Golden Pine Beach Resort
The Golden Pine Beach Resort was our hotel of choice in June 2025 when we made one of our regular adventure road trips around Thailand.
On this adventure we drove from our hotel in the village of Paknampran through Prachuapkirikhan province down to the provincial capital, also called Prachuapkirikhan, but more of that in another story.
Video with English subtitles courtesy @yoyofellini
But first this story is about our stay at the quiet and peaceful Bali style Golden Pine Beach Resort, located directly across (a hardly used) beach road from the sea.
On arrival, we found the resort car park in a back road, and first impressions were a bit uninspiring.
However as we saw the entrance to the hotel, our feelings changed immediately as we were ushered through the Balinese doorway, through a beautiful Bali style water garden to the open plan reception area.
The staff were lovely, chatty, and helpful so we were soon checked in. The reception area was beautifully decorated with both traditional Thai sculptures, and some foreign art work. Comfortable sofas and chairs made it a good spot to chill out.
The hotel’s main building has three floors, along with single storey beach villas, private villas, and family rooms on each side of the beautiful beach road entranceway up to the reception area.
We booked a sea view room on the third floor of the main building, but there’s no lift or wheelchair access to the upper floors.
The room was quite spacious and comfortable, nicely decorated although the hotel is aging a little. There was a spacious balcony with two chairs , with nice views above the other areas of the resort, and palm trees, to the sea.
The double bed was comfortable, there was a good sized closet, a TV, fast WiFi, perfect air conditioning, bedside cabinets, and plenty of electric outlets to charge the all-important pads and phones. There was also a long desk opposite the bed, which was ideal when we ordered room service.
The room was very clean, and so was the ensuite bathroom, which had a nice shower enclosure with good pressure, plus of course towels, shampoo, conditioner, and the other usual toiletries. There is a daily maid service.
Breakfast was included in the room rate, which was served in a cute open plan octagonal building with lovely garden views.
The breakfast selection was a little bit limited but the portions, as at every meal we had, were huge and very tasty, including both western and Thai dishes.
The restaurant served full meals, snacks, and drinks from 10am until late, after the breakfast service had ended. Room service was readily available too.
The big features were the spa (which we didn’t use), and the infinity swimming pool which appears to merge with the sea and was clean and a delight to use. As it was rainy season (June) the pool loungers were not in use but it didn’t stop our enjoyment.
Speaking of the weather, we had overcast skies which matched a kind of grey looking sea, along with a few showers, for the first and second day, but after that and for the rest of our time there we were lucky enough to get endless dry sunny days.
As you will see in the video, the gardens were very pretty and well laid out, with many ornaments and statuettes adding to the Thai-Balinese feel, which matched very well.
The staff were wonderful, and while we didn’t have any complaints, nothing was too much for them. The maids serviced the rooms daily and did an excellent job too.
The Local Area
In front of the hotel beside the very quiet beach, were a jogging track and footpath, but there was little or no beach to be seen until a a few hundred meters to the south near the triple palm local landmark.
Also there was Pran’s Corner restaurant and bar, a place where we enjoyed a birthday dinner in a lovely atmosphere (the cocktails helped!), with a live band in the garden. It’s worth popping into as the food is pretty good, and there’s a big selection of drinks.
After dark, a small market opens on the side of the the road close to Pran’s Corner. They specialise in selling freshly cooked sea food to take away, with a few other items. It gets busy and makes you wonder where all the customers appeared from in such a small community.
Going in the other direction you’ll end up at a bare patch of land at the mouth of the Pran River. You can see colourful fishing boats moored there, but the village of Paknampran has little to offer.
We aimed to head south the next day along the beach road and it turned out to be a wonderful decision, but more about that in another post.