Last updated on March 1st, 2018 at 01:12 pm

Not Cheap and Far From Hua Hin

I know a lot of people who love Hua Hin but want to stay somewhere really quiet and out of the way. I’m not saying Hua Hin is noisy and congested like Bangkok because it’s not.

However, Pa Prai Villa at the Plantation is about a 35 minute drive from Hua Hin’s City Center. Which means if you choose to stay at Pa Prai you’re going to be surrounded by nature and lots of it. And it’s a decent option to stay there as jump point for a road trip to Khao Sam Roi Yod.

Pa Prai Villa is surrounded by a pineapple farm and hills…

Pa Prai is located on top of a hill, overlooking a massive pineapple farm near the front of the property. You can see just a little bit of the ocean ahead plus more hills. Behind the property is another hill. There is nothing around Pa Prai Villa. No 7-Elevens or any kind of shops at all. It’s pretty much a desolate location save for a few private homes.

Swimming pool and ahead is small guests reception area…

One big tip is if you choose to stay at Pa Prai Villa Plantation be sure to drop by convenience store and load up on snacks if you’ll be there for a little while.

Finding Pa Prai Villa can be a little difficult. There are signs along the road but not a lot. And if I wasn’t so familiar with the area I wouldn’t have found this place at all I think. As I mentioned this hotel is on top of a hill with partially paved roads.

When we did find the hotel there was a little slight difficulty getting in. There is a long narrow lane that leads down to the hotel reception area. We got halfway down and a pick up truck appeared right in front of us. It was a Mexican standoff as the other driver didn’t want to reverse and neither did I. Cooler heads prevailed and my wife just told me to back out.

I originally booked a deluxe room, but was upgraded to penthouse…

When we parked it was apparent there was a wedding taking place that night. The pool area had flowers, chairs and tables placed all around. A woman who appeared to be a wedding planner was running around checking things and giving workers instructions.

The hotel grounds is not that big so it was interesting to see how all the wedding set up would turn out.

Usually a room upgrade is a good thing… usually…

I had booked a deluxe room which flanked the swimming pool. But because there’s a wedding taking place during the night so they upgraded us to a penthouse.  All the deluxe rooms are located on the ground level where the wedding would take place. So it would be noisy and that’s the reason why we got upgraded to the second floor penthouse suites. Score! Sweeeettttttt! Yahoooooo! But no.

There are only two penthouses at the Pa Prai Villa and we were given the Moree Suites. We were stoked. When we were first shown the room our jaws dropped. It was a huge massive living room. The master bedroom was located upstair and when we looked it we were floored. It’s a beautiful spacious room.

But after checking out the toilet we noticed a very distinct funk. It smelled like a massive turd backup except there were no turd in the toilet. And the longer we stayed there the more foul the smell got. It was really bad and becoming unbearable.

Kiri Suites at Pa Prai Villa with full kitchen…

So we told reception about the problem and they sent someone up to check it out. When the guy came he too noticed the problem. We told them we want to move and the hotel staff obliged without hesitation. They gave us keys to the other penthouse, the Kiri Suites.

Perfect space if you’ve got a lot of people but there’s only one bedroom…

Kiri Suites is a bit smaller than Moree but still big. Though the bedroom was much bigger and so was the bathroom with a full size jacuzzi. But that weird funk that was such a huge problem at Moree Suites was still present but not as bad. But we put up with it as best as we could and we knew the hotel staff felt sorry too.

My wife and I really appreciated the hotel staff, it’s not there fault and they did what they could to make up happy.

Huge bedroom at Kiri Suites…

But there was still another problem. I decided to give the jacuzzi a try. I filled it up with hot water and tried to start the jacuzzi but no bubbles. The controls were pretty simple and straightforward. I felt like calling up downstairs and ask them if it worked or not but did not bother. I didn’t mind a nice soak in hot water anyway.

Nice large bathroom but there was still a funny smell…

About 45 minutes later I got out and the tub started to drain the water. And sometime while watching television with my wife a huge pool of water ended up on the floor. As far as I could tell it came from the repair vent for the jacuzzi. So we called downstairs and a couple of guys came up to check it out. They took off the repair panel and the whole area underneath the jacuzzi was full of water.

So the guys gathered a bunch of towels and mopped up the water. That was it. There was nothing else they could do since it was night time. And I wasn’t planning on taking another dip anyway. Lucky my wife prefers showers.

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  Nice and relaxing to sit outside...

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  Very nice wedding at the Pa Prai Villa...

But the wedding was starting and we could see it all from the balcony that overlooked the swimming pool area. It was a bit noisy and the festivities went on until about 1am but we weren’t complaining. It was nice to experience another happy couples wedding. After all we just got married earlier that same year.

No buffets at Pa Prai Villa only set menus…

After waking up in the morning it’s time to check out what’s for breakfast. I wasn’t surprise to see that Pa Prai Villa does not have a breakfast buffet setup. They don’t get a lot of guests and if they cooked up too much food it’ll probably end up in the trash.

Even with the big wedding party there were plenty of seats left for guests. I ordered their American breakfast set of scrambled eggs and bacon. And my wife ordered the Thai breakfast set which was rice porridge with pork. There’s also plenty of bread, cereal, granola, yogurt and fruit to go around too.

Nice little area to sit and relax near the swimming pool…

There’s nothing else around the area so if you’re not heading out it’s probably best to fill up. Though I do know Pa Prai has has a lunch menu. But to be honest, it’s probably best to simply drive out and find a restaurant. There are many near the beach about a 20 minute drive away.

The Good and The Bad

What I like about Pa Prai Villa is it’s really private and secluded. Needless to say, you need to have a car. Or I suppose if you choose to stay there you can have a driver drop you off and pick you back up when you check out. There are many private car services for hire in Hua Hin.

And the bad… well, it’s secluded. There is nothing else in the immediate area but sand, rocks and a dirt road. I walked around a bit to take a look and saw nothing of interest. I know when people think of Hua Hin they think of beaches. So if that’s what you want Pa Prai isn’t the place you’d want to stay.

Another negative about Pa Prai is I believe it’s overpriced. They charge more then a hotel right in Hua Hin’s city center charges. I paid about $80USD for a deluxe room. However, while doing some current price checking for this post I noticed they have 50% discounts. $40USD sounds about right for their deluxe rooms

There are Pool Villa’s on the property too. My wife and I saw them going through the driveway. I took a quick glance and saw that the villa’s had private small private swimming pools. There are about 8 or so villas.

If we ever do decide to stay at Pa Prai again in the in the future I’ll probably book the 1 bedroom pool villas as long as I can find a good deal.

Read guests’ reviews and find discounts for Pa Prai Villa at the Plantation. (Note: On Agoda.com this hotel is rated at 4 stars. Personally I think it’s more of a 2 star hotel.)