We booked tickets for Sg-BKK on Jetstar for about $300. There are a couple of ways to get to Hua Hin from BKK, but the most convenient and comfortable would be a private hire car. I got mine for 3600 THB return via one of the recommendations online.
For the hotel, I went the luxury and extravagant route and decided on Centara Grand, a 5 star colonial hotel that is also the oldest hotel in Hua Hin. It is situated directly in the city center, where the railway station, the hotel and the Hua Hin beach form a straight line.
Day 1
First day
The car ride was longer than the plane ride, so after 2.5h in the air and 3.5h on the road (hiring a driver is advised if you can't tolerate driving for so long), we arrived at our fancy colonial hotel and were greeted with welcome drinks and towels. By a huge stroke of luck, we also got upgraded from the deluxe room (ie the cheapest one) to the premium pool villa (the most expensive). The villas are a distance away from the main area so there's a 24h buggy service, though the walk isn't THAT far. But since we had our luggage with us, we took the buggy to the villa area which has its own reception. The lady there showed us to our villa and introduced us to the various parts - the bedroom, the living room (with sofas that can be converted to beds), the gorgeous bathroom, the pavilion and the private pool! There's also a second bathroom and wardrobe just opposite the living area. Basically, huge and amazing.
After our long journey with hardly any food, we went for lunch at a pretty cafe called bliss cafe. I'm a fan of innovative fusion food so I tried the green curry fettucine which was good!
Then went to see the iconic Hua Hin railway station. There's also a library converted from old train carriages.
Bought some clothes at the shops near the hotel, then went back to enjoy our pool.
In the evening, we took the tuktuk to Cicada night market. Conveniently, the hotel can help to call for tuktuks or arrange for private taxis any time. Cicada is one of the best markets I've been to so far. It's very organised and the crowd is just right - there's enough people to not feel like a dead town but not too many that suffocates you. Great weather at night too.
The ordering system is such that we need to exchange money for coupons, then use the coupons to pay. Kinda troublesome but it works I guess. Tried noodles, grilled meat, fried garlic prawns and waffles!
Day 2
Went to the main restaurant for breakfast and realised 99% of the hotel guests were old angmoh couples lol.
Hotel breakfast was great with a good spread of asian and western food, bread and pastries.
The pretty hotel grounds
We had arranged with the hotel the previous day for a driver to fetch us to the Phraya Nakhon cave and back - its a base price of 1800 THB and +200 THB for every additional stop, so we added monkey mountain (Khao Takiab) as well.
It was about a 45min drive to the little town from where we could either trek past the first mountain or take a boat. Obviously we took the boat, which was fun cos there's no proper jetty or anything so you gotta remove your shoes and walk barefoot to about knee-level high to get into the boat. Just a short 5min ride to the beach. It's quite amazing that they even provide a hose for people to wash their feet!
The real trek of 430m up starts from here. Sounds short but goodness it was crazy tiring. After about 40min up a very steep set of rocky stairs, finally entered the cave! The best time is around 10-11am to catch the rays shining directly on the pavilion inside the cave. Once again, as with all things around Hua Hin, not over crowded like many other tourist spots. The descent was less tiring but way scarier cos the rocks can be slippery.
Next stop was the monkey mountain, which obviously had many many monkeys. I'm not the biggest fan of animals heh. There's a temple called Wat Khao Takiab but we didn't go up since it's 120 steps up, and I was wearing shorts lol. But my main motive of coming to Khao Takiab was to see the big buddha overlooking the sea. So pretty!
By the time we arrived back to the hotel, it was about 2pm. Decided on lunch at The Chocolate Factory, an instagrammable place about 10min walk from our hotel. It has both a shop selling chocolates and a restaurant.
Then it was rest and relax time and I went for a short dip in the pool again - need to use these facilities haha.
In the evening, we went to the Hua Hin and Chatsila night markets, which are next to each other. My mum managed to get a good 30min massage for 5 bucks! And I bought alot of t-shirts. Goodness the designs were all so pretty. There were many many restaurants advertising their seafood so we decided to have dinner in one of those. Crayfish yumm.
Day 3
Woke up super early to catch sunrise! The sun is super punctual haha at 623am on the dot a little orange ball started appearing. Spotted a couple of early birds there to catch the sunrise and take wedding photos too.
Then went to have breakfast and the spread changed! One of the reasons I do not usually like to pay for hotel breakfasts is because I don't enjoy eating the same thing for many days so I'm always most impressed and happy when the spread changes. (Okinawa EXES really set the bar high)
First activity of the day for me was horse riding! The thing I was looking forward to most. I chose a fairly small white horse with a very nice lady handler. It's quite an affordable activity - 20min for 300THB, 30min for 400 baht (about 20sgd which I chose) and 1h for 800THB. Turned out to be my favourite activity of the trip. Just sitting on the horse and feeling it trot along and enjoying the beautiful beach scenery...heaven.
After that it was getting really hot so we went to the mall called Market Village to hide and do some shopping. The basement has a food court selling street food, which is where we had lunch.
Then next stop was Plearnwan Village, a small little vintage themed area selling some vintage items and snacks as well as the usual Hua Hin souvenirs and clothes.
Last stop was Seenspace, which is a hipster mall full of young people either posing for instagram or taking shots for instagram lol. The main restaurant is called Oasis, which has terrace seats and a pool overlooking the sea. There's a minimum spend to sit at the beach/poolfront seats, which isn't that hard to meet tbh. But we only intended to get drinks. And chilled there to wait for sunset, which is fairly early at about 530. Actually, we just saw the sky changing colours cos Hua Hin is on the side of sunrise not sunset. Managed to find a tuk tuk to take us back to our hotel. I was so worried there wouldn't be transport since tuktuks didn't usually wait there.
Went to Hua Hin beach to see more sunset.
Decided on dinner at Orchids, which is a restaurant just 10min from our hotel and along a stretch of many many restaurants on that road.
Day 4
Last day! Actually just 1 morning.
Final breakfast in the hotel, and the spread changed again!
Went back to our villa to pack and it was sadly time to check out. We got a buggy to send us from the villa to the entrance where the driver back to BKK was waiting. 3h drive, and then a very long immigration process, a hurried lunch and then a 2.5h flight back to Sg.
It was a short but great recharge holiday. I really liked the feel of Hua Hin where it's slow, peaceful, calm. There are tourists but it never felt overcrowded at any tourist spot. The beach is nice, horse riding is absolutely worth it, and the resort was fantastic (all the more made by our lucky upgrade).