Driving Time To Chumphon

[keebone]

I'm driving down to Samui next month from Pattaya and want to overnight in Chumphon before getting the ferry at Don Sak the next morning. I've driven to Hua Hin a couple of times in about 3 1/2 - 4 hours so how many hours would you say it'll take from Hua Hin - Chumphon and what are the road conditions like ? also how long am I looking at to drive to the ferry terminal at Don Sak the next morning ?

Depending on whether the other half has to work or not on the day of the journey we will leave either early morning or mid afternoon, hopefully if we can get away early we can get to have a look around town - any particular sights or locations we should visit ? I've been told that I should check out the Papa2000 nightclub in the evening.

As I'm only there the 1 night I'll probably stay at the Jansom Hotel or the Paradorn - any thoughts on these ?

[taxexile]

hua hin to prajuap khiri khan , about an hour and a bit.

pjk to chumpon on highway 4 is about another 200kms so it should take two / two and a half hours . depending on the usual variables like rain , night time etc.

chumpon to surrathani on highway 41 is another 200 kms , so another two hours or so , and then another hour and a bit to do the 60 or 70 kms to donsak , i would reckon on 3.5 to 4 hours chumpon to donsak.

the roads are not too bad , 4- lane divided highway all the way. no need to go through any towns except phunpin before the surrathani turnoff.

for a night stop the very tall hotel on the way into town is cheap and ok to put your head down for a night. cant remember the name.

[onzestan]

Also remember to take the bypass just before reaching Cha-aam to Pranburi.

Saves you about 1 hour bypassing Cha-aam and HuaHin

cheers

onzestan

[GreenBag]

Also remember to take the bypass just before reaching Cha-aam to Pranburi.

Saves you about 1 hour bypassing Cha-aam and HuaHin

cheers

onzestan

You guys seem to know a bit about driving in the South. How about safety, i.e., the terroris activity as a threat to someone just passing through. I am planning a drive into Malaysia. Is it safe? My feel for all of this is that the threat, although real, is not great compared to the "normal" dangers we face anywhere in the world. I would like some perspective on this from expats that live and / or regularly travel in the South.

[chinthee]

One warning on the ferry at Donsak. There is a recent thread here on that somewhere, but my experience last October was terrible. I had to wait for something like 5 hours to get it as there are so many vehicles waiting. I think you can now pre-book it or something. Make sure you check that thread.