FLOATING MARKETS · THAILAND & VIETNAM
The market comes to you, by boat.
Long-tail boats through the Damnoen Saduak canals, fruit barges at dawn on the Mekong, the train that parts the Maeklong market, lanterns over Amphawa at night. Real reviews of the floating and canal-market tours worth the early start.
Worth setting an alarm for
Three markets you reach by boat.
A floating market is a place that only exists on the water and only at the right hour. These three are the ones travellers cross a country for: the Bangkok canals, the Mekong at sunrise, and the Thai market built on a railway line.
Central Thailand
Damnoen Saduak
The picture everyone has seen of a Thai floating market is this one: narrow klongs west of Bangkok packed gunwale to gunwale with wooden sampans, vendors in straw hats paddling fruit, noodles and coconut ice cream between the boats. Go early, before the day-trip buses, and ride a long-tail deep into the back canals where the selling is still for locals. Most trips pair it with the Maeklong railway market down the road.
- 1 Bangkok: Train Market & Floating Market with Boat Ride
- 2 From Bangkok: Damnoen Saduak Floating Market Guided Tour
- 3 Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and Maeklong Railway Market Tour
Mekong Delta
Cai Rang
The biggest floating market in the Mekong Delta is a wholesale one, so it happens at dawn and on a serious scale: barges riding low under pyramids of pineapple and watermelon, each flying its goods up a tall pole so you can read the river like a menu. A small boat from Can Tho slips you in among them, then off into the narrow canals to the fruit orchards and a riverside coffee.
- 1 Can Tho: Floating Market & Mekong’s Legacy( About 6 Pax)
- 2 Can Tho: A Real Mekong Tour, Floating Market, Cacao & Life’s
- 3 Can Tho: Authentic Floating Market, Wild Canal system, Cocoa
Samut Songkhram
Amphawa & Maeklong
This corner of Thailand stacks two unmissable markets into one trip. Maeklong is the market built on a live railway, the stalls folding back from the tracks the instant the train noses through, then spilling out again behind it. Amphawa is the evening float: grilled prawns off the boats, lantern light on the water, and a night cruise to the fireflies.
See all 1 Amphawa & Maeklong tours →If you only book one
The day on the water more travellers rave about than any other.
Out of every floating-market trip on the site, this is the one people come home telling everyone they know to book.
The crowd-pleasers
The Most Popular Floating Market Tours
Damnoen Saduak by long-tail, the Maeklong railway market, Cai Rang at sunrise, Amphawa after dark. The trips travellers are happiest they booked.
Start with a place
The best floating markets, place by place.
Bangkok for Damnoen Saduak and the railway market, Can Tho for the Mekong barges, Amphawa for the evening float. Pick where you are headed and we will show you the trips worth booking there.
Where the markets are
Two countries, two kinds of market morning.
Thailand floats its markets on canals an hour from Bangkok; Vietnam trades from barges along the Mekong. Start with the country you are in, then the river you want to be on.
Bangkok
Damnoen Saduak, before the buses.
The klongs west of Bangkok are the floating market everyone pictures, and the trick is timing. Go at first light and the canals belong to the vendors paddling fruit and noodles between the boats; arrive at ten and they belong to the tour buses. A long-tail run into the quieter back canals, paired with the Maeklong railway market down the road, is the day worth booking.
See the best Bangkok floating market tours →Can Tho
Out to Cai Rang at sunrise.
Cai Rang is a wholesale market, which is why it happens at dawn and on a scale nothing in Thailand matches: barges sitting low under mountains of pineapple and watermelon, each hoisting its wares up a tall pole. A small boat from Can Tho slips you in among them while the river is still cool, then turns off into the narrow canals to the orchards, a noodle breakfast and a floating coffee.
See the best Can Tho floating market tours →On the water
The whole town fits in a boat.
A floating market is a street that floats: the greengrocer, the noodle stall, the coffee cart and the fruit seller all paddling past, trading hull to hull the way they have for a hundred years. Catch it at the right hour and you are not watching a market, you are in the middle of one, drifting between the boats with a bowl in your lap.
Browse every floating market tour →Samut Songkhram
The market that folds up for the train.
An hour southwest of Bangkok, the Maeklong market sets up directly on a working railway: when the horn sounds, the awnings whip back and the baskets slide clear, the train eases through inches from the produce, and the whole market unfolds again behind it. Pair it with Amphawa nearby, where the floating market runs into the evening and a long-tail takes you out to the fireflies after dark.
See the best Amphawa & Maeklong tours →By the hour
A floating market is a question of timing.
The wholesale barges trade before dawn, the famous canals fill mid-morning, the evening float lights its lanterns at dusk. Pick the hour that sounds like your kind of morning, or night, on the water.
Before sunrise
Cai Rang, while it is still dark.The Mekong wholesale market is busiest before the sun is up, so the boats leave Can Tho around five. You drift between barges hung with whatever they are selling that day, coffee passed boat to boat, the river waking up around you.
Mid-morning
Damnoen Saduak, paddle to paddle.Thailand's most famous floating market hits its stride mid-morning, the klong jammed with long-tail boats and vendors paddling sampans piled with mango, pomelo and pad thai cooked over a charcoal burner on the bow.
After dark
Amphawa, by lantern light.Amphawa only really starts in the late afternoon and runs into the night, grilled river prawns and noodle boats lit by lantern along the canal, then a long-tail out to watch the fireflies blink in the lamphu trees.
From Saigon
The delta, in a day or two.
You do not have to base yourself on the river to reach its markets. Ho Chi Minh City runs the full spread of delta trips, from a quick run to the boats and orchards at My Tho and Ben Tre to the proper two-day overnight that gets you to Cai Rang for sunrise, the only way to catch the wholesale market at its busiest without staying in Can Tho. A guide handles the boats, the homestay and the long drive south.
See all 20 Saigon delta tours →By place
Pick a market to wake up for.
Bangkok for Damnoen Saduak and the railway market. Can Tho for Cai Rang. Saigon for the delta day trips. Amphawa for the evening float. Ayutthaya for the market among the ruins.
More places
More markets along the rivers.
Phu Quoc off the south coast, Ben Tre deep in the coconut country, the Don Wai market at Nakhon Pathom. The smaller floats and gateways, ready when you are.
Three markets, three mornings
Pick a market, plan the day around the boat.
A canal-and-rails morning around Bangkok, a Mekong sunrise out of Can Tho, an evening float at Amphawa. Three markets, three very different ways to spend a day on the water.
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