Just a 30-kilometer drive from Hua Hin, the Thai king's vacation spot, is a beach called Pranburi, according to Kijkanakorn, who runs two hotels in Thailand and is managing director of Akaryn Hospitality Management Services.

"It's beautiful, it's wide, it's long and there's a beautiful fishing village nearby. You have little boats that you can go on and go squid fishing if you want, at 1 or 2 in the morning, and come back at 3 or 4. It's only for the adventurous souls," she says. "It's the best beach for windsurfing. Good wind direction, not a lot of people, no coral underneath, no rocks to hurt yourself."