Hua Hin Night Market - What you need to know
The Night Market is one of the main attractions in Hua Hin City. It’s very lively and packed with great shopping opportunities. Some of the best restaurants are also located in this area and you can visit the Night Market several times while visiting Hua Hin.
When I lived in Hua Hin, and when friends visited from abroad, I would always bring them to this area and we always had a great time here. You can easily spend a whole evening at the Night Market, walking around shopping and eating.
Below I will recommend some things that I think you shouldn’t miss when you visit here – and I have also made a great map of the area so you can get an easy overview of where the things are located.
Information about Hua Hin Night Market
The Hua Hin Night Market is open from 6 to 11 PM and it’s located right in the center of Hua Hin City. It consists of two small streets – Soi 72 and Dechanuchit Alley which are a side road to the main road – Petchkasem Road – going through Hua Hin.
It’s only 350 feet (100 meters) from the Hua Hin Clock Tower. So if you arrive in one of the hotel shuttlebuses, then it’s a very short walk north of the Clock Tower. There are lots of lights and people – so you can’t miss it.
Around 4 PM these two streets get blocked from each end and the vendors start to set up their stalls and shops. It all starts to open up around 6 PM and it’s a mix of shops, stalls, and restaurants.
The shops and restaurants close down between 11 – 12 PM and people move elsewhere in Hua Hin. Most people walk from the Night Market to Soi Bintabath or to Soi 94 to go for a drink or a beer – and there are plenty of places to go out if you know where to go.
For a list of “Where to go out in Hua Hin” – Map included!!
Map of attractions at Hua Hin Night Market
Map of Hua Hin Night Market
My Recommendations
Recommendations
1. Plan before you go to the Night Market
To start with I can recommend, that when you visit the Hua Hin Night Market, you should also plan to eat dinner here at the same time. You’ll find some realllly good restaurants here and especially the seafood restaurants, are great here.
The restaurants in this area are very popular, so I would recommend you to go there and eat a little bit earlier than you normally would go eat. I would recommend going there between 6-7 PM – and then going to the restaurants first and then shopping afterward. Otherwise, you might find it hard to get a table or have to wait a while.
Read about my recommendations about which restaurants you MUST go eat at – further below:
2. Shop until you drop
The Night Market is packed with things to shop and you will certainly be tempted quite a few times – and will probably buy some things. You will find things like T-shirts, bags, shoes, souvenirs, toys, home decor, handmade items, paintings, wood carvings, Buddha statues, and much more.
Be aware that a lot of brand names are sold here. They are all copies – or as the Thais say “They are genuine copies”. The copies are actually of good quality, but if you look for genuine brands, then you have to go to the shopping centers.
But as I mentioned above I would recommend you to head straight for a restaurant, so you won’t end up wasting time waiting in line. You can go shop afterworth with renewed energy and it will be needed since the vendors at the Night Markets will for sure test your bargaining skills. There are almost no prices for the items, so you have to haggle and bargain to get a good price.
I have some really good bargaining tips and tricks to get the best prices, which you can see below.
How to bargain in Thailand
Get the ground skills and all the tips on how to bargain in Thailand.
3. Visit the Chatsila Night Market
Another recommendation is to go into the Chatsila Night Market. The entrance is not easy to see when you are walking on the shopping street at the Hua Hin Night Market. (See the map above for the exact location of the entrance)
A lot of people end up just walking past the entrance not even noticing it’s there. The “problem” is that on the shopping street, all the stalls and shops block the view to the entrance – and you have to look behind them to see the entrance to Chatsila Night Market.
At this Night Market, you can wander around some small and narrow streets with some very nice shops – and it’s a totally different experience since it’s much calmer and not as hectic as outside on the Night Market.
The entrance to Chatsila Night Market looks like the picture below.
Entrance to the Chatsila Night Market
The nice streets inside the Chatsila Night Market
4. Be n-ice to yourself !!!
The last recommendation might be the best one…
Now you have walked up and down the Night Market for some time, your feet need rest and your body might be craving for something sweet – and all this can be granted at Swensen’s Ice Cream Shop.
It’s just opposite the Main Entrance of the Night Market (ohhh yes they have figured out the location perfectly…) – and again you can use the map above, to see the exact location.
They have a mouthwatering menu and it’s a really nice vibe in there. The shop is full of tired and shopped-out tourists in need of some nice ice cream.
Entrance to Swensen’s Ice Cream
The menu at Swensen’s Ice Cream
Where to eat at Hua Hin Night Market
Some of the best restaurants in Hua Hin City are at the Night Market or in this area. So you should treat yourself and go eat here while you are visiting Hua Hin. The lights, the tourists passing by, and the atmosphere here make it a great place to eat.
The prices here are a little bit higher than if you go eat somewhere else in Hua Hin, but the quality of the restaurants and the atmosphere make it all worthwhile. There are plenty of different restaurants to choose from here. Some are just food stalls with a handful of tables on the street and others are on two floors where you can sit and do some people-watching and enjoy a view of the hectic shopping street. I have never gotten disappointed eating here – it’s always a good experience no matter where I have been eating.
There are still two restaurants I can recommend to you (both can be seen on the map above)
1. Lung Ja Seafood
This restaurant is one of the best Seafood restaurants in Hua Hin. They have a wide variety of seafood on their menu and the food served here is really tasty. There are plenty of tables and friendly and fast-working staff wherever you look. In front of the restaurant, facing the shopping street, they have a big presentation of all the seafood they can prepare for you. It’s nicely arranged on a big layer of ice to keep it all fresh. You can point out by yourself exactly what fish, prawn, lobster, etc. you want to eat. The food is then cooked and prepared right in front of you on their big grills.
It’s very popular and always full of people, so go early!
I can especially recommend you to try the scallops as a starter and for the main course, either the lobster with butter, the rock lobster with garlic, or the tiger prawns. It’s delicious and just writing about it makes me wanna go there.
Adress:
103/ 4-5 Dechanuchit Road, Hua Hin
Opening Hours:
6 – 11 PM
2. Jek Piek Seafood
This is a very good alternative, even though it is located just outside the Night Market. It’s a very local experience since a lot of Thai people also eat here: It’s also a very well-visited restaurant and there aren’t so many tables so go here early. By early I mean around 5 to 6 PM. If you go early you can enjoy their delicious food while you can watch the growing line of people, that arrived here too late. If you end up here to late, then a great thing they are doing here is that they take orders from the people in line, so they can be served faster.
There is nothing fancy about this restaurant and you sit on simple plastic chairs but that only enhances the local atmosphere and you won’t even notice the surroundings as soon as the mouthwatering food is served.
I can especially recommend you to try some of their soups (try their tasty but spicy Tom Yam), the satay sticks (chicken or pork) the crab fried rice – and they serve fantastic chili lemon steamed fish.
Adress:
69 7 Phetkasem Road, Hua Hin
Opening hours:
5 – 7.30 PM (Be aware of the short opening hours!!)
