The good stuff is gone by nine. Book the tour that gets you there at six.
Which Damnoen Saduak trip still reaches a working market. What a Marrakech souk walk costs. Whether Tokyo fish-market hours are worth the alarm. Reviews of market tours, bazaar walks and the classes that start at the stalls.
Four market mornings worth building a trip around.
The canal run west of Bangkok, a walk through the Marrakech souks, a Hanoi class that shops before it cooks, and Tokyo at fish-market hours. What each costs, and what the people who went say.
01The Bangkok classicDamnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway MarketDamnoen Saduak by longtail, then Maeklong, where the awnings fold back for the train. Leave before dawn and the boats are still trading produce.
02Into the medinaBahia Palace, Saadian Tombs, Souk and Medina TourBahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs and then the souks, which are where a first-timer needs somebody who knows the turns.
03Shop, then cook itHanoi Cooking Class: Culture, Local Market & Meaning CSR ImpactA Hanoi guide walks you round the produce stalls, explains what you are looking at, and you cook it an hour later.
04Tokyo, fish-market hoursTokyo Tsukiji Fish Market Food and Culture Walking TourThe Tsukiji outer market at breakfast: tamago, uni, knife shops, and tuna that was auctioned before you woke up.
Markets keep their own clock: fish at first light, street food after dark.
Fish markets
Floating markets
Cooking classes
Street food
Night marketsSix countries where the market is the reason to go.
Thai canals and railway tracks, Vietnamese river markets and cooking classes, Moroccan souks, the Cairo bazaars, Italian food halls, and the fish markets of Japan. Six places, and the market morning to book in each.
Thailand: a market on the water, a market on the tracks, or one you cook.
Almost every Bangkok week gives up one early morning to Damnoen Saduak and one to Maeklong. Three kinds of Thai market day, what each costs, and how early the minibus leaves.
The market tours more travellers book than any others.
Every market tour we have reviewed →Damnoen Saduak and Maeklong lead by a distance, then the Dubai souks, the Marrakech medina and the classes that start in a Hanoi market.
1
Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway Market
Travel from Bangkok to Maeklong Railway Market and Damnoen Saduak Floating Market with an English, German, or Japanese-speaking guide. Ride a paddleboat, watch stalls clear the tracks, sample Thai snacks, and enjoy free time to browse. Early departures offer cooler weather and fewer crowds.
From · $25
Read our review →
2
The Old Siam: Damnoen Saduak and Maeklong Railway Market
from $32
3
Old Town, Creek, Museums, Souks, & Street Food Tour
from $18
4
Train Market & Floating Market with Boat Ride
from $25
5
Old Town, Souks, Street Food, Guided Tour & Abra Ride
from $9
6
Ayutthaya & Ayothaya Floating Market Day Trip
from $48
7
Hanoi Cooking Class: Culture, Local Market & Meaning CSR Impact
from $39
8
Bahia Palace, Saadian Tombs, Souk and Medina Tour
from $20
The most booked market tours are the ones that end in a kitchen.
A guide walks you through the produce stalls, names everything in the basket, haggles once so you can watch, and then you cook it. Hanoi, Chiang Mai, Hoi An, Florence and Barcelona run the best of them.
- 1Hanoi Cooking Class: Culture, Local Market & Meaning CSR Impactfrom $39
- 25 Traditional Dishes Hanoi Cooking Class with Market Tripfrom $35
- 3Cooking Class and Lunch at a Tuscan Farmhouse with Local Market Tour from Florencefrom $145
Three market mornings that happen nowhere else on earth.
Produce sold from a boat, stalls that fold back eight times a day for a passing train, and a lantern-lit bazaar trading since the fourteenth century.
The floating markets
Ninety minutes west of Bangkok the canals at Damnoen Saduak fill with flat boats of pomelo, mango and coconut ice cream cooked on a burner in the bow. Get there before eight and the produce boats still outnumber the souvenir ones. Amphawa trades on Friday to Sunday evenings instead, and Can Tho in the Mekong Delta is a wholesale market where the boats fly their goods from a pole.
- 1Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway Market★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 26,723 reviews
- 2The Old Siam: Damnoen Saduak and Maeklong Railway Market★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 10,992 reviews
- 3Train Market & Floating Market with Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 9,547 reviews
The Maeklong railway market
The tracks into Maeklong run straight through the middle of the market. A bell sounds, the traders fold their awnings back and lift the baskets clear, the train passes within inches of the produce, and the whole market unfolds again in under a minute. Arrival times are posted at the station, and every tour is built backwards from them.
- 1Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway Market★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 26,723 reviews
- 2The Old Siam: Damnoen Saduak and Maeklong Railway Market★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 10,992 reviews
- 3Train Market & Floating Market with Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 9,547 reviews
Khan el-Khalili and the Grand Bazaar
Cairo’s Khan el-Khalili is still a working quarter of coppersmiths, lantern-makers and mint tea at El Fishawy, and the lanes have not been straightened for anybody. Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar covers sixty covered streets; the Spice Bazaar down the hill is a fraction of the size and a far gentler place to make a first purchase.
- 1Local Markets & Khan el Khalili Private Shopping Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 614 reviews
- 2Cairo VIP Guided Tour to Khan El-Khalili Market with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 431 reviews
- 3Istanbul Grand Bazaar: From Rooftops to the Secret Passages★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 337 reviews
Fish markets are packed away before most cities have breakfast.
The Toyosu auction runs at five, the Tsukiji outer market trades to about ten, and Bergen sells the last of the shrimp by lunch. Fish market tours start early, and the tuna is gone by mid-morning.
What a morning at the market actually costs.
Every market tour on the site, grouped by price. Plenty of the best ones cost less than the lunch they end with.
Souk walks, street-food crawls and the shared minibus out to a floating market.
Classes that shop before they cook, full-day market runs, small groups with a driver.
Private guides, chef-led buyouts of a market hall, and the classes that finish with a long lunch.
Four market mornings that run on somebody else’s calendar.
Most markets can be arranged the night before. These four cannot: a train timetable, an auction, a tide of tour boats and six weeks in December decide them for you.
- 01Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway MarketThe train passes through the stalls to a published timetable and the tours are built around it. Morning departures go first.
- 02Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market Food and Culture Walking TourTokyo’s fish markets trade at breakfast and shut when the stalls do. Both close on Sundays and on the market holidays posted each month.
- 03Christmas Markets Food Tour in MunichChristmas markets open in the last week of November and are gone by Christmas Eve. December weekends fill weeks ahead.
- 04Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway MarketThe produce boats trade early. A tour that leaves Bangkok after eight arrives to souvenir stalls rather than a market.
Half the world’s best markets are shut by lunchtime.
Fish goes at dawn, produce by mid-morning, and plenty of the great markets only trade one or two days a week. Carry small notes, wear shoes you can stand in for three hours, and turn up hungry. The rest is timing.
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By kind of market
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