Will be going to Hua Hin next month. Can anybody enlighten me on which hotel should I stay at (Hilton or Marriott). I'm looking for a nice clean beach, nice rooms and great thai food. Any recommendations on the local food stalls in the city? Any info in helping me make my choice would be much appreciated.

There is a long verson but the short answer is simple, Marriott. The Hilton is a huge tall skyscraper bang in the town centre with a small part of beach, the Marriott is much more of a Tropical style place and decent stretch of beach, it is walking distance to town or a bicylce rickshaw or tuk-tuk take under 5 minutes. Close to the Marriott most night is the Grand Plaza Night Market, much better than the one in the town centre. Between the market in town and the fishing pier area are plenty of eating places but for seafood try Windy, Chao Lay or Ketsarin Restaurant all over the water down by the pier. 15 minutes south at Khao Tikiab is Rua Rimtarn which is a land fixed 'boat' which has good atmosphere, further on overlooking the coast is the cliff-top La Mer, a must to visit at least once. Around the night market lots of cheap food places. One of our favorite restaurants is Sawasdee which is opposite the Hilton, excellent food and cheap prices yet an almost 'classy' atmosphere.

Hi JamesA,
Thank you for the useful info. Will definitely check out your recommendations when I'm there.

james is right..the hilton is bland and right in the middle of town...its beach is not nearly as nice as marriotts...marriott is a 10 miinute walk from town or 50B tuk tuk....the pool is much nicer at marriott as well...

Don't delay too much on making your booking, August Hua Hin has about the 'direst' weather of any beach in Thailand and hence can get busy, weekends can be busy/full year round too so don't hold back on the idea of it being 'low season' as Hua Hin's clientele is different from many other areas and attracts a lot of people all year, also August is popular for Golf and I think they have the Sailing Regatta then also. There is a new place near the Hyatt Regency called 'Sasi' restaurant that has a classic old style Thai theatrical performance and dinner thing.

Hi

I haven't stayed at both hotels so I can say which one is better. But I did stay at the Hilton a couple of years back and it was one of the best hotels that I have ever stayed at. The rooms were very nice, the pool area was great with direct access to the beach, there is a nice spa in the hotel, they had squash courts and we were in the middle of town once we walked out of the hotel I have posted a trip report with some pictures from the trip on my personal homepage gardkarlsen.com Maybe you can find some useful information there. Have a GREAT trip

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway

Just back from Hua Hin and wanted to thank JamesA and rhkkmk. After reading your postings, I chose marriott and have no regrets. The hotel is beautifully landscaped, the thai food at the restaurant was really good and the beach was definitely nicer than the one in front of hilton (walked there to have a look around). The foodstalls at the grand plaza night market was interesting and the food very good as well. Had a wonderful time.

Glad you enjoyed. The Grand Plaza is a regular place for us to go when we go to Hua hin, but it's not so often now as we live at Jomtien Beach. The Grand Plaza market certainly has some great bargains. Because it is not toursist orientated it's cheap, watches at B 159!

murff---glad to hear that you enjoyed it...i would stay at the marriott again...what type of room did you have....ours was a bit dark but we were never in it except when you wanted it dark...i love the layout and the compactness...we too found the food good...the beach area was nice too--i agree...i love the easy transition from pool to beach areas; so close, but yet so far...

stayed in the deluxe seaview which had a wonderful view of the sunrise. The hotel had a low occupancy at that time which was perfect 'cos we enjoyed the pool and beach to ourselves. hopefully, we'll be back again next year same time.