Tour 01 · Easiest
Beginner ATV Tour in Pattaya
A first quad ride handled the way it should be: gear fitted at the camp, controls explained in plain English, a practice loop on open ground, and only then the jungle. One guide leads, one sweeps the back, and the group moves at the speed of its most careful rider.
- Duration1.5 hours
- ExperienceNone needed
- Min driver age16
- GroupMax 8 vehicles
Can you ride an ATV in Pattaya with no experience?
Yes. The Beginner ATV Ride is designed for people who have never touched a quad. Minimum driver age is 16, and the 1.5-hour session starts with a safety briefing and a practice loop before the trail begins. No Thai licence is needed, and the price is ฿2,890 per driver.
What “beginner” actually means here
Plenty of operators use the word loosely and then point you at the same trail everybody else rides. We mean something narrower. This circuit was chosen because it has no blind drops, no long climbs and no sections where a rider who panics has nowhere to put the quad. The property holds 16 km of private trail in total; the beginner route stays on the gentler half of it, and the guide rides ahead of you the entire way rather than waiting at the far end.
The other half of the definition is time. Most first-time riders do not need instruction so much as permission to go slowly, and 1.5 hours is enough to relax into it without your hands and shoulders giving up. If you finish and immediately want more (and a fair number of people do), the 2-hour Experienced ATV Ride with climbs and water crossings is the natural next step, or you can add the elephants to the same morning on the 3-hour ATV and elephant combo.
Everything happens on closed private land, so there is no traffic and no licence requirement. Riders come from every direction: couples on a first holiday together, parents with teenagers, groups who tried a scooter in town and decided they would rather be off the road. Browse the full range of Pattaya ATV, buggy and elephant tours if you are still deciding which one fits your day.
01: BEFORE THE TRAIL
Briefing & practice loop
Nobody rides
until they can stop.
The twenty minutes before the trail decide how the next hour goes. Gear comes first: helmet sized properly, gloves, and a check that your shoes will stay on. Then the guide walks the group around a parked machine and covers the four things that actually matter: throttle, brake, how to sit through a corner, and what to do if you stall.
After that everyone takes the practice loop on flat open ground, in sight of the camp, for as many circuits as they want. Only when the guide has watched every driver start, steer and stop does the group head for the trees. If somebody is clearly not enjoying it, moving them into the passenger seat takes a minute and puts that person on the ฿990 passenger rate instead of the driver’s. A buggy is the other way out, but it is a separate vehicle at its own price, so that is better arranged when you book than on the practice loop.
The briefing is not a signature on a form. Ask twice if you need to; nobody is counting the minutes.
Flat ground, no obstacles, the guide watching. You leave for the trail when you are ready, not when the schedule says so.
Small enough that the guide can see the last rider in the mirror, and that the whole group stops together for photos.
02: THE CONTROLS
What the loop teaches
Everything you need to know, learned on flat ground
A quad is not a motorbike and it is not a car, which is why the flat loop exists. Four things get taught on it, all of them easier learned in a field than on a trail.
You press a small lever with your right thumb and hold it there, instead of rolling a grip the way you would on a scooter. Both brakes are levers, and you use both.
The bars point the front wheels; your weight decides whether the machine follows them. Lean into the turn and slide across the seat a little, and it comes round tidily.
Knees bent, backside off the seat, legs doing what the suspension cannot. Two seconds of it over a rutted patch saves the rest of the hour.
Talking is pointless once the engines are running. The guide’s arm tells you to slow, to stop or to hold single file; yours says you have a problem.
The one instruction that matters most
If you remember one sentence from the briefing, make it this: look where you want to go, not at the thing you want to miss. A quad follows your eyes with unhelpful loyalty. Stare at the tree root and you will ride over the tree root; lift your gaze to the clear ground beyond and your hands do the rest. It is the correction our guides give most often, and one lap is enough to feel it work.
03: RIDING CRAFT
Habits worth breaking early
The five things first-timers get wrong
None of these will hurt you; the pace is gentle and somebody is watching. They are just the habits that make an easy trail feel harder than it needs to be.
- 01
Holding the bars as if they were trying to escape
White knuckles buy nothing and cost an hour of forearm ache. Grip firmly enough that a bump cannot take the bars away, and no harder. Elbows bent and loose; they are the only suspension your arms have.
- 02
Braking in the middle of the corner
Slow down before the turn, then hold a steady throttle through it. Grabbing a brake mid-corner unsettles the machine just as it leans on its outside wheels.
- 03
Staring at the rut instead of past it
The thing you are worried about is the thing you will steer straight into. Choose the line you want and put your eyes on that instead. It takes deliberate effort for ten minutes and then stops being one.
- 04
Creeping through the mud
Mud only clears out of a tyre while the wheel is turning. Drop to walking pace and the tread packs solid, and a packed tyre is a slick one. A steady throttle and a straight line get you across; hesitating halfway is what leaves people stuck.
- 05
Dropping back, then hurrying to catch up
Every gap you let open has to be closed somewhere, and it always closes on the least suitable piece of trail. Pick a comfortable distance behind the vehicle in front and hold it. Want the group slower? Say so at a stop.
04: THE MORNING
Hour by hour
How the 1.5 hours are spent
Times below assume the standard 08:30 hotel pickup from Pattaya, Jomtien and Na Jomtien. The 1.5 hours are counted from the briefing at the camp; the van legs at either end are extra, and there is no charge for them.
Hotel pickup
An air-conditioned van collects you from reception. Bring a passport copy, closed shoes and clothes you do not mind ruining; leave valuables in the hotel safe.
Arrival and gear
Sign the camp register, use the bathroom, then get fitted for a helmet and gloves. Water is handed out here and topped up again on the trail.
Briefing and practice loop
Controls demonstrated on a parked machine, then laps of the open practice area until every driver is comfortable starting, turning and braking.
The jungle circuit
Roughly an hour on trail: rubber plantation, shaded forest track and a few soft mud sections, with the guide setting the pace and stopping for photographs.
Rinse off and head back
Hose down, change into dry clothes, hand back the gear and settle the bill. The van returns you to your hotel and the photos reach you on WhatsApp the same day.
05: WHAT IT COSTS
One price, nothing bolted on
Beginner ATV Ride price
The Beginner ATV Ride is ฿2,890 per driver for 1.5 hours. A second person on the same machine pays ฿990, so two up is ฿3,880. A buggy is priced per vehicle instead: ฿3,190 for the 2-seater, ฿4,590 for the 4-seater. Helmet, briefing, guide, water and the hotel transfer are already inside those figures; there is no fuel surcharge, no gear rental and no camp entry fee waiting for you on the day.
| Seat, vehicle or upgrade | Price | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| DriverAge 16 and over | ฿2,890 | Own quad, helmet, gloves, briefing, practice loop, guide, water, hotel transfer |
| PassengerFrom age 4 | ฿990 | Second seat on a driver’s machine, with the same helmet, water and transfer |
| 2-seater buggyPer vehicle | ฿3,190 | The vehicle with its driver, roll cage and seat belts; a passenger beside them is ฿990 |
| 4-seater buggyPer vehicle | ฿4,590 | The vehicle with up to 3 passengers included, roll cage and seat belts |
| Private VIP upgradeCharged per group | +฿2,000 | Your group alone with its own guide, your own start time and your own pace |
Prices verified
Compare every tour priceNo deposit. Pay in cash or by card at the camp. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before pickup. If your group mixes drivers and small children, the arithmetic usually lands in favour of the buggy. A quad seats two, so four people need two of them: two drivers and two passengers comes to ฿7,760, against ฿4,590 for the 4-seater. The 2 and 4-seater buggy page shows how that works, and the family riding guide covers seating, ages and what to bring for children.
06: THE SMALL PRINT
Included and not included
What ฿2,890 buys you
Included
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Helmet, gloves and safety briefing
- English-speaking guide
- Drinking water on the trail
- Third-party insurance
- Practice loop before the trail, for as long as you need it
- Showers and a place to change at the camp
Not included
- Personal travel insurance
- Tips for the guide
- Anything you buy at the camp
- Lunch: the 1.5-hour ride finishes before the kitchen opens
- The elephant programme: that is on the combo tours
What should you wear on an ATV tour in Thailand?
Closed shoes you would not mind ruining, and clothes you do not care about; you will finish muddy. Helmet and gloves are supplied inside the ฿2,890 price, so there is no gear to buy. Bring a change of clothes and a towel, because there are showers at the camp.
07: WHAT TO PACK
Shoes, clothes, phone
What to wear and what to bring
Nobody turns up dressed correctly by accident. This is the whole answer, written for someone who has never done it.
Shoes first, everything else second
Wear closed shoes. Old trainers are ideal, and they will come home a different colour than they went out. Sandals and flip-flops are the one thing that genuinely does not work: your feet sit on open rests a hand’s width from a spinning wheel.
Long sleeves are a comfort choice, not a rule: they keep branches and drying mud off your arms, but plenty of people ride in a T-shirt quite happily. Put sun cream on before the helmet rather than after; reaching your forehead past a fastened strap is awkward.
Bring with you
- Closed shoes you are willing to ruin
- A full change of clothes, underwear included
- A towel: there are showers at the camp
- Sun cream, on before the helmet
- A passport copy for the camp register
- Cash or a card: you settle at the camp
Leave at the hotel
- Sandals, flip-flops, anything open-toed
- White or pale clothing of any kind
- Watches, rings and loose jewellery
- Sunglasses you would be sorry to break
- Anything valuable you cannot carry yourself
Eyes, phones and the walk back to the van
Sunglasses are a gamble: speckled within minutes, and cleaning them means a hand off the bars. Contact lenses fare better, though dust is hard on them. Glasses are fine too; say so while your helmet is being fitted.
The phone is the question we get most. There is nowhere on a quad to put one safely: a pocket works until the first bump, and mud has no respect for a zip. The guide takes pictures at the stops and they reach you on WhatsApp the same day.
Of the whole list, the change of clothes matters most. The longer guide to what to wear on an ATV tour in Thailand covers the seasonal version.
How old do you have to be to drive an ATV in Pattaya?
The minimum age to drive is 16. Children ride as passengers from 4 years old, seated behind an adult driver, and a passenger seat costs ฿990. No Thai driving licence is needed at any age, because the trails are private land rather than public road.
08: THE RULES
Honest fit check
Who this ride suits, and who should not drive
We would rather talk you into the right seat than sell you the wrong one. Read the four points below before you pick a date, and if anything is borderline, ask us on the contact page first.
- 01
You have never ridden anything off-road
This is the route built for exactly that. Total beginners are the majority on any given morning, so nobody is watching you learn.
- 02
You are travelling with children
Passengers ride from age 4 if they can hold on. With two or more children, look at the 4-seater buggy: ฿4,590 for the vehicle, up to 3 passengers included.
- 03
You want a short morning, not a whole day
Pickup at 08:30 and back at your hotel around midday, which leaves the afternoon free. Longer options exist if you want the opposite.
- 04
Who should not drive
Pregnancy, a back or heart condition, or surgery in the last few months means the passenger seat or another day; the trail is bumpy by design. Drivers must be 16 or over, and anyone who has been drinking that day does not drive, with no exceptions and no argument.
Read the full safety and requirements page, or send us the ages in your group and we will tell you straight.
Ask before you book
09: QUESTIONS
Beginner ride, answered
Questions we get before the first ride
Still stuck on something? The guide to what to wear on an ATV tour in Thailand and our honest look at how safe ATV riding in Pattaya is go deeper, and the general FAQ covers booking, payment and transfers.
Do I need any riding experience for the Beginner ATV tour?
How much of the 1.5 hours is actually spent riding?
What does the Beginner ATV Ride cost for two people on one quad?
Can two adults share one quad, or do we each need our own?
Can my children come on the beginner ride?
Do I need a Thai driving licence to join?
Does the beginner tour still run when it rains?
Is there a weight limit for the quads?
Can I wear glasses under the helmet?
What happens to the booking if the weather turns on the day?
Upgrade ladder
Ready for a bit more?
The beginner circuit is the shortest thing we run. These three are the tours people move on to: a longer technical trail, the same morning with the elephant programme added, or the same route driven in a buggy with the family on board.
Experienced ATV Ride
A longer route with climbs, ruts and water crossings for riders who already know how a quad behaves.
See the tour
ATV & Elephant Experience
Jungle ride plus elephant feeding and walking, with lunch. The most complete way to see both sides of Pattaya’s back country.
See the tour
2 & 4-Seater Buggy
Any tour can be driven in a buggy instead of a quad. The 4-seater carries up to three passengers at no extra charge.
See the tourBooking
Book the Beginner ATV Ride
฿2,890 per driver, ฿990 per passenger, 1.5 hours with hotel pickup from Pattaya, Jomtien and Na Jomtien. Send us a date and the number of drivers and passengers; we reply with the total and the pickup time. Questions in English, Русский, עברית, ไทย are all fine.
Daily 07:00–18:00 ICT · No deposit. Pay in cash or by card at the camp. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before pickup.