Intra-urban transport in Pattaya
There are only 3 types of city transport in Pattaya: public songthaews (or baht buses, they can also be hired), motorcyclists and taxis. If you learn how to use songthaews (=read all that I’ve prepared for you), you won’t need the rest.
Songthaew in Pattaya
What songthaew looks like and all tips how to use it, please read here. Now I will go in details about Pattaya songthaews.
There are ~45 baht buses routes in Pattaya. I have marked on my map the most popular segments of these routes.
City songthaews in Pattaya are dark blue and they are available 24/7 (in the night you just need to wait a bit longer). The fare is 10 THB. But some drivers may insist on 20 THB, if your ride was 2-3 segments long. The same happens in the night – some drivers demand 20 THB, no matter how long was your ride, as if there is a night fare.
Switch off other layers to see the routes of songthaews more clear:
Take Pattaya map with you – just click the star and it will be saved in your Google account. Any locations in this region that I will add later will appear on your map.
Long route down Sukhumvit road (dark-red line) is the route of intercity songthaews. Intercity baht buses in Pattaya are white and the fare is 20 THB.
Pay attention at intersections of segment: God knows, where will your songthaew go – straight or turn to the left/right. So if your baht bus has turned to the wrong street, just leave it and head for songthaew in the right street.
If you want to hire songthaew, the driver can haggle with you. In one of songthaews I’ve made a picture of rates, so you will know approximate price for your ride:
To understand what is it about, take a look at my map. Let’s start from north (upper part of map):
Naklua road – violet vertical line (to the north, upper part of map).
North Pattaya road – dark blue horizontal line (see its intersection with violet line).
Central Pattaya road – blue horizontal line (in parallel to previous).
South Pattaya road – green horizontal line (in parallel to previous).
Up to the hill (Pratamnak road) – orange vertical line until it comes to the beach and becomes straight.
Jomtien Beach – the rest of orange line, along the beach.
Taxi
Yellow-blue taxis appeared in Pattaya not so long ago. Taxi drivers in Pattaya don’t like to give metered rides – so one needs to haggle. Note: songthaew for hire may cost you less, than a taxi (and songthaew has much bigger capacity).
Motorcyclists
There’s no specific information about motorcycle taxis in Pattaya that I can add to the main article. Motorcycles are good, when there’s a lack of any other transport means. F.e. if I have no mood to walk to my favorite massage parlor from songthaew and I see a driver in vest, I prefer to pay 20-30 THB (for 2 passengers).
