Hua hin hotels
 

We have two nights in Hua Hin on the 27th and 28th December. We are on the way to New Zealand.
When we booked our flights last January we put in place a booking at the Novotel in Hua Hin to make sure that we would have somewhere to stay. We noted at the time that it is about 15 miles from the centre.
Now that we ar e fine tuning our itinerary I am looking at it in more detail.
Is this really too far out from Hua Hin to make sense? The point of this two days was relaxation in the sun before one night in Bangkok and then another 12 hour flight on to NZ.
We need good food and so accessibility to restaurants is important.
I am aware that it may be difficult to change to somewhere more central and I also need somewhere quiet in order to be able to sleep-that of course is areason to keep this booking.
Seeking your help here
With thanks

it may depend on their restaurants on site... for me its too far... I prefer the hyatt in HH..

personally with such little time I would stay the whole time in bkk at a nice riverside hotel with a good pool: anantara, Sheraton, Shangri-La, Hilton...

Fully agree with Bob, stay in BKK..... If you do want to go to HH stay at the Hyatt?

That makes three of us. If it were me, I'd stay in a beautiful Bangkok hotel, relax, get massages, eat great food before getting on that next long flight. Hours on the road each way to/from Hua Hin doesn't sound like a great way to relax and recover from/prepare for long flights.

The reason that we opted for Hua Hin was because we wanted to see (albeit briefly) someting outside of Bangkok. Even though we booked when flights opened we were unable to get a better comnnection than 3 nights in Thailand on the way out and another on the way back.
We felt that we would regret only having visited Bangkok when we could in the time available, have gone elsewhere as well. As we live in the UK (for which read dismal winters) we thought that a 2-3 hour journey for 2 nights in Hua Hin was worth it.
So what I wanted to know was whether the location of the Novotel was just too far out from Hua Hin to allow us to visit it.
In Bangkok we have one night in the Old Bangkok Inn and one night in the Buthorn.
Many thanks to you for your time spent in answering me.

You can always go out and get a pick up type taxi or a tuk tuk into town fairly reasonably. There are usually a few parked just at the end of the hotel driveways. Or the hotel might have a shuttle into town. We have found once you use one of them, you can bargain for future rides or arrange pick ups with them. Too far out? Not really. There might be some local resturant s near by also.

I am staying at the Novotel right now and it is about 30 min away from Hua Hin. I would not recommend it, hotel is old and ugly high rise with only one restaurant.
We are only staying at the Novotel because it is child friendly and we wanted to try a new hotel in the area since we are visiting Hua Hin at least once a year.
This also means that the hotel is full of screaming children (this includes my child too) so forget about relaxation. There is no beach. Breakfast is terrible, elevators few and extremely slow. There is nothing good I can say about this hotel and I am looking forward to Grand Centara (former Sofitel) in Hua Hin where we will be moving in couple of days.
That is IMO the best hotel in Hua Hin.
Intercontinental is also very good, Hyatt is ok lovely grounds but very small standard rooms, and location and rooms at the Centara are so much better.

If you must go to Hua Hin, I'd change to a different hotel. Laufer's review above, is persuasive.

We loved the Hyatt (stayed in the Regency Club rooms), and the Intercontinental is supposed to be very nice. If you want to be right in the middle of town, there is nothing better than the Grand Centara which used to be the Sofitel. It's a gracious old hotel beautifully kept up and restored, right in Hua Hin.

honestly I don't feel that HH today represents Thailand in the way you might think it should--- it's not a bad place though

The Novotel is in fact in Cha Am , along the stretch between Hua hin and Cha Am Town.
To stay in Hua hin itslef Centara Grand Beach Resort is the tops, also Hilton Intercontinental Marrakesh Amari , for smaller style Baan laksasubha Cape Nidhra , for mid range small beach style accommodation Veranda Lodge, lots of others also.

JA--wonderful to see you here

Its interesting how following this has taken us through thinking that perhaps we should change our booking, then that the Centara has a minimum of five nights , then reading what Laufer says and wondering how this would impact on our enjoyment.
James's recommendation of the Baan Laksasubha looks lovely and very much up our street.
We have now booked this- and it was discounted!
Thank you all.

Baan Laksasuha is situated right next to the Centara Grand ( pity they had a minimum nights policy ) so you are in about same location so easy to get to everywhere in the town so no need to think about transport. You can walk in a few minutes to restaurants bars etc and also walk to the night market.
Walk from outside Laksasubha turning right past Centara and the high rise Hilton and then left to the over the water restaurants ( turn right past the Hilton and walk to the drink place that overlooks the beach, nice at night for a drink )
Plan your travel between Bangkok and Hua Hin well, it is very busy time of year, I would recommend using a good transfer car service for the trip unless you are on a tight budget.
Approx B 2,800 each way you can travel in very nice comfort between the 2.

Well I owe you a huge thank you James and I shall raise a glass(or maybe two)to you from the Baan Laksasuha.
We had already reserved a taxi from Peter who had been recommended here. He will pick us up from the airport.
Did I see somewhere that we can return to Bangkok by ferry? Is that a good way to do the trip?

I much prefer the location of the Novotel in North Cha-Am over Hua Hin. I stayed there several times when it was a Courtyard (Marriott). Last year I ended up at the new Cera Resort just next door. 25 minutes on a motorbike to get to Hua Hin if you wanted to. 10 minutes to get to Cha-Am beach. 5 minutes to get to the area of the Springfield Resort where you can get 150 Baht/hour massages on the beach. Within 5-10 minutes walk from the hotel you have ~ 10 restaurants to choose from...all very casual. 24 hour 7-11 right out front. The Cha Am night market is great...I believe on Wednesday's only.

No ferry to Bangkok, you can travel by car / limo services, taxi, train or bus

Night market in Hua hin is every nght plus weekend markets at Hua hin Grand both walking distance in the center, weekend market at Cicada at the entrance to the Hyatt is well worth a visit , arts and crafts, some entertainment, great food !

James do you know the times of the Sunday night market?

The main Night Market in the town center is opene 'every night' and is open until quite late though myself never been around after 10 pm , but is busy in particlar weekends.
There is another night market open Thu through Sun at Hua hin Grand Plaza, more local style.
Cicada Market at the entrace to Hyatt Regency is Fri / Sat / Sun only is open from I guess about 5 pm until about 11 pm but again never been around after about 10 pm , that has very good food stalls and is more Thai arts and crafts orientated, well worth a visit.

Well here we are on our second night at the Baan Laksasubha. I like the hotel very much but the transfer from the airport was double the time I expected and actually took four hours plus which is a long time for two nights.
I would return here if the hotel was the only consideration but Hua hin is not special so in reality I probably won't be back.
Nevertheless I am very grateful to you all for your help and suggestions which turned out to be spot on.
Bangkok here we come!

I think you were unlucky and got caught up in the new year traffic! On average I would say it should not take more than 2.5 - 3 hours to drive but on occasion such as the new year or Songkran (Thai new year) it can take up to 5 hours to get to Hua Hin.