On a Friday evening in Bophut, a woman with a charcoal brazier the size of a shoebox sells more grilled squid in ninety minutes than the air-conditioned seafood restaurant behind her sells all week. Both are on the same fifty metres of Fisherman’s Village Walking Street. One charges ฿80 for the squid; the other charges ฿1,200 for a lobster it will weigh out of your sight. The gap between those two numbers is everything you need to know about Koh Samui night markets.
Samui has seven or eight things that open in the evening and call themselves a market, spread around a fifty-kilometre ring road on a rota nobody official has ever published. Some are excellent. Some are the same elephant trousers under different fairy lights. Days and hours were checked in September 2026; Samui walking streets shift with the weather, so confirm the day with your hotel before you commit a taxi fare to it.
The short version: Friday at Fisherman’s Village is the big one, worth doing once, early, from the carts rather than the restaurants. Sunday at Lamai is the better meal and the more Thai crowd. Maenam on Thursday is the cheapest and the least polished. The rest of the week, Chaweng’s food yards and Laem Din market feed you fine, and Hua Thanon’s morning market is where all that seafood on ice came from. Where you sleep decides which of these is a walk and which is a ฿300 taxi; where to stay in Koh Samui sorts that, and things to do in Koh Samui fills the daylight in between.
Fisherman’s Village Walking Street, Bophut (Friday)
Bophut’s old beach road of Chinese-Thai shophouses is the most photographed street on Samui. Every Friday from about 5pm to 10pm or 11pm it closes to traffic and fills end to end with stalls. It is the largest and most touristed of the Koh Samui night markets, and the one every hotel will send you to unasked.
The layout matters. The western end, by the pier, is clothes, lamps, spice packets and the trousers. The middle is food carts, shoulder to shoulder, and this is the bit to eat from: grilled coconut prawns on a stick ฿80–120, squid ฿80–100, pork satay ten sticks ฿60–80, pad thai ฿60–80, mango sticky rice ฿60–80, coconut ice cream in the shell ฿50. The eastern end thins into sit-down restaurants along the sand, where seafood goes by the kilo: prawns ฿500–800, a whole grilled fish ฿400–600, lobster from ฿1,200, cooking charge on top. Same rule as our Hua Hin night market guide: confirm weight, cooking fee and total before anything touches the grill, and read Thailand scams if you think a scale is a neutral instrument.
Arrive at 5.30pm; by 7pm the street is a slow shuffle and the food queues are twenty deep. From Chaweng, a shared songthaew in daylight is ฿50–80 a head if you agree it first; after dark the trucks switch to charter at ฿200–300 and a Grab is ฿150–250. Rooms between Bang Rak and Maenam on Agoda’s Koh Samui listings put it within a walk or a ฿100 ride, and cost less than Chaweng.
Verdict: Do it, once. Eat from the middle, buy nothing from the western end, and leave before the coach parties arrive.
Lamai Sunday Night Market
Lamai is Chaweng’s scruffier younger brother on the east coast, and its Sunday walking street is the meal of the week. Stalls take over the beach road through the middle of town, from the old Night Plaza down towards the river bridge, from about 5pm to 10pm. Fewer lamps and dreamcatchers than Bophut, more Thai families, and a far higher ratio of food to tat.
What to eat: khao man gai ฿50; southern pork skewers with the sticky glaze, ฿10 a stick; a whole grilled fish stuffed with lemongrass ฿150–200; gaeng som, the sour orange curry that defines southern Thai cuisine, over rice for ฿50–60; roti with banana and condensed milk ฿40–50; fried insects ฿30 if that is your idea of an evening. Seafood skewers, prawns or squid, run ฿100–200 depending on the size of the animal. Dinner for two, eaten standing up, is ฿300.
Lamai also has a daily fallback: the old Night Plaza by the McDonald’s, rebuilt as a seafood-and-street-food yard open every evening from about 5pm to midnight. Fine on a Tuesday, overpriced on a Sunday when the street outside is better. Chaweng to Lamai is fifteen minutes: ฿50–80 by songthaew in daylight, ฿200–300 by Grab after dark. Verdict: Do it. If you have one Samui night market in you, make it this one.
Maenam Walking Street (Thursday)
Maenam is the north-coast village where long-stayers and retired Germans live, and its Thursday walking street is the one the island’s residents go to. It runs down the lane from the ring road to the pier, past the Chinese temple, from about 5pm to 9pm or 10pm. Plastic tables, a covers band in the temple forecourt, and food priced for people who live here: rice plates ฿40–60, boat noodles ฿40, grilled chicken thighs ฿40–50, som tam ฿40, a whole barbecued fish ฿120–150. Nothing is aimed at you, which is the point.
A word on the day. A couple of 2026 guides list a Monday market in Maenam; that is either a confusion with the small daily food yard opposite the Chinese gate on the ring road, or a change we could not confirm. As of September 2026, Thursday is the walking street. From Chaweng a Grab is ฿250–350; from Bophut or Bang Rak ฿100–150. Verdict: Do it if you are staying on the north coast, or have been on Samui long enough to be bored of Bophut.
Chaweng night food without a taxi: walking street, lake stalls and Laem Din market
Chaweng has no single night market, just an evening food economy that never quite closes. Chaweng Walking Street sets up by Chaweng Lake, opposite Central Festival; as of September 2026 it runs roughly Thursday to Saturday, 5pm to about 10pm. The reliable things are around it: the food yard on the lake side of Central Festival, midday to midnight daily, ฿60–100 plates and ฿100–150 beers; and Si Khao night market a few hundred metres west of the Central roundabout, nightly 5pm to 11pm, cheaper and almost entirely Thai, pad krapao and egg ฿50–60.
Then Laem Din, the island’s proper market: a covered wet market on the road inland from Chaweng. From late afternoon the surrounding stalls become a night food area running to about 11pm. Grilled chicken with sticky rice ฿60, Isan curries over rice ฿50, a bowl of noodles ฿45. No lamps, no elephants, no English menus. It is the cheapest evening feed in Chaweng. If a cart with no menu makes you nervous, is Thai street food safe answers honestly: mostly yes, and more so where turnover is high, which here it is.
For the ice-bed seafood restaurants on the beach road itself, the rule is the same as Bophut: order by the plate, not the kilo. A plate of grilled prawns at ฿250–350 is a dinner; a “kilo” at ฿800 is a lesson. If you would rather have someone else do the ordering on night one, a guided Koh Samui street food tour takes in Laem Din and a walking street for about ฿1,500–2,200 with transport. Verdict: Skip the beach-road ice beds; do Laem Din and Si Khao.
Nathon, Bang Rak, Choeng Mon and the west coast
Nathon, the port town where the Surat Thani ferries land, has the island’s most honest nightly market: food carts and tables by the pier from about 4pm or 5pm to 10pm, every day. Pork skewers ฿10–15, grilled corn ฿20, khao man gai ฿45, fried mackerel with rice ฿50. On Sunday evening the shophouse streets behind the pier host a modest walking street with a Thai crowd. From Chaweng it is a ฿400–500 Grab and forty minutes. Verdict: Do it if you are there; do not cross the island for it.
Bang Rak, between the airport and Bophut, has a daily local market by the Seatran pier from mid-afternoon to about 9pm, mostly produce and cooked food for the neighbourhood; on Saturday evenings it grows a small street food walking street with a live band. Verdict: Do the Saturday stalls if you are staying in Bang Rak or Bophut; otherwise skip.
Choeng Mon, on the north-east tip, has evening stalls along its main road on some nights, reported as Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 5pm to 10pm: twenty stalls and a beer fridge for the villa crowd. Fine for dinner, not a destination. Lipa Noi and Taling Ngam, the quiet west-coast beaches, have no organised night market as of September 2026, just a few roadside grill stalls from late afternoon selling to residents. Verdict: Choeng Mon only if you are staying there; the west coast, skip, in the sense that there is nothing to skip.
Hua Thanon: the morning market that beats the night ones
The seafood in every night market on Samui was landed at Hua Thanon, the Muslim fishing village on the south coast between Lamai and Laem Set, and the best way to see it is at 7am, not 7pm. The village market opens daily from about 7am to 6pm, but the fish is at its best and cheapest before 9am: barracuda and mackerel by the kilo, blue crab in baskets, squid still changing colour, at a third to a half of what the same animals fetch on ice in Chaweng that evening. Around the edge, roti and curry stalls do a proper southern Muslim breakfast, roti with massaman or chicken curry ฿40–60, sweet tea ฿20. Floors are wet, there is no music and nobody is selling a lamp.
The restaurants along the Hua Thanon road will grill what you buy for ฿100–150, or you simply eat at them and pay the lowest seafood prices on the island. The rest of Surat Thani still looks a good deal more like Hua Thanon than like Chaweng. Verdict: Do it, and go hungry.
Koh Samui night markets by day of the week
Thursday, Friday and Sunday are the walking-street nights; Monday to Wednesday are for Laem Din, Nathon, the Lamai yard and the Chaweng lake stalls. A full moon on Koh Phangan pulls a chunk of the stallholders and half the tourists across the water, so a walking street the evening before or after the Full Moon Party can be thinner than usual.
| Day | Market | Hours | What for | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Laem Din night stalls; Nathon pier; Lamai seafood yard | 5pm–11pm | Cheap plates, no crowds | Laem Din, do it |
| Tuesday | Si Khao, Chaweng; Nathon pier; Bang Rak pier market | 5pm–11pm | Local food, ฿50 plates | Do it if nearby |
| Wednesday | Choeng Mon stalls; Laem Din; Lamai seafood yard | 5pm–10pm | Dinner without a taxi | Only if staying nearby |
| Thursday | Maenam Walking Street; Chaweng Walking Street | 5pm–10pm | Cheapest, most local walking street | Maenam, do it |
| Friday | Fisherman’s Village Walking Street, Bophut | 5pm–11pm | The big one; cart food, shopping, bars | Do it once, early |
| Saturday | Bang Rak street food night; Chaweng Walking Street | 5pm–10pm | Live band, small crowd | Do it if nearby |
| Sunday | Lamai Sunday Night Market; Nathon walking street; Choeng Mon stalls | 5pm–10pm | Best food, most Thai crowd | Lamai, do it |
| Daily, mornings | Hua Thanon fresh market | 7am–6pm (go before 9am) | Where the seafood comes from; roti breakfast | Do it |
Two honest notes on transport and season. Songthaews are a daytime service: between about 8am and 6pm they loop the ring road and ฿50–100 a head gets you between any two of Chaweng, Lamai, Bophut and Maenam if you agree the price before you sit down. After dark the same trucks become private hire at ฿200–400. Grab and Bolt both work on Samui with fixed fares. Low season, May to October, thins the stalls by perhaps a third but cancels nothing; the walking streets go quiet, not dark. Getting there is in Bangkok to Koh Samui; check any price you are quoted on the island against our Thailand price index.
| Route | How | Price | Book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaweng to Bophut or Lamai (day) | Shared songthaew | ฿50–100 pp | Flag it down |
| Chaweng to Bophut or Lamai (night) | Grab / Bolt | ฿150–250 | In the app |
| Chaweng to Nathon | Grab / Bolt | ฿400–500 | In the app |
| Guided evening street food tour | Minivan, 3–4 hrs | ฿1,500–2,200 | GetYourGuide |
| Bangkok to Koh Samui by bus and ferry | Overnight, 12–14 hrs | ฿900–1,400 | 12Go |
Koh Samui night markets: your questions, answered
What day is the Fisherman’s Village night market in Koh Samui?
Friday. The Fisherman’s Village Walking Street in Bophut runs every Friday from about 5pm to 10pm or 11pm, all year. A smaller version has appeared on Monday and Wednesday evenings in some high seasons, but as of September 2026 only Friday is dependable.
Which Koh Samui night market is best for food?
Lamai on Sunday, for the balance of quality, price and a Thai crowd: whole grilled fish ฿150–200, curry over rice ฿50–60, seafood skewers ฿100–200. Maenam on Thursday is cheaper still but smaller. In Chaweng, Laem Din and Si Khao beat anything on the beach road.
How much does street food cost at Koh Samui night markets?
Rice and noodle plates are ฿40–80, skewers ฿10–20 each, grilled squid ฿80–100, seafood skewers ฿100–200, a whole grilled fish from a stall ฿150–250. Restaurant seafood sold by the kilo is a different market: prawns ฿500–800, lobster from ฿1,200, with a cooking charge on top.
How do I get to the night markets from Chaweng at night?
By Grab or Bolt, which have fixed fares on Samui: ฿150–250 to Bophut or Lamai, ฿250–350 to Maenam, ฿400–500 to Nathon. Shared songthaews are ฿50–100 a head in daylight but switch to private charter at ฿200–400 after dark. Agree any songthaew price before you get in.
Do Koh Samui night markets run in low season?
Yes. The Friday, Sunday and Thursday walking streets run year round, with perhaps a third fewer stalls between May and October. The real disruption is the Gulf monsoon from late October to mid-December, when heavy evening rain can shut a walking street early. Laem Din, Nathon and the Chaweng lake stalls open every night regardless.
Related guides
- Where to stay in Koh Samui: beach by beach, honestly
- Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao by ferry
- Hua Hin night market: the ones worth your evening
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A room in Bophut or Lamai puts the two best walking streets on foot and everything else a ฿150 ride away; compare them on Agoda’s Koh Samui page. The overnight bus-and-ferry from Bangkok is on 12Go, and if you would like someone to do the ordering and the driving on your first evening, GetYourGuide’s Koh Samui food tours cover Laem Din and a walking street with transport included. Not sure Samui is your island at all? Our Where to Go in Thailand matcher will tell you in about a minute.
