Otherwise known as Baht Buses, these are essentially nothing more than pickup trucks that have been changed into buses to ferry tourists around the city from several fascinating points, and to and from their Pattaya hotels. While other cities in Thailand offer tuk-tuks as a form of transportation, for the most part they do not subsist in this town, outside of a few privately operated examples that you can hire to pick you up outside of your Pattaya hotel and take you wherever you want to go all over the city.
There are anywhere from 800 to 1,000 songthaews in working around Pattaya, all of them colored dark blue and obviously recognizable. While you do not need to know the exact change, it can decrease possible hassles to a minimum, as sometimes you can run into chauffeurs who either do not have change or will suppose you to go to another vendor somewhere along the street in order to get exact change. Flat fees only apply when the bus is operating as a public transportation method, so if you see one that is empty and parked along the roadside, you could mistakenly give the driver the impression that you are looking to charter the entire songthaew for travel around the city or to your Pattaya hotel, in which case you could find yourself paying significantly more depending on your negotiating skills.
The busiest route is the beach circuit from the Pattaya hotels in that district, ranging from the junction of Second Road and South Pattaya Road and north along Second Road to the Dolphin Circle roundabout, then along the full distance of Beach Road before it directs east along South Pattaya Road to accomplish the circuit. Because the service is nonstop you can easily find transportation even in the middle of the night when everyone else is sleeping. While the routes can vary from time to time, depending on whether or not the chauffeur has decided to pick up a single fare for a taxi ride, for the most area the routes stay the same, other than little outings down side streets that you are not expected to pay extra for. If you feel that you have been overcharged by a chauffeur, there is usually a three digit vehicle number in the top left of the windscreen which you can then inform to the police or city manager, as well as the district bus cooperative. However, the opportunities of this incident are totally rare as the fares are absolutely cheap and cheating is incredibly unlikely.