Floating Markets and Rose Garden Cultural Center Day Tour from Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand

This guided journey commences with a leisurely drive out of Bangkok, passing through salt fields and rice paddies, before embarking aboard your long tail speed-boat on your journey to the Damnoen Saduak floating markets. The trip to the floating markets are a very popular option for so many tourists to Thailand, as it is a showcase of Thai style canoes laden with colorful and succulent fruits, vegetables, sweets and meats - all gently plying their way through the canal, selling as they go. If you want to take a closer look your local Thai guide will help you organize a local boat ride through the markets (optional extra).

It is then off to The Rose Garden Cultural Center by coach, where you will see local Thai villagers creating traditional village handicrafts. All sorts of skills are on display including; silk-weaving, pottery-making, umbrella-painting, Khon mask masking, mat weaving, doll making, fruit carving, garland-making, rice-pounding and even the delicate crafting of silver and laquerware.

There are also impressive displays of authentic Thai period costumes, a chance to see busy, typical Thai market, different styles of Thai Houses (from both the North to South regions of Thailand) and an intriguing display of Thai antiques from various parts of the country. The village offers a potpourri of different Thai cultural activities that also include Muay Thai boxing, sword fighting, Thai dances, elephants at work and much, much more.

USD $61.00

Review by: Larry F	April 2012
Loved long boat ride and the buffet. The floating gardens were nice but somewhat of a tourist trap. The show at the cultural center was nice. Glad we saw it but will probably not repeat it.

Review by: Dinah Z	April 2012
Interesting way to see Thai villages. The Rose Garden is beautiful and the performance is fun to watch.

Review by: Kathleen M	January 2012
First the negative, and the reason why I gave this tour only 3 stars: the Floating Markets exist ENTIRELY for tourists. Be forewarned: if you so much as glance in the direction of one of the stalls, the shopkeeper will pull out a long hook and drag the boat to his or her shop. Being jet-lagged and still under the influence of initial culture shock, I wasn't well prepared for this aggressive salesmanship and it spoiled my enjoyment. Additionally, the Rose Garden CC is quite disappointing (there's very little to see), and the show is pure kitsch. To Viator's credit, it emailed before the tour to warn that the elephants would not be present for the show and to ask if we still wanted to go ahead with the tour. But I doubt that the elephants would have rescued the show, which suffered from boring and bored-looking performers. At the end of the show, the dancers pulled out various flags of the world and paraded to the tune of "It's a Small World." Ugh! If I want Disney, I'll go to Orlando. Now, the positive: our guide, Chai, was wonderful and experienced and witty. The true highlight for my daughter and me was an unexpected stop at the oldest Buddhist temple in Thailand. And when you consider all that you get for, what, $65/person, including a delicious buffet lunch, it is money very well spent. Despite misgivings about what I call the "Fleecing Market" and the desultory Rose Garden show, I would recommend the tour to the first-time visitor to Bangkok.

Review by: Jason W	October 2011
Really enjoyable trip. Even my 12 yr old and 10 yr old kids enjoyed it. Plenty of info from tour guide and the rain held off!

Review by: Jurga C	June 2011
Fun trip, felt quite personalized for there were only two people apart from us on the bus. Helpful tour guide. The food at the Rose Gardens was beautiful, and the show was entertaining.

Review by: John B	June 2011
Great day tour. Guide was very knowledgeable. Floating Markets were GREAT! Included ride in long tale boat just like on the James Bond movie! Rose Garden Cultural Center also provided great overview of Thai culture on beautiful grounds. I would highly recommend.

Review by: Graham E	April 2011
Have previously done this tour when it also included the Kwai valley. Ticks all the boxes and covers a lot of things in one go. Of course the floating market is touristy, but in my opinion is well worth it for a couple or family with limited time.

Review by: Eric D	March 2011
Will recommend to others excellent tour. Thanks Viator.

Review by: Angela G	March 2011
Both really enjoyed. Very good service.

Review by: Hayley P	February 2011
My friend and I were the only two people on the tour for the day. It was a very good tour including more places than mentioned in itinerary. My highlight was riding an elephant at the Rose Garden Cultural Centre and the floating markets which were an enjoyable experience.

Review by: Marja K	January 2011
Guide and guiding was a little lame... also difficult to understand his English. Too much time for your own walking and shopping. A tour cannot be build on shopping opportunities...

Review by: Gwendoline Z	November 2010
Excellent show!

Review by: Janet C	September 2010
Another beautiful tour, my only criticism is that the tour guide, who was lovely, gave us too much information and I got to the point where I just switched off and looked at the scenery. Other than that it was a fantastic day and I highly recommend it.

Review by: Helene A	May 2010
The floating markets are a must see. The drive to the floating markets was great and the food was fantastic . You could have just sat and watched the activity for hours! The Rose Garden Cultural Center was very touristy. Probably not the best place to see elephants, particularly if you plan to travel to other parts of Thailand. The cultural show was interesting but on reflection, I would have preferred to watch a show like that over dinner and a few drinks.

Review by: Sergio S, Brazil	March 2010
Fantastic. The lunch at Rose Garden is superb. The elephant show is very interesting.

Review by: Victoria S, United Kingdom	February 2010
An excellent and fascinating excursion. The dance show was outstanding.

Review by: Anonymous, Singapore	January 2010
The floating market is a must to visit in Bangkok. Though it is very touristy - you hardly see locals shopping there, it is a good way to immerse oneself in their culture. The cultural show at Rose Garden Cultural Centre is an interesting and relaxing way to watch how Thai festivals and ceremonies of different events are carried out. I was tickled in some parts of the show. Try this out!

Review by: Anonymous, United Kingdom	January 2010
The floating markets are obviously not what they used to be but still worth the visit--we had a great day out.

Review by: Beth B, Australia	December 2009
The gloating market is another 'must see" for Bangkok. Unfortunately the whole thing has now been much commercialized.There was more gaudy market "junk' for tourists than genuine marketeers selling vegetables and fruit. A ride in a boat on the canal is an experience though. The Rose Garden is a truly beautiful place and we had the best Buffet lunch of our trip there.

Review by: Gerard B	December 2009
The gloating market is another 'must see" for Bangkok. Unfortunately the whole thing has now been much commercialized.There was more gaudy market "junk' for tourists than genuine marketeers selling vegetables and fruit. A ride in a boat on the canal is an experience though. The Rose Garden is a truly beautiful place and we had the best Buffet lunch of our trip there.

Review by: Anonymous, Canada	November 2009
we recommend this tour, however we realize there are political issues in the Country, and we don't mind hearing about it a bit, however we felt she went on a tad excessive.

Review by: Ben J, United Kingdom	July 2009
Although the market is mostly for tourists, it is still a fantastic experience. One word of advice is, don't trust the guide and pay 150 for a place on a boat in the market, look around and a you can hire a whole boat for only 200.

Review by: Robin L	July 2009
A friend told me the Rose Garden was a must see. If you think a place like Universal Studios but 100 times worse is worth seeing, then you may like it. The floating markets were interesting but are for tourists only. But some good eats on the boats passing by. We had to stop at 2 tourist places where they hope you buy things. I really dislike when tours waste my time with this stuff. No one on our tour bought anything from any location, because you could get it all much cheaper at the night bazaar. We stopped at the first Buddha temple ever, and this was quite lovely, but our tour guide let us go off on our own when all the tour groups were being taken around by their guides. This place has a lot of symbolism, and I thought it was such a shame she didn't take us around and share her knowledge. Lunch was included at the Rose Garden, and although an impressive spread with 6 or so different stations, nothing was that good. Once you get into the Rose Garden, taking a picture with any of the dressed up ladies costs money. The show, although a bit corny, was well done and did give you nice insights to boxing, wedding, dances,etc. Our tour guide asked for a tip at the end. We had planned to give her one anyway, but we were a bit put off by the request. I would've preferred to have used this day for something else and would do it with a different tour company.

Review by: Paterno D	July 2009
The Rose Garden show was great, but everything else was just OK. The floating market was useless - it's designed for tourists, and it showed. Our guide was excellent and told us many things about the country - that was the best part. The lunch was OK - nothing special. It was part of the tour, but they get you with the drinks. Go to the Rose Garden and skip the floating market.

Review by: Cavatelle W, Australia	May 2009
Loved the experience on the boat, touring on the canals and finally to the floating market! Very impressive place. Rose Garden is a beautiful place. Buffet lunch was fantastic, energized us for the rest of the day! The cultural show was very nice and most enjoyable. Recommended to anyone!

Review by: Sum Sum W	May 2009
Loved the experience on the boat, touring on the canals and finally to the floating market! Very impressive place. Rose Garden is a beautiful place. Buffet lunch was fantastic, energized us for the rest of the day! The cultural show was very nice and most enjoyable. Recommended to anyone!

Review by: Kai Leung T, Hong Kong	February 2009
A good experience. Rose Garden is great! The restaurant inside the garden is a luxurious place to have lunch. The cultural show is an attractive one that was enjoyable for everybody watching.

Review by: KAI LEUNG T	February 2009
A good experience. Rose Garden is great! The restaurant inside the garden is a luxurious place to have lunch. The cultural show is an attractive one that was enjoyable for everybody watching.

Review by: Joan F, United States of America	November 2008
Nice way to get away from the hustle bustle of Bangkok and see some of the countryside. Market was an interesting experience as well as the visit to the Rose Garden.

Review by: Hilary C, United Kingdom	September 2008
This was another excellently organised trip, and it took us everywhere we needed to see. The long-tail boats were a little scary and out of James Bond! We loved every minute of it and wished it was longer. Well done again, Viator.

Review by: Veronica C, Australia	January 2008
The trip was wonderful and the guide was very helpful.

Review by: Bell C	January 2008
The trip was wonderful and the guide was very helpful.

Review by: Edward S, Australia	December 2007
Floating market was disappointing as most of the stalls were not on the water. However, the visits to the coconut farm and teak carving facility were very interesting as was the elephant show and cultural show at the Rose Garden.

Review by: Linda M, United Kingdom	September 2007
Very good, it was a very long day 12 hours.

Review by: Wee S, Singapore	May 2007
It was an interesting trip, being our first time. I enjoyed the coconut plantation stop and the teak wood factory stop. It was an eye opener.