What Walking Street is
Walking Street is the southern end of Pattaya’s Beach Road. It closes to vehicles from 7pm to 3am and becomes a pedestrian strip. Along it you’ll find seafood restaurants, live-music venues, beer bars, discos, sports bars, go-go bars, nightclubs and hotels.
It is the loudest, brightest part of the city, and the adult side is not subtle.
How it got here. It began as a fishing-village road. In the 1960s and 70s, as “The Strip”, it served US military personnel. Cabarets and discos followed in the 1980s. After car accidents in the 1990s, the road was closed to traffic in the evenings, which gave it its current name.
Walking Street’s name and entrances
The Thai name is ถนนคนเดินพัทยา. In English, ask for Walking Street, Pattaya, then say which end you want. For a first visit from the central beachfront, choose the Beach Road entrance, where South Pattaya Road meets the shore.
| Where you want to go | What to specify |
|---|---|
| The main entrance from the centre | Walking Street, Beach Road / South Pattaya Road end |
| The other end of the nightlife strip | Walking Street, Bali Hai end |
| The ferry pier | Bali Hai Pier; the pier is beyond the nightlife strip |
Keep that entrance with your meeting point or pickup pin. During the car-free period, arrange a car at a place it can reach outside the closed strip. The street name identifies the area; the entrance tells a driver or companion where to meet you.
The layout
The strip runs about 780 m from Beach Road, where South Pattaya Road comes in, down to the Bali Hai end. Walk in from Beach Road and the sea is on your right.
The Beach Road end is the main entrance and the easiest place to meet. Pattaya 14 and Pattaya 15 branch off inland soon after, then Soi Diamond.
The middle is where the side lanes get busy. Soi Diamond is a small tangle of lanes of its own, and Soi BJ comes further down. A side soi makes a better meeting point than “Walking Street”, which could mean anywhere along it.
The Bali Hai end comes after Pattaya 16 and Soho Square. The car-free strip stops there and the road carries on to Bali Hai Pier. The pier and the Beach Road entrance are at opposite ends, so say which one when you book a ride.
When to go
For a first visit, come in the evening during the car-free period, 7pm to 3am. Walk the strip before sitting down, then choose a restaurant, live-music bar or club for the evening you want. Check individual venues for their opening hours and programme.
A first visit
Eat first. Then start at the Beach Road end, walk down to Bali Hai and back to get the feel of it, and only then pick somewhere with a price list. If you’re in a group, agree a meeting point before you split up.
To sleep close by without being on top of it, look at South Pattaya a few blocks back, in where to stay.
Go-go bars, clubs and the rest
The go-go bars are what most visitors come to see: indoor bars with dancers on a stage and the boom boom reputation Pattaya is known for. The clubs run latest. The seafood restaurants and live-music bars are the easy way to enjoy the atmosphere without being drawn in.
Our nightlife guide explains the terms you’ll hear, such as lady drinks and bar fines.
Money: prices and bills
Walking Street is priced for the location rather than the neighbourhood, so drinks cost more than on Soi 6, LK Metro or Soi Buakhao. In the go-go bars, a bottle of beer typically costs about 150–180 baht, draught is often cheaper at about 95–100 baht a glass, and a lady drink runs about 220–260 baht.
Before ordering:
- Check the price list before you sit down. A venue that won’t show one is a venue to walk past.
- Ignore touts offering special deals, free entry or a free show. Choose a venue after checking its own menu.
- Ask for an itemised bill and check it. Never let your card leave your sight.
Disputes and safety
Keep it calm. If a bill looks wrong, ask for it itemised and go through it line by line, and pay what is clearly owed. If it still can’t be settled, call the Tourist Police on 1155 and wait for them. Never square up to door staff.
Keep your drink in sight, don’t accept an open drink from a stranger, and keep your phone and wallet close in the crowds.
Bar bills, pickpockets and other Pattaya scams: what to do →
Dry days
On the five Buddhist holy days most bars stop selling alcohol. Buddhist holy-day alcohol restrictions have exemptions for qualifying hotels and licensed entertainment venues. The nightlife guide lists the days.
Getting there and back
If your hotel is nearby, compare the walk to the Beach Road entrance with a ride. Keep the crossings, heat and return journey in mind. For a shared baht bus from the centre, take one heading south along Beach Road and get off near the Walking Street entrance. Check its route if you are unsure where it will turn. At the end of the night, a ride-hailing car from the Beach Road end is the easy way back to Soi Buakhao, Pratumnak or Jomtien.