Thailand is one of the most popular Asian countries. Its unique location, which determines the climate and natural resources, original, unusual for Europeans culture and reasonable prices attract millions of tourists here every year. It is interesting in many resorts, but there is no other such as Pattaya. Arriving here, you immediately plunge into a noisy, bright, life filled with unforgettable impressions. In order not to miss anything, you need to live in the center. Inexpensive, but comfortable Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 stars is an ideal accommodation option to relax with dignity. Here you can get all the necessary amenities and services at no additional cost, leaving your money for entertainment and excursions.
Location of the resort and hotel
Pattaya is a city and a resort at the same time. It is located in the southeastern part of the country, on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand of the South China Sea. The local population is only about 100 thousand people, but together with tourists this figure rises to 500 thousand. Arriving in Pattaya, a nook is difficult to find. There are a lot of hotels of all categories. Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 stars with a rating of 3 out of 5 possible is consistently popular and has many regular customers. One of its main advantages is its location almost in the city center. Just a few steps away is the famous Walking street with numerous shops, shops, bars, restaurants, diverse discos. But most importantly, there are sex shops and clubs with strip shows.
Also very close to the hotel there is a large three-story shopping center "Royal Garden Plaza", where you can buy food, drinks, clothes, shoes, souvenirs and much more, the central city beach, a pier (yachts and boats are rented here), a museum with the interesting name Ripley's Believe It or Not (“If you want to - believe it or not”) and even more interesting exhibits. In addition, within walking distance of Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 * you will find dozens of cafes, snack bars, entertainment centers. Public transport is also nearby, so getting to anywhere in the resort is easy. About 40 km from the hotel there is a local airport with flights to Phuket and Samui. Previously, airplanes from Russia flew here, but now they have been canceled. The international airport is in Bangkok. 165 km to the
capital of Thailand from Pattaya (if you count to the city center).
How to get to the hotel
You can get from Russia only by plane. If you go to Pattaya from other cities in Thailand or Asia, you can use the bus and train. Bangkok has a central international airport, Suvarnabhumi, where flights are made from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and many other cities of Russia. Airlines - Aeroflot, Transaero and others. If you fly not with a direct flight, but with a transfer in any Asian country, the cost of the ticket will be much lower.
Arriving in Thailand, getting to the Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 * (Pattaya) is not difficult. Depending on how much money is not a pity, you can use different modes of transport.
1. Taxi . This is convenient because you will be taken directly to the hotel. Travel time is approximately 2 hours. The cost is from 1200 baht (sometimes taxi drivers require the passenger to pay for some sections of the road). Order a taxi in the airport building. The peculiarity of Thailand is that there are both cars and motorbikes in taxis. Directions to them are slightly cheaper, and they deliver to the desired place twice as fast.
2. Regular buses. They depart from the station at terminal 8, as well as from the north and south sides of the airport. The ticket price is 200 baht, which is much lower than by taxi, but you need to consider that the buses will only take you to the stop, and not all of them are located close to the Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 *. Again, you have to take a taxi or take a minibus (knock-knock).
3. Tourist buses. They drive to a particular hotel. You can order a ticket for them (it costs 400 baht) at a travel agency.
4. Private mini bass. They will take where passengers will book. Ticket price is negotiable.
Infrastructure
Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 * occupies a not very large territory, as it is surrounded by urban infrastructure from all sides. Nevertheless, everything necessary for relaxation is here. There are not very many greens in the territory, but everywhere is clean and tidy. For guests there is a spacious and fairly deep pool with underwater jets (jacuzzi), a bar, a children's pool, two conference rooms. There is a car park and parking in front of the hotel. The hotel lobby is beautifully decorated, furnished with leather armchairs and sofas, there are comfortable tables. Free internet is available in this area. At the reception services are provided for booking a safe, ordering tickets for transport and excursions, receiving linen for washing, renting vehicles.
There is no exchange office at the reception! This is important to take into account, since when settling you must pay 1000 baht as a prepayment for using the minibar and other services. This amount is only accepted in national currency. Dollars, euros, and even more so rubles are not suitable, and a number is not provided without paying a deposit. If during the stay the guest didn’t take anything from the minibar from the minibar and did not break anything in the room, the money deposit will be returned to him.
Rooms
Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 * (Pattaya) is a single building of 9 floors. The elevator is working. There are 269 rooms (standard, deluxe and suite categories). All of them are quite spacious, but furnished modestly, without frills. The design is somewhat boring - the walls are painted in bright colors, there are no paintings and other decorations on which one could stop looking. There are also no ceiling lights, only bedsides, which is why the light is not bright enough in cloudy weather. The floor is covered with carpet. The windows on the upper floors overlook the city, and the lower floors - onto the hotel territory, and the pool is the preferred option, since no noise is heard from the constantly working outdoor air conditioner. Each room has:
- a set of furniture (not new, but solid);
- mini bar;
- TV;
- telephone;
- air conditioning;
- bathroom with shower, toilet and washbasin. Hygiene products are replenished during the race; only bath towels are issued, for the face and legs you need to take your own from home or buy in the city.
- balcony (not available in all rooms).
Hotels in the resort of Pattaya 3-star category are all about the same. The price in most of them corresponds to the quality, and it, in turn, corresponds to the class declared in the brochures. Therefore, do not be surprised that they do not give out a lot of towels or linen is not entirely new. Some scrupulous guests who took a tour at Welcome Plaza bought new bedding, which is inexpensive here. The rest of the rooms are quite satisfactory. Plumbing works everywhere, cleaned every day.
Nutrition
The infrastructure of the Welcome Plaza Hotel (Pattaya) has two bars (one by the pool, the second in the lobby) and a restaurant. Meals, depending on the type of tour purchased, may be according to the “BB” system, however, it is more reasonable to take breakfast only, as there are a lot of points near the hotel where you can eat tasty and varied, spending only 80 baht on this. Breakfast at the hotel is no different. The menu contains two types of sausages that differ little in taste, boiled and fried rice, noodles, Thai chicken, toasts with cheese or jam, vegetables, fruits (pineapples, watermelons). For dessert, rolls are served. The rule of thumb is that even bread crumbs cannot be taken out of the restaurant. This is vigilantly watched by hotel staff. Also, you can not relax in the lobby with your food or drinks.
Lunch and dinner while living in the Welcome Plaza is more reasonable outside the hotel, because its location, according to most tourists, is the most advantageous and best in Pattaya. So, going out and turning right, you can go to a Russian restaurant, where there is a menu in your native language plus a photo of each dish. The food is quite familiar to our stomachs - chicken, beef, veal, potatoes, salads and side dishes. And if you turn left, you can dine at the Paradise restaurant, which serves completely exotic dishes - meat of a kangaroo, crocodile, ostrich and the like. Fast food options with European and Thai dishes are also nearby. In addition, on the streets, small merchants offer varied and sometimes very tasty food on small carts.
Leisure
No matter how interesting and fantastically attractive the city of Pattaya may be, Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 * also provides its guests with the opportunity to relax and unwind. For this, the hotel has an excellent pool with a jacuzzi. Sunbeds and umbrellas around him are always available, towels are issued regularly. A great plus is the bar with great drinks, located nearby. It is forbidden to come to a recreation area with your own. Another drawback of the pool is that it closes at exactly 19-00.
The hotel also has a sauna, Thai massage room. There is an opportunity to do water sports.
In order to effectively communicate with hotel staff and quickly get everything you need, it is advisable to know at least basic English, and even better - to have drawing skills and depict your wishes on a piece of paper. Thailand is known to be inhabited mainly by Thais. Pattaya, in which the language is predominantly Thai, is no exception. True, there is a Russian community here, and sometimes you can hear Russian speech in the streets, but only some employees react to it at the hotel. Therefore, our compatriots have to try to book a massage at a convenient time for themselves or rent the right type of transport.
Weather and beaches
Thailand is a country quite long from north to south, so there are different climatic zones on its territory. As for Pattaya, this resort lies in the subequatorial zone. This means that it is always warm here. In winter, only in some years, the air temperature dropped to +22, but basically it keeps in the region of + 25-26 degrees. In summer it is very hot, above +30. Water temperature at almost any time of the year + 25-27 degrees, so you can swim in the winter and summer. However, choosing a tour to Pattaya, it should be borne in mind that here from March to November the rainy season lasts, the maximum of which falls on May, September and October.
Beach holidays in Pattaya require additional financial costs, because good free beaches are few. So, the nearest city is located almost 300-400 meters from Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 * (Thailand), but it is unlikely to be able to swim and sunbathe there. Nearby is a pier with water modes of transport, so the water in the sea is muddy. The second minus of this beach is a lot of people (despite not very good conditions for relaxation). Umbrellas and sunbeds there are paid.
A little cleaner beach in the Jomtien area, which can be reached by tuk tuk. It stretches for kilometers, so you can always find a suitable place. Even more decent are the beach areas in the northern part of the city, for example, at the Pinnacle and Ambassador hotels. As a rule, employees of these hotels monitor them, so there are few people and clean.
But most tourists go swimming and sunbathing to the islands. There are organized excursions in Pattaya, for example, to the beautiful island of Koh Lan, the uninhabited Koh Rin, and coral islands. You will either have to pay for a one-day tour (the price is from $ 25 per person, but the program includes not only round-trip travel, but also food), or buy a ticket for a boat. It seems cheaper at first glance, but on the island you still have to pay for your stay on the beach and food.
Another wonderful beach at Sai Kew Bay. The people call him military, since it is the military who is watching him. You can get there by taxi by land or by boat on the water. In the first case, you will have to pay for travel (about 300 baht one way, but you can bargain), for passing through the checkpoint (50 baht) and for entering the beach (30 baht). In the second case, you need to hire a boat for the whole day. It costs about 5,000 baht, but the number of people in it is not specified, and the amount is divided by all. The road to the bay will take 45-50 minutes. On the way, everyone calls on the island of monkeys, which are fed with bananas taken with them. Arriving at the bay, you will need to pay the obligatory 30 baht for entry, and then at your own discretion - for food, water activities, rental boats.
Excursions
While in Thailand, it’s a sin not to get to know life in this amazing country. Excursions in Pattaya are unusually interesting. The most popular are:
1. On crocodile farms, of which there are several in the city district. It will not only show extreme performances, but will also offer you to taste dishes from crocodiles. Feeding the predators themselves is also an opportunity. For this, a special fishing rod and meat are issued.
2. To the snake farm. There the program is about the same, they offer here not only snake food, but also cocktails with their poison.
3. The Aquarium, which is the largest in the region.
4. To the zoo, which move in open cars. There are no cages there, all animals walk freely in nature.
5. In the park Nong Nooch with orchids.
6. Into the spice garden where cooking shows are held. You can buy products there.
7. To the temples of Truth, Wai Yang (with wax figures of saints, visiting the village of long-necked ladies).
There are interesting places in the city itself, for example, a miniature park called Mini Siam, a cabaret performance in which only men dance, although it’s hard to guess, elephant riding, tiger farms, a water park, Disneyland and dozens of others. It is impossible to get bored here, but the main problem is how to go everywhere for a short vacation and have time to see everything.
Additional Information
Welcome Plaza Hotel offers children under 12 years of age free of charge. There is a children's pool and a playground here, but it's better to go to rest here without children. This hotel is more suitable for young people whose main priorities are the opportunity to have fun, unforgettable time. For those who are going to spend most of their vacation in the walls of the hotel, Welcome Plaza is also not suitable.
Tourists need to keep in mind that in Thailand, almost all payments are made in local currency. Pattaya is no exception. The rate of the baht to the ruble may vary slightly during the year, but on average it is 1: 0.63. That is, for one ruble you will receive 0.63 baht, and the money should not be torn, worn or dirty. Previously, the course was 1: 1, but recently the baht has significantly strengthened. Money can be exchanged in banks (without risk, but interest is paid) or on the street (without interest, but with risk). At the airport, the course is more profitable than in the city. Many are interested in how expensive the resort of Pattaya is, how much it costs to have a good rest. It all depends on the tourists themselves. One is enough 100 baht per day, the other and 1000 is not enough. To navigate, we note that the dollar there is an average of 1: 32.5; Euro rate - 1:35; excursions cost from 800 baht, tuk-tuks from 10, food from 80, beer from 60, rum from 100.
In the minibar of each room, the maids exhibit not only free water, but also paid water, as well as some alcoholic drinks. They cost much more than in stores. If you use them or just break them, you have to pay with a deposit.
A few people know the Russian language at the reception; they have to speak with employees in English, which not everyone understands. Some vacationers express themselves using drawings on paper.
Many tourists noticed that tips from 100 baht left at the reception help to speed up the resolution of problems.
Reviews
Those who visited Welcome Plaza Hotel 3 * leave very different reviews. Some are delighted with the service received, others are very unhappy. Basically, the following advantages are noted:
- excellent location;
- low prices for the full range of services;
- nice pool;
- spacious rooms.
The disadvantages are indicated as follows:
- the presence of insects in some rooms;
- insufficiently high level of service;
- dishonesty of individual employees;
- pool work only until 19-00;
- old bedding in the rooms;
- lack of towels;
- not very tasty food in the restaurant.