Pattaya Day Trips & Excursions Walk
Explore the attractions accessible from Pattaya — the city's location on the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand provides access to a wide range of day trip destinations, from the historic royal island of Ko Sichang to the Vinpearl Safari wildlife park and the elephant conservation centres in the surrounding hills.
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Khao Khieo Open Zoo
Khao Khieo Open Zoo 40km north of Pattaya is the largest open-air zoo in Thailand — the zoo's collection of over 8,000 animals from 300 species in open habitat enclosures (rather than cages) provides the most diverse wildlife encounter accessible on a day trip from Pattaya. The zoo's nocturnal tour programme, which allows visitors to observe the zoo after dark when the nocturnal animals are most active, is one of the most unusual wildlife tourism products available in Thailand and provides encounters with species (binturong, civet, various owl species) that are invisible during the day.
- 2
Ancient City Muang Boran
Muang Boran (Ancient City), 60km north of Pattaya near Samut Prakan, is one of the most unusual cultural attractions in Thailand — the 320-acre park containing scale replicas of Thailand's most important historical monuments (temples, palaces, and historical structures from across the country) arranged geographically in the approximate shape of the Thai peninsula provides the most comprehensive survey of Thai architectural and cultural heritage available in a single visit. The scale models of Ayutthaya-period temples, the Sukhothai monuments, and the Thai regional architectural traditions are created with sufficient detail to be studied as architectural documentation of the originals.
- 3
Rayong Fruit Orchards
Rayong province, 80km east of Pattaya, is Thailand's most productive tropical fruit region — the durian, rambutan, mangosteen, and longan orchards of Rayong produce fruit of exceptional quality due to the combination of the province's specific soil chemistry, the sea-influenced climate, and the intensive horticultural management developed by the Chinese Thai farming community that has dominated Rayong's agricultural economy for generations. The orchard visits available during the fruit season (May-August for durian and mangosteen) are the most direct encounter with Thai tropical fruit agriculture available from a major tourist destination.
- 4
Khao Sam Muk Hill Shrine
Khao Sam Muk (Three Hills) between Pattaya and Chonburi is a limestone hill rising from the coastal plain with a Chinese temple complex, the fish market at its base, and the resident population of macaque monkeys that have lived on the hill for generations — the combination of the atmospheric temple, the monkey interaction, and the seafood restaurants at the Naklua fishing village below the hill provides one of the most varied half-day excursions accessible from Pattaya without requiring a long drive. The hill's views of the Gulf of Thailand and the Pattaya resort development to the south are among the best coastal panoramas available north of the city.
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Wang Kaew Waterfall Kanchanaburi
The waterfalls and national park areas in the hills east of Pattaya provide the most accessible natural environment retreat from the resort city — the Khao Chamao-Khao Wong National Park with its waterfalls and forest trails is the most visited natural area accessible as a day trip from Pattaya. The park's waterfalls (fed by the forested hills of the Kra Isthmus watershed) provide swimming pools and picnic areas in a forest setting that contrasts with the beach-oriented Pattaya environment.
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Industrial Estate Eastern Seaboard
The Eastern Seaboard industrial development that surrounds Pattaya is one of the most significant economic development stories in modern Asia — the Map Ta Phut industrial estate and the Laem Chabang deep-water port that have developed along the Gulf of Thailand coast since the 1980s have transformed the region from a fishing and agricultural economy into Thailand's most important industrial zone, with the automotive, petrochemical, and electronics industries that make Thailand the 11th largest car producer in the world centred in the Rayong-Chonburi corridor that Pattaya sits at the tourist end of. The juxtaposition of the mass tourism resort of Pattaya with the heavy industrial development immediately south and east represents one of the most dramatic economic geography contrasts in Southeast Asia.