Air-Conditioned Bars in Pattaya: Where to Cool Down

The Short Answer

The coldest place to drink around Soi Diana, Soi Buakhao and LK Metro is Las Vegas Beer Garden, and it is not one bar but the whole building. Despite the name, it is an indoor hall, air-conditioned from the entrance to the stage, with ten open-fronted bars along one walkway and a live band Tuesday to Sunday. Reviewers call it the coolest place to drink in the area. Some of the regulars say it runs too cold, and the staff wear jackets. Walk in off Soi Diana, take any bar, and the heat is over for the night.

Inside the hall, the bar to know about is KQ Bar, the last one on the right beside the stage. It has the seats that run along the stage's edge, the only Guinness on draft in the complex, and staff who leave you alone. The cold you get everywhere in the building; those three you get only there.

That's the answer. The rest of this is why the temperature matters so much here, what the hall is like once you are in it, where else in Pattaya you can drink in air-conditioning, and when the open-air bars are still the better call.

The Temperature Problem

Look, Pattaya is hot in a way that does not switch off at sunset. In April the air at midnight is still above thirty degrees. In the rainy season, June to October, a storm passes at six and by nine the street is a warm, wet towel. Humidity sits high enough that a cold bottle sweats faster than you can drink it.

Most of the town's bars are open-fronted. A counter, some stools, a fan on a pole, the street a metre away. That is the charm of the place and, for a couple of hours, it is fine. Then it isn't. You notice the back of your shirt. The ice is gone from your glass. The band you walked in for is drowned by the sound of your own patience running out.

A fan moves hot air around. It does not cool it. What you want, by ten on a hot night, is a room with a door and a machine on the wall, and enough of both that the temperature actually drops.

What Las Vegas Beer Garden Is Like Inside

Here's the thing the name hides: it is a hall. One long room, roofed and walled, with the entrance on Soi Diana at one end and the stage at the other. The bars are open-fronted counters down both sides, ten of them, so it feels like a bar street, but the street is indoors and the whole of it is chilled.

The cold reaches you before you are through the door. One reviewer describes the air-conditioning hitting them on the footpath outside, and that is not an exaggeration on a still night. Inside, it holds. A hall this size with the doors opening and closing all evening should struggle, and it doesn't. The complaint you hear from people who come often is the opposite one: that it is cold enough to want a jacket by midnight. Consider that a warning and a recommendation at the same time.

The other thing you notice is the sound. Because the room is enclosed, the band fills it. From the entrance bars the music is clear but you can talk over it. By the middle of the hall the bass is in the stools. At the back, by the stage, it is the show.

Where to Sit Once You Are In

Any bar in the hall gives you the cold. What changes as you walk is the volume and the seat.

• The entrance bars, Pocket Kings on both sides of the walkway and then Palace Bar and The V Bar facing each other, are for watching the room arrive. Cold, social, the band at background level.
• The middle bars, Full House on the left and Viva on the right, are the ones for a conversation. Far enough from the stage to talk, close enough to enjoy the set.
• The back bars are where the music lives. Aces High and Black Jack on the left face the stage at full volume.
• KQ Bar, the last on the right, is beside the stage rather than in front of it. Its seating runs along the stage's edge, close enough to catch the drummer's count-in. It has the only Guinness tap in the complex and a reputation, backed up in the reviews, for staff who don't hassle you. When the band takes a break there is football on the screens with the sound off.

If you have walked the length of Soi Buakhao to get here and you want the cold and the band and nobody steering you toward the next drink, that last bar on the right is the seat.

Other Air-Conditioned Options Around Pattaya

Las Vegas Beer Garden is the one in this part of town. Elsewhere:

Hotel rooftops. The Hilton and the Dusit Thani along Beach Road have enclosed, climate-controlled sections alongside their terraces, and the views at sunset are the reason to go. They are a different kind of night, quieter and better dressed, and they close earlier than the bars.

Sports bars. The dedicated ones around Soi Buakhao and Second Road invest in proper air-conditioning because the expat crowd watching the football expects to watch in comfort. Good for a match, less good if you also wanted a band.

The clubs on Walking Street. Insomnia and Lucifer are cold, loud and late, and they are for dancing rather than listening. Worth it once. Nobody goes for the temperature alone.

Hotel lobby bars. Every large hotel has one, every one is cold, and every one is dull by ten. They are where you go to cool down before a night, not where the night happens.

Unlike all of those, Las Vegas Beer Garden gives you the cold room and the live band and ten bars to choose from, in one building, with no cover charge and no dress code. That combination is why it fills up while the open-air bars a street away are thinning out.

When the Open-Air Bars Are Still the Better Call

Honestly, not every night needs a cold room. Between November and February the evenings are dry and the air is pleasant, and a stool on Soi Buakhao with the street going past is one of the best cheap pleasures in the town. Tree Town's cluster of open bars is fun for an hour of noise and food. Beach Road has the sea breeze and the sunset.

The pattern that works, most of the year, is to start outdoors and finish indoors. Dinner on Soi Buakhao. A beer or two on the street while it is still early and the air is still moving. Then, when the humidity wins, the walk through LK Metro to Soi Diana and the cold hall with the band in it. The Soi Buakhao guide lays out that route in detail.

Timing, by Season and by Hour

Hot season, March to May. The air-conditioning is the difference between a good night and an early one. The hall is busiest from ten, and the stage-side seats at KQ Bar go by nine on a Friday or Saturday. Arrive early or arrive on a weeknight.

Rainy season, June to October. Storms cool the street briefly and then leave it soaked. The hall is the driest room on Soi Diana and the quietest crowd of the year, which suits people who want the band and a table without a queue.

High season, November to February. The outside air is kind, the town is full, and the hall fills every night regardless. Monday is DJ night on the main stage and the easiest for a seat; the band plays Tuesday to Sunday, 9 PM–1 AM.

By hour. From six the hall is quiet and cold and you can have any seat. Eight is when the music starts. Ten is the peak. After midnight it is the late crowd, people who ended up here because the music is still going and the room is still cool.

Small Things That Help

Bring a light layer if you feel the cold; the regulars aren't joking about the jackets. Drink water between rounds, because the air-conditioning hides how much the heat outside has taken out of you. Walk the full length of the hall once before you sit; it takes two minutes and the bars are not interchangeable. And if you came for the Guinness, do not stop at the first bar with a Guinness sign on the fridge. The tap is at the back, on the right.

Finding the Cold

Las Vegas Beer Garden is on Soi Diana, two minutes' walk from LK Metro and a few minutes from Soi Buakhao. Open daily 6 PM to 3 AM, music Tuesday–Sunday, 9 PM–1 AM; DJ Monday, no cover charge. Walk in from Soi Diana and the whole hall is cold; walk to the stage and look right for the black-and-gold KQ sign if you want the seat beside the band. The map page has the layout and directions.