Thailand - 3 Days in Thailand: Bangkok or Hua Hin?

(as a 3 day diversion from HKG) First trip to Thailand and typical last minute planning. Have reservations at Le Meredien Bangkok, but an interesting twist. I travel in a wheelchair and have discovered that the wheelchair accessible vans in Bangkok are all booked for our 9-13 August. I've now got a great offer from someone in Hua Hin with a fully wheelchair accessible house and transportation that really sounds great.

However, we're two single guys in our 40s just looking to explore all that Thailand has to offer--wildlife & food primarily. I understand Hua Hin is a beach city and will hopfefully have great seafood, but I've also heard that it's full of 60 year old expats still hitting the bar girl scene.

What should I really expect from Hua Hin vs. Bangkok knowing nothing in advance? Thanks.

If I were you - I'd go to HH. Every time I'm in Bangkok it occurs to me that this is the last place is the world I'd like to try to negotiate in a wheelchair. The sidewalks are all broken up and dangerous walking even. When intact, they are often crowded to impassibility with illegal, schlock mongers. HH is a nice clean town without the mongers, but the sidewalks are still sketchy in places. The bargirls and punters are primarily in a small neighborhood between Soi Binthabaht and Soi Selekem over by the Hilton. This kinda thing is often hard to completely avoid in any tourist area of Thailand. The punters may be 60, but the bargirls look like they could be their mothers. BTW, the seafood is great. wj

For sure i would head out to Hua Hin, You will love it, yes, there are a few streets that have ' girly bars ' but generally they are confined to a few streets..

Hua Hin is not a busy place and may surprise you ( for the better ), but i am sure once you've been there you will want to go there again.

Good luck and have a great trip.

However, we're two single guys in our 40s just looking to explore all that Thailand has to offer--wildlife & food primarily. I understand Hua Hin is a beach city and will hopfefully have great seafood, but I've also heard that it's full of 60 year old expats still hitting the bar girl scene.

What should I really expect from Hua Hin vs. Bangkok knowing nothing in advance? Thanks.

Bangkok is a must, but for now go to Hua Hin. This sleepy beach city has everything you need: nice sandy beaches, excellent restaurants with great seafood, shopping malls, traditional night markets, palaces and other historic places, nearby national parks, etc. See our HH collection here http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalboz/collections/72157623540872334/

And the set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalboz/sets/72157623540869608/

Thank you for all who replied! I decided to go to Hua Hin for two days and was not disappointed. I was amazed to see that all of the big Western chain hotels (Hilton, Marriott, Starwood, Hyatt, etc) had very nice resorts there. Surprisingly I really had heard nothing of Hua Hin prior to going there. It turned out to be a beautiful small seaside city that was fairly easy to get around.

As I stated in the original post the people that I stayed with apparently own the only fully wheelchair accessible van in Thailand which was a great help. We got to see all of the local attractions, including the Black Buddha, the elephant farm, monkey Mountain, and the King's residence/palace. It was nice to walk around some of the downtown (?) bars and markets that definitely didn't have big city feel as well as the visit to Hua Hin's nice sized mall and having a very nice fresh meal at the food court for no more than US$2 per person (after really paying tourist prices in town).

We then went to Bangkok for a day and a half. I wish I had had longer to see the sights in the city, however, the wheelchair transportation that we had was a London taxi and in Bangkok traffic we found it virtually impossible to get anywhere in a reasonable time. We left the Le Meridien Hotel (on a Friday early afternoon) going to Wat Po temple and it was well over an hour drive just to get their and close to an hour to come back! So, instead of going to see the grand Palace on Saturday morning as we would have liked, we went to the weekend market on the expressway prior to going to the airport for an afternoon flight. I went to the night market that was directly across the street from Le Meridien Hotel, got a few T-shirts and tourist type souvenirs, but really wasn't all that impressed -- I had been hoping for something like a Hong Kong style night market that included food!

All in all it was a nice trip, but due to the wheelchair transport issue it's unfortunately not on the top of my list for places to return to any time soon. Kalboz thank you for your photo albums, those are very nice! I wish we had really taken better photos on several trips!