on the beach. Also, the Sofitel Central Village is currently undergoing major renovations. I heard from the GM that they are going to upgrade all the villas and also convert some of them to pool villas. These should also be finished before the high season I was told.

i just looked at the sheraton site tonight and they claim it is opening on nov 1??? have you been to it? it is quite far north i believe..

Sheraton is either before or after the airport, can't remember which, still a construction area. Nov 01 is supposed to be the opening.
I had never heard of the AKA but saw in some local magazines, it seems well out of the way !
The Nebkahad Road runs from town center past Istara, Coco 51 etc, although there is sand there it's not really beach, for jogging ok but it's just north of the Fishing Pier so not ideal, from the map seems to also be across the west side of the road. Land is at a premium, I guess that is why so many new places opening down Wora Bura way and then down around Pranburi.

Intercontinental group have just announced they are taking over management of the Regent under the Holiday Inn Brand ( never knew H/I was part of Intercontinental, anyway.... ), the Golden Sands became Novotel a while back, the big brand hotel chains are deffinately busy down there!

Another quick update as we went driving around to check out some of the new resorts...unfortunately, we couldn't find the Sheraton although we looked for about an hour. We also asked several people, but no one knew about it...its tough when there are no signs and there is a lot of building in the area.

We did find Putahracsa and it is NOT going to be on the beach unfortunately, but across the street!

Thats it for now...oh BTW, found out the head Thai restuarant chef at Dusit Hua Hin was trained at the Oriental. This makes sense given the quality of the food.

I think the signs were for Blue Lagoon or Blue Palm or something, it's well off the main road but all those construction signboards boggle the eyes!
I often doubted about the number of new resorts in Hua Hin but the fact is trying to get a room at least at weekends means booking way way ahead.

sheraton is quite far north...i would not think of it as HH area...i did hear from them yesterday and they said the opening is now delayed until 2007..

Now shows Jan 1st 2007 for the Sheraton to open.

Unfortunately and as some have mentioned Putahracsa Hua Hin is not located by the beach, it is located across a residential road!...the good news is...they are building a 2nd phase, the pool villas, this time located right on the beach across the same road, opposite the resort...but hey, feel free to pop in and have a look, the resort is gorgeous and stunning, BTW ask for Richard the Hotel Manager, he'll be more than happy to give you a tour of the property.

ttt for DiGueseppe