Damnoen Saduak or Amphawa

What is the best floating market to visit from Bangkok?

For most first-time visitors it is Damnoen Saduak, because it fits a half-day with the railway market and runs every day. Amphawa is the better market if you can go on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

The two are not really rivals. They serve different days. Damnoen Saduak is the picture on the postcard: women in straw hats selling fruit from small wooden boats on a maze of canals. Wikipedia calls it often considered the most famous floating market, and also a tourist trap, both of which are true. Amphawa is a canal town in Samut Songkhram, the same province as the railway market, where the shophouses, cafes and food boats wake up on weekend afternoons.

Our pick: go to Damnoen Saduak if you want the classic scene, the longtail ride and an early finish. Go to Amphawa if food and atmosphere matter more to you than the boats loaded with fruit.

Which floating market is closest to Bangkok?

The closest are inside the city: Taling Chan and Khlong Lat Mayom, both in Bangkok's Taling Chan district and both weekend markets. Of the two big ones, Amphawa is on the way to the railway market, and Damnoen Saduak is about 100 km out.

If you only want a floating market, the city ones save the drive:

• Taling Chan Floating Market sits on the Khlong Chak Phra canal in front of the district office. Wikipedia lists it as a weekend market from about 08:30 to 16:00, with Thai music from 11:00 to 14:00. It began in 1987.
• Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market is on Bang Ramat Road in the same district, open on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 09:00 to 17:00, per Wikipedia.
• Tha Kha, in Samut Songkhram, is the one locals point to as the real thing. Tourism Thailand describes it as a morning market where farmers sell their produce from boats. Its page gives no fixed days, so ask at your hotel before you plan around it.

None of these comes with the train. For the railway market plus a floating market in one day, the tours go to Damnoen Saduak in the morning or Amphawa in the afternoon.

When are Damnoen Saduak and Amphawa open?

Damnoen Saduak trades every day and is busiest from 07:00 to 09:00, quietening by noon (Wikipedia). Amphawa is a Friday to Sunday market, best from 15:00 to 20:00, per the TAT Newsroom.

Those hours explain how the tours are built. A morning tour reaches Damnoen Saduak while the boats are still out, then heads home. The Amphawa tour does the opposite: railway market, a temple, then Amphawa as the canal fills up in the late afternoon, and a firefly boat once it is dark.

Amphawa on a weekday is a different place. One Amphawa listing we looked at says the market now operates mainly from Friday to Sunday and feels more relaxed than before COVID. That is why the Amphawa day trip runs only from Friday to Sunday. If your free day is a Tuesday, take the Damnoen Saduak version.

For the train side of the day, our train times guide has the full State Railway of Thailand timetable.

How much is a boat ride at the floating market?

On the tours, the boat is usually included: a longtail on the train tour, the boat tour and the private tour, a paddle boat on the small-group and Mahanakhon tours. Where you pay on the spot, expect about THB 150 per person for a paddle boat at Damnoen Saduak and from THB 50 for a shared boat at Amphawa.

Here is what the prices on the ground look like, with the source for each:

• Damnoen Saduak paddle boat: one tour listing we did not pick sells it as an optional extra at THB 150 per person, paid on site. That is a useful guide to the going rate. If you hire a boat yourself, agree the price and the length of the ride before you get in.
• Amphawa shared boat: from THB 50 per person, for boats that take up to about 10, according to the TAT Newsroom. A private boat starts at THB 500. The trip takes about an hour and passes the market and the riverside temples.
• Amphawa firefly boat: about THB 60 to 80 per person on a shared boat, Wikipedia says, or about THB 600 to hire a whole boat for one to two hours.

On a tour you skip the haggling. The train and longtail tour includes a 45-minute longtail ride through the canals into Damnoen Saduak, and the small-group tour includes the paddle boat. On the Amphawa day trip, the firefly boat is part of the price.

The lowest price for the railway market and a longtail boat at Damnoen Saduak. Book a later start: the 07:00 departure has no train ride.

★ 4.8 · 8 to 8.5 hours · from $20

Explore the boat tour → Tour details

Is the floating market free?

Yes. Walking into Damnoen Saduak, Amphawa or the Bangkok floating markets costs nothing. You pay for the boat, the food and the transport to get there.

The same goes for the Maeklong Railway Market: there is no gate and no ticket. What a tour sells you is the van, the timing around the train, the guide and the boat. Food is extra on every one of our tours, so bring baht. One operator, on the private tour listing, notes that most vendors add 5% for card payments.

Budget a little for snacks and souvenirs at Damnoen Saduak. Wikipedia notes prices there run higher than elsewhere, and that bargaining is common for souvenirs, though food prices are mostly fixed within a few baht.

Is Damnoen Saduak too touristy?

It is touristy, and nobody who goes there pretends otherwise. The canal ride in and the early boats still make it worth a morning, especially paired with the train.

Wikipedia's summary is blunt: crowded, overpriced, and criticized for lacking authenticity, while still popular with both Thai and foreign visitors. The operator of the train and longtail tour says much the same on its listing: these markets are popular and therefore touristy, and they still trade the old way, from wooden boats.

Three things make it better. Get there early, because the boats thin out by noon. Enjoy the longtail ride through the side canals, which is the part guests remember. And know the layout: the market has three parts, Ton Khem (the largest), Hia Kui (souvenir shops for tour groups) and Khun Phitak, about 2 km south, the smallest and quietest.

Amphawa feels more local. The TAT Newsroom describes it as less crowded with tour groups than Damnoen Saduak, though it gets busy at weekends with day-trippers from Bangkok.

When is the best time to see the Amphawa fireflies?

From May to October, in the rainy season, when Wikipedia says they are easiest to see. Boats go out after dark from the Amphawa piers.

The fireflies gather in the trees along the Mae Klong river and its canals, and the boats drift past slowly with the engine low. Wikipedia mentions the lamphu trees by the water. Outside the rainy season you may see fewer, so keep your expectations modest from November to April.

Practical bits: bring insect repellent (the Amphawa tour listing asks for it), keep phone screens dim, and skip the flash. The Amphawa day trip puts about 1.5 hours on the firefly boat after two hours at the market, then an 80-minute drive back. The blog has more on Amphawa weekends and the firefly season.

Which tour combines the floating market with the railway market?

All nine tours we cover visit the railway market; eight add a floating market. For Damnoen Saduak, the train and longtail tour is our first choice. For Amphawa, it is the Friday to Sunday day trip.

Pick by the floating market you want, then by the train: some tours put you on the train into the market, some have you watch it pass from the track side.

The afternoon version: the train, Wat Bang Kung, two hours in Amphawa and a firefly boat at dusk. Friday to Sunday only.

★ 4.3 · 8.5 to 11.5 hours · from $44

Explore the Amphawa day trip → Tour details

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