Western Gulf Coast
Cicada and Tamarind weekend markets
Hua Hin's best evenings: an open-air arts, crafts, music and food market that beats the cramped central night market — when it runs and what to eat.
Where
Hua Hin, Thailand
Opening hours
Open air, weekend evenings only — typically Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, with some seasonal variation. Cicada and the adjoining Tamarind market open from late afternoon into the night. Confirm current hours and prices on the official site, as days can change in low season.
Tickets
Free entry — no ticket needed to wander either market or watch the live music. You pay only for what you buy: street-food dishes run roughly £4–8 per person, with crafts and drinks on top.
Time needed
An evening — two to three hours to eat, browse the crafts and catch the live music on the Cicada stage.
In short
Visiting Cicada and Tamarind weekend markets
Cicada and Tamarind are Hua Hin's best evenings out. Cicada is a spacious open-air arts-and-crafts market with live music and food courts, busiest Friday to Sunday nights; the neighbouring Tamarind market runs alongside it with more street food. Together they are far more pleasant than the cramped, touristy central night market. Free to enter — you only spend on food, drink and crafts. Go for dinner and stay for the music.
Two markets, one evening
If you only do one thing in the evening in Hua Hin, make it Cicada. It’s an open-air arts-and-crafts market set among trees and lawns, with handmade goods, local design and art stalls, food courts, and a stage with live music that gives the whole place a relaxed, festival-ish feel. Right next door, the Tamarind market runs alongside it and leans more heavily into street food, so the two flow into one another and you treat them as a single night out. It’s busiest Friday to Sunday, when the stalls are all open and the music is on.
The reason locals and repeat visitors steer you here is the contrast with the central Hua Hin night market, which is a cramped, hard-sell strip of tourist stalls and seafood touts. Cicada and Tamarind are roomier, greener and more pleasant to wander — somewhere you’d happily spend a couple of hours rather than push through and leave.
Practical notes
Entry is free; you spend only on what you eat and buy. Street-food plates run roughly £4–8 a head, so it doubles as a cheap, varied dinner — graze across a few stalls rather than committing to one. Come after dark when it cools down and fills up, and plan to stay long enough to catch a set on the music stage.
The one thing to nail down is timing. These are weekend-evening markets, not a daily fixture, and the days can shift in low season, so check current opening on the official site before you build your evening around them. They sit a short ride from the centre, so grab a taxi or songthaew out, eat, browse and roll back into town — an easy, low-cost highlight of a Hua Hin trip.
Planning the rest of your trip? See the Hua Hin city guide.
