What is the difference between a beer bar and go go bar?

Pattaya has plenty of bars full of girlies, you can’t avoid them in certain areas even if you tried. This is one of the attractions of the city and the atmosphere at these bars is festive rather than sleezy. You’re free sit and drink, although girls will always approach you of course. They aren’t aggressive and generally respect you if you’re not interested in them. This is also the subtle difference between beer bars and go go bars. You can find girls in both but they operate in different ways.

First; let’s explain the beer bar. This is the popular name in Pattaya but elsewhere in Thailand that are simply called bars or girlie bars. The main character about them is that they are bars with plenty of women to keep you company. Mostly the girls are aiming to be taken home by you, but they will happily sit and drink, dance, flirt or talk to you. These sorts of bars are also usually open to the street in order to attract patrons, you can barely walk past them in Pattaya without being invited in, sometimes quite aggressively. They appear like normal bars.

Beer bars are fun, you can meet other tourists in them, or sit alone eye-ing up a girl that you fancy. The drinks are reasonably priced, but any drinks for the girls are usually more expensive (this is how they earn they wage off clientele who don’t end up taking them home for the evening). At beer bars you can play pool (and be warned, you will seldom beat a beer bar girl at pool), watch sport and music on big screens, dance get drunk, and eventually agree to take a girl away with you.

Pattaya Beer Bars
Beer Bars in Pattaya

Now lets talk about go go bars. These are similar to beer bars, because they are full of girls who want to be taken home for the evening. But these girls are different. They are generally sexier, and better at doing their thing. Whereas beer bars are informal, go go bars are the real deal for sex. The main feature of a go go bar is the dancing stage, where sexily clad girls dance or pole dance in shifts of about 15 minutes. Often they have numbers so you can ‘order them’. When they’re not dancing they come and talk to you or drink with you. They are more forward and less willing to waste time on you.

Go go bars are what many men come to Thailand for, but they are generally more expensive. The drinks are more expensive, the girls are more expensive and the waitresses/girls more aggressive. It’s difficult to sit in a go go bar more than a few minutes without being expected to buy a drink. Don’t worry the bill for a few beers won’t kill you (these aren’t the same as the ‘ping pong’ and sex shows). Go go bars are also more discreet, there might be a couple of girls outside encouraging you to go in, but otherwise you enter through a door and find the interior dark and noisy. Punters sit around the dancing stage and their drink never goes empty.

Pattaya Gogo Bars
Gogo Bars in Pattaya

In Pattaya you can get away with a ‘bar fine’ of about 200-300 baht to take a girl away from the beer bar, and she’ll expect about 1000 baht to go home with you if she’s attractive. The kind of girls you dreamt of before coming to Pattaya are more likely to be found in the go go bars but cost double (as well as more expensive bar fines). Sure they are more sexy, but often not down to earth or much fun in bed. It all depends what sort of experience you’re after and how much you are prepared to pay.

Also, for every go go bar, there are about 5 beer bars. Try them both out and see, whichever you choose you’ll find a girl for some fun.

Submitted by : Andrew
07-May-07

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