Useful numbers in Pattaya: the ones worth saving now

Save these before you need them, not while you need them. Ten minutes today, ideally while sitting somewhere calm with good wifi, means you are not searching a foreign-language app store at two in the morning with a dying phone battery.

Nothing here needs the internet to be useful once it is in your phone. That is the entire point of this guide.

Emergency numbers, national

These work anywhere in Thailand, not just Pattaya, and none of them require a local prefix.

191 – Police, general emergency. This is Thailand's closest equivalent to 911 or 999, though English-speaking operators are not guaranteed on the first try.

1669 – Medical emergency and ambulance dispatch. For anything serious, this is faster than calling a hospital directly and asking them to send transport, though if you are near a major private hospital and can get there yourself, doing so is often quicker than waiting for dispatch.

199 – Fire.

1193 – Highway police, for accidents or breakdowns on the motorway network rather than city streets.

1155 – Tourist Police. This is the number that matters most for the situations visitors actually run into: scams, disputes over a bill, a jet ski operator claiming pre-existing damage, a taxi argument that has gone past the point you can resolve it yourself. Multilingual, 24 hours, and specifically trained to deal with foreigners. If in doubt about which number to call, call this one.

Pattaya Tourist Police, direct

The national 1155 line will connect you, but the local Pattaya Tourist Police station has its own number and is based on Soi 9, Beach Road.

Pattaya Tourist Police station: 038 429 371

If a dispute needs an officer physically present, in person is more effective than a phone call. The station is central and most hotel staff or taxi drivers know it as a landmark.

Hospitals

Pattaya has one government hospital and several private hospitals that serve the expat and tourist population. The distinction matters: government hospitals are cheaper and can be excellent, but private hospitals are where most foreigners end up because of English-speaking staff, international insurance processing, and shorter waits.

Bangkok Hospital Pattaya (private, part of the BDMS network): 038 259 999, or 1719 as a shortcut nationwide number. Located on Sukhumvit Road at km 143 in Banglamung. This is the hospital most long-term expats default to, and the one most travel insurance policies process claims through without a fight.

Banglamung Hospital (government): 038 411 551. Cheaper, and increasingly used by expats who have settled into Thai healthcare rather than sticking exclusively to private care. English support is more limited.

Pattaya International Hospital (private): 038 428 374. An older, smaller alternative to Bangkok Hospital, still well regarded for general care.

For anything genuinely serious, the honest advice is Bangkok Hospital Pattaya first, ask questions about cost later. It is not the cheapest option in the city, but it is the one built around handling exactly your situation.

Your embassy

Thailand's foreign embassies are concentrated in Bangkok. Pattaya has honorary consuls for some nationalities, but for anything serious, an emergency, a lost passport, an arrest, a death, you will end up dealing with Bangkok.

United States Embassy, Bangkok: +66 2 205 4049 (general), +66 2 205 4000 (after-hours emergency line). 95 Wireless Road.

British Embassy, Bangkok: +66 2 305 8333. AIA Sathorn Tower, Floor 12A, 11/1 South Sathorn Road. Consular appointments are limited to specific days and hours, so check before turning up.

Australian Embassy, Bangkok: +66 2 344 6300. 181 Wireless Road. This number also connects to the 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre in Canberra outside office hours.

If your country is not listed here, a search for "[your country] embassy Bangkok" will get you there. Save the number before you travel, not after something has gone wrong. Embassies genuinely can help with a lost passport, an arrest, or a death, but they cannot pay your bills, get you out of jail, or intervene in a business or personal dispute. Manage your expectations of what a phone call to your embassy will actually achieve.

Immigration

Every long-stay foreigner in the Pattaya area eventually makes the trip to Jomtien for a visa extension, a 90-day report, or a TM30 address notification. This is the Chonburi Immigration Office, Banglamung Branch, though everyone just calls it Jomtien Immigration or Pattaya Immigration.

Address: Soi 5, Jomtien Beach Road, Nongprue, Banglamung, Chonburi 20150

Phone: 038 252 750 to 4

Hours: Monday to Friday, roughly 8:30am to 4:30pm, with a lunch break around 11:30am to 1pm. Closed weekends and Thai public holidays.

Two practical notes. First, avoid Mondays, Fridays, and the day after any public holiday if you have any flexibility at all; those are consistently the worst queue days. Second, opening hours and procedures at Thai immigration offices shift periodically, so if you are making a special trip for something specific, a quick call ahead saves a wasted morning. For the full walkthrough of what to bring and how the process actually works, see our Thai visas guide.

City hall and general information

Pattaya City Call Center: 1337, then select the option for an English-language operator. This routes to hotlines covering police, fire, hospitals, and general city information, run directly by Pattaya City. Useful for anything municipal: garbage collection, city event information, noise complaints, and other things that fall outside a genuine emergency but are still a Pattaya City responsibility rather than a national one.

Other numbers worth having

1133 – National telephone directory assistance.

1784 – Disaster Prevention and Mitigation hotline, for severe weather or natural disaster situations. Chonburi occasionally sees flash flooding during the wet season, and this is the number for official updates rather than relying on rumour in a Facebook group.

1672 – Tourism Authority of Thailand tourist information line, for general travel questions rather than emergencies.

The honest summary

Most visitors never need any of this. Most long-term residents eventually need most of it. The three that matter more than the rest, if you save nothing else, are 1155 for the Tourist Police, the direct number for Bangkok Hospital Pattaya, and your embassy's Bangkok number. Everything else you can look up when the moment arrives. Those three are worth having ready before it does.