Pattaya Floating Market

Established since 2008, Pattaya Floating Market has long been one of Pattaya's top attractions. Covering an area of 100,000sqm along the Sukhumvit Road in Banglamung district, on the way to Sattahip, the popular attraction is a combination of a traditional floating market, living museum, live performance and shopping centre that shows the charm of an "Ancient Thai Riverside Living Community". Pattaya Floating Market was built with an investment of 350 million Baht under the concept of "Travelling Through Thailand in One Day", as the market has brought together the very unique traditions, cultures, ways of life, food, handicraft products and cultural performance of each region of Thailand: Northern, Central, North-Eastern and Southern region. In addition, the market’s landscape, infrastructure, construction, drawing, and design have been set up and designed truly depends on each region of Thailand, so tourists are able to identify the different and knowing which region of Thailand they are travelling through while they are in the market. The market has over 114 shops and paddle boat vendors selling authentic Thai ethnic products, such as wooden sculptures, silverware, textiles, paper handicrafts, sailing boat models, wooden handmade bags, Thai silks and much more. The jetties for the shops, which are housed in typical traditional Thai-style buildings, are all connected with bridged, and hence very accessible for pedestrians. Bistros and cafés offer a wide range of typical regional Thai dishes. There are two piers, one in front and another one on the back side, where more than 80 paddle boats are on standby to ferry visitors around the compound along many Thai style teak wood buildings, linked by a network of canals, bridges and a number of different sized islands with exotic plants and trees. Pattaya Floating Market is also one of many other Thai Culture Learning Center because it has recently established a new zone called ‘Traditional Thai Ways of Life Village’ aims at making it a learning center for those who interested in knowing deeper about Thai people and history. It has on display almost everything that is necessary usually used by Thai people during their daily routines including a demonstrative session of how to proceed it; for example, silk production and farming, ancient Thai ways of cooking, an agricultural rice field demonstration, an authentic House-boats for stay or even the original Thai massage is also available in this area for interested party to enjoy learning or even taking part for a short session of practice supervised by specialists. Before leaving the village area, make sure the trip is completely fulfilled at the Monkey Show stationed right close to the entrance. It’s the most famous monkey star in Thailand and ever appeared on commercial ads including movies, stop by to say hi, everyone call it Khun Prakit. Apart from being a cultural attraction and a great shopping opportunity, Pattaya Floating Market also provides daily cultural performances, traditional games and fun activities, including Thai classical dance, martial art demonstrations, rowing boat excursion, amphibious boat adventure, rowing bowl racing, long tail motored-boat, zip line adventure, blindfolded boxing and sea boxing, where the fighters perform on a horizontal pole above the canal.
Opening time & fare: Pattaya Floating Market is open daily from 10.00 until 21.00. Previously the entry was free, you could make a donation if you wanted, but the latest reports these days suggest that the entry price is currently 200 baht.
Getting to Pattaya Floating Market: Head south on the Sukhumvit Highway, the attraction is 5.3 kilometers south of the South Pattaya Road junction, you will see it on the left side of the highway. Alternative means of getting there from Pattaya center are taxi or motorbike services, about 100-150 baht for a one-way trip. You can make your own way to the Floating Market very cheaply, for a round trip cost of not more than 80 baht, if you take a shared blue songthaew till Sukhumvit Road. Once on Sukhumvit, take a shared white songthaew all the way to the Floating Market.Read More