Time Traveler

  • Share
Style Watch: Rattan Revolution
Diversions: All Talk
Food: Season to Taste
Outdoors: Comfy Camping

Bangkok has its attractions, but if you're a frequent visitor to Thailand and have had your fill of the capital's shopping and traffic, chances are you'll be arriving at Don Muang airport with but one desire: to get to the coast as fast as possible. There's good news if your chosen resort is Hua Hin. After a three-year hiatus, commercial flights have resumed between Bangkok and the seaside sanctuary most favored by Thailand's royal family. With the train taking more than four hours—and the tiresome 200-km road trip lasting almost as long, depending on traffic conditions—the new, thrice-daily airborne hop, at just 45 minutes, will have you on the beach quicker than you can say, "Make mine a Singha." The single-propeller Cessna service—seating up to 12 passengers at a time—has been launched by Siam General Aviation (sga.aero) in conjunction with several Hua Hin hotels, but you don't have to be a guest at a participating property to use it. At around $135, a return ticket is also surprisingly reasonable—costing about the same as a two-way fare in a chartered taxi, but infinitely better than staring at endless miles of traffic jams.

Time.com on Digg

POWERED BY digg

For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.