Not really, only if your a total newbie and are not aware of the potential scams. I've never really been scammed in all my trips there because I made of point of finding out what scams there are. Most of them are just irritations for small amounts of money rather than anything massive, but the Jet ski one could easily cost you $1-2k USD which is probably one of the worst ones, around apart from maybe doing a chunk of your net worth to a local/bar girl.

family vacation to pattaya tops the list of retarded **** in thailand, and that isnt easy

Well that depends on your perspective really. I've been to Moscow a couple of times and hookers are pretty standard there, so I can see totally why Russians wouldn't be phased by it in the least. Same goes for visitors from other Asian countries too minus India possibly, where there was no visible scene I was aware of at least.

But as someone from Euroland/US I totally understand why you would say that.......

There's more to Pattaya than just walking street. It is after all a fairly large city, it's no sillier to go to a family vacation there than it is to Bangkok. Just because Bangkok has Nana and Soi Cowboy doesn't mean there's nothing there for families either.

From Wikipedia:

Plus there's the beach, etc. In actual fact Pattaya is a very popular place for expat families to settle, because it has all the amenities of a large city but you can still build a house there for very little money compared to Bangkok.

Anyone advise on a city nearby (from phuket) to do a flying visa run to for a couple of days, ideally just a sick hotel where we can stay, not too far from airport and see some of the city too...oh and not crazy expensive?

from phuket you can fly direct to kuala lumpur, singapore, jakarta, bali, hong kong with airasia for example

do you need a new visa or just leave/come back?

Like lessu said if you need a new visa then your options are limited. If you just want to get the 30-day stamp then anywhere you want to go is good.

Phuket-Denpasar(Bali) is only ~1000 baht each way if you pick the right day, which is worth a look.

E.G. Flying out on the 28th of March, returning 30th March, you can get a round trip ticket Phuket-Bali for 2,680 baht including taxes.

Yeah we've had 60 days, then will get our +30 days from immigration in phuket town. then after 90 days we need another 16 days. So if we leave for 2 nights, come back in getting 15 more days we should be OK until we leave Thailand?

Well if you go by air you will get 30 days. The 15 days is what you get if you do a visa run by land. (E.g. from Phuket if you do the bus visa run to Ranong and then cross into Myanmar, you will get another 15 days).

lol after i made that post my roommate asked me if i wanted to bet on how long it would take pokerspiv to defend pattaya as a family vacation spot

So there seems to be some hate (or rather slight dislike) for Pattaya amongst the Thai regs here on 2p2. Any reason for this? Am I wrong for thinking this?

No doubt about Pattaya being a great vacation spot. I worked with a guy who would take his one week vacation to ride the go karts in Pattaya

Not from me I think the place is great fun for a holiday. For those that don't like it I doubt they have even explored much of it apart from Walking street and other associated parts, there is more to it than just a sex tourist destination.

Even if you do go down walking street I would say about 50% of the tourists never even enter a bar or gogo, they are just normal tourists being nosey.

The problem is if you read all the tourist guides, they paint it as a dirty ****hole, sodom and gomorrah type place. That is true to some extent in some areas, but you could still have a perfectly good holiday and not encounter any of that type of stuff if you didn't want to. That's where much of the opinion comes from.

Its also a lot cheaper than most of the other beach resorts.

A lot of people in here think that walking street is all there is to Pattaya, yet scoff at those who think Bangla Road is all there is to Phuket, or Nana is all there is to Bangkok.

Obviously you don't take the kids into gogos to see a ping pong show. Apart from that there is a lot more for families with kids to do in Pattaya than there is in somewhere like Phuket, Chiang Mai or Samui. It's also a lot cheaper than Phuket and still slightly cheaper than Samui.

The only real negative about Pattaya as holidays go is that the beach isn't as nice as the beaches on Phuket or Samui. But really after you've got over the fact that the beach is ugly, it's just as good for swimming as any other beach - more so than Phuket for people with kids, as a lot of the beaches in Phuket have dangerous rips and steep dropoffs.

Another benefit of Pattaya is it's proximity to Bangkok, it's only an hour away in a taxi which is a big boon for people who are coming from places that don't have direct flights to Phuket.

That is my number 1 reason for going to Pattaya, I really can't be fked getting on another flight when I can just jump in a taxi. Also, I don't like beaches so other than that, Phuket or any other beach resort in Thailand for that matter, offers me nothing more than Patts.

Number 2 reason is its a lot cheaper for just about everything.