Recommendations?

[gerefan2]

Most Thai guys on the bar scene these days are undefined or bordering on overweight

Some of the boys in Winner bar and Cupidol look as if they need to eat in McDonalds for a month or two!

[sglad]

After the usual delights of Pattaya, the object would be to enjoy a bit of upmarket pampering. I'm hoping that someone can recommend a beachside 5-star hotel, resort or spa with great facilities and food that can be reached by taxi, bus or ferry (Hua Hin?) in a maximum journey of an hour or two from Pattaya. Local boy-bars are not a necessary requirement - though they aren't a deterrent, either. Does anyone have any recommendations based on personal experience?

Must it be beachside, Marsilius? How about flying up to Chiang Mai for a week? December/January is a great time to go up north and you can stay at the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi. It's under an hour from Utapao. As it is you'll already be spending three weeks in Pattaya. How about some cool fresh air and being among the living for a change?

[dinagam]

Forget Chiangmai. The water in the swimming pool is too cold this time of the year.
It's better to swim in the sea.
Utapao and Chiangmai? Is there any connection?

[Eddie]

Direct flights from Utapao Airport to Chiang Mai.

[Eddie]

Some of the boys in Winner bar and Cupidol look as if they need to eat in McDonalds for a month or two!

I guess more meat in between their buns can't hurt.

[sglad]

Forget Chiangmai. The water in the swimming pool is too cold this time of the year.
It's better to swim in the sea.
Utapao and Chiangmai? Is there any connection?

I flew from Chiang Mai to Utapao two years ago on Air Asia. It was very cheap, around 3,000 Baht return maybe?

Don't they have heated pools at these luxury hotels?

[gerefan2]

Must it be beachside, Marsilius? How about flying up to Chiang Mai for a week?

And suffer some of the worst air quality in Asia? 166 thingys, as opposed to 130 for Pattaya.

According to the website recommended by Taveller Jim in his thread. Back to Singapore my young friend.

https://www.airvisual.com/thailand/chiang-mai/payap

[latintopxxx]

not there for the air silly boy

[Marsilius]

I have, as a result of the very useful advice offered, now decided against Hua Hin. I have instead booked a four nights stay in the Marriott Hotel and Spa in Rayong - an easy journey from Pattaya and, by all accounts, entirely fulfilling my original requirements.

[sglad]

And suffer some of the worst air quality in Asia? 166 thingys, as opposed to 130 for Pattaya.

According to the website recommended by Taveller Jim in his thread. Back to Singapore my young friend.

https://www.airvisual.com/thailand/chiang-mai/payap

The air quality may be poor this year but we don't know what it's going to be like next year, which is when the the OP intends to take his holiday. I don't recall it being this bad in January last year and it wasn't bad when I was there in January 2017.