Is Damnoen Saduak Floating Market Worth It?

An honest look at Damnoen Saduak after the hype

Two things decide it: being on the water before the group boats arrive, and getting off the main canal for part of your time out there. Both are in your control, and together they separate a morning that justifies 1.5 to 2 hours of road into Ratchaburi province from one that leaves you annoyed.

Set your expectations before you book anything. Souvenir stalls line the banks of the main stretch, vendors sell from sampans, canoe cooks make boat noodles on the water, and food and souvenir prices sit within a few baht of each other because the place is priced for tour groups. Nobody here is doing their weekly shopping.

Hia Kui draws most of the "too touristy" complaints, and fairly, since its shops are aimed squarely at coach groups. The rest of the market still runs on water, with produce coming off sampans and cooks working from canoes, and it is easy enough to plan around once you know which section you are standing in.

What the market is now, and how it got here

The waterway you came to see is older than the market on it by a century. King Mongkut, Rama IV, ordered Khlong Damnoen Saduak cut to link the Mae Klong with the Tha Chin, and the digging was finished in 1868. Its 32 km are fed by roughly 200 smaller side canals that villagers cut themselves, which is the reason an alternative to the crowded main stretch exists at all.

Trade originally sat at Lad Plee market beside the temple and lasted until 1967, when roads took over the freight the boats had been carrying. The canal market you visit today was revived afterwards for tourism. That sequence takes the sting out of the authenticity argument: the real commerce moved to the highway almost sixty years ago, and what stayed on the water sells to the people who come to look at it.

Damnoen Saduak is three markets under one name. Ton Khem is the largest, Hia Kui holds the souvenir shops for coach groups, and Khun Phitak lies about 2 km south of Hia Kui and sees far less traffic.

Two things decide how your morning goes

Timing comes first. The hours a pier operator publishes, 8:30 am to 2:00 pm daily, are the official figure to work from, while writers reporting from the canal itself describe real trading running roughly 07:00 to 12:00 and concentrated in the first two hours, so check on the day. From about 09:30 the main canal is gridlocked with tour-group boats, so 07:00 to 09:30 is the part of the day that pays for the drive. Be in a boat by 07:30, and off the main stretch before the jam forms.

Where you go on the water decides the rest. The main canal is stalls and crowd; the roughly 200 side canals still behave like a working waterway, with orchards, houses on stilts and boats that are going somewhere. Ask for a route that leaves the main stretch, and agree it before the boat casts off. A paddle boat is slow and quiet and threads between the stalls, while a long-tail covers more canal in the same time.

Keep the day short out there. By midday the market is winding down, so a late start has little left to offer however long you stay.

Who should make the trip, and who should pick another market

Damnoen Saduak is the choice for anyone in Bangkok between Monday and Thursday, because it is the only one of the four canal markets that trades every day. It also suits travellers who came for the photograph of boats stacked along a narrow canal, or who want the Maeklong Railway Market in the same morning: the two sit 20 to 30 minutes apart by road, the railway market is open daily from 07:00 to 16:00, and the awnings come off the rails for four arrivals on the Ban Laem to Mae Klong section, at roughly 08:30, 11:10, 14:30 and 17:40.

Eating is where Damnoen Saduak loses to the alternatives, and a weekend opens those alternatives up.

• Go if your days in Bangkok fall Monday to Thursday and you want a canal market at all.
• Go if you can leave the city in the dark and be on the water by 07:30.
• Go if you want the long-tail boats on a narrow canal and can live with souvenir stalls alongside.
• Choose Khlong Lat Mayom on a Saturday or Sunday if eating is the point: seven zones and 404 stalls, best between about 10am and 1pm.
• Choose Amphawa on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday for an afternoon and evening market instead of a dawn start.
• Choose Taling Chan for one weekend morning with no appetite for the drive; it sits about 14 km from central Bangkok, with orange air-conditioned bus No. 79 running direct from Pratunam in about 45 minutes.
• Think twice if boarding is difficult: operators caution that long-tail boats are hard to get into and out of for travellers with mobility problems.
• Think twice with a very young child on board: operators warn that no life jacket on the paddle boats here comes small enough for them, and supervision stays with the adult for the whole ride.

Leaving Bangkok early enough

Everything on this page depends on a departure that puts you on the canal before 09:30, and that is the hardest part to arrange after a late night in the city. Minivans from the Southern Bus Terminal at Sai Tai Mai take about two hours, so you cross Bangkok before dawn and then walk in at the far end: public minivans do not stop at the two large car parks beside the market.

The comparison page on this site lines up all four markets by distance and trading day, which is the quickest way to see whether your dates leave you a choice at all. If Damnoen Saduak is the answer, the two tours below are the ones here that start early enough to land inside the useful window.

Bangkok: Floating Market and Train Market Experience takes the pre-dawn logistics off you: 8.5 hours, from THB 792, rated 4.9 ★ (3750 reviews). A train ticket, a boat ride, an air-conditioned vehicle, accident insurance and a fully licensed English-speaking guide are included. Lunch you sort yourself, and the audio guide streams to your own phone, so headphones go in the bag the night before. Travellers meet the guide, dressed in black, outside KFC in front of SAMYAN MITRTOWN on Phaya Thai Road, at least 15 minutes before departure and with extra time for the morning rush hour.

The longer alternative is Day Trip to Bangkok Floating Market & Maeklong Railway, 9 hours, from THB 850, rated 4.9 ★ (1703 reviews), and the only one of the two that puts a figure on the canal time: 30 to 40 minutes afloat. Included with it are admission to attractions, bottled water, transfer to and from the meet-up point, operator insurance and a guide working in Chinese or English. Assembly is behind Central World, in the Hug Thai zone, 10 to 15 minutes ahead of the stated departure.

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