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Cicada Market, Hua Hin - Things to Do at Cicada Market

Things to Do at Cicada Market

Complete Guide to Cicada Market in Hua Hin

About Cicada Market

Cicada Market sits a few minutes south of Hua Hin's main beach strip. On Friday and Saturday nights, a stretch of pine-shaded ground turns into something closer to an open-air gallery than a typical Thai night market. String lights drape between the trees. The air carries charcoal smoke from satay grills mixed with jasmine and the faint salt tang drifting in off the Gulf. Acoustic guitar drifts from the amphitheatre stage from almost the moment you walk in. The crowd skews young. Design-conscious Bangkok weekenders mix with expat families, and the pace stays unhurried in a way that feels deliberate. What sets Cicada apart from the usual Thai night-market formula is the curation. Stalls lean toward handmade ceramics, screen-printed linen, leather goods stitched on-site, and original artwork rather than the mass-produced elephant pants and phone cases you'd find at the Hua Hin Night Market in town. The food zone, called Cicada Cuisine, sits around a central courtyard with communal wooden tables. The smells hit in waves. Grilled squid, wood-fired pizza, Thai herbs pounded into som tam. Live music shifts through the evening, sometimes a solo singer, sometimes a small jazz combo, occasionally a Thai indie band that pulls a real crowd to the lawn out front. Locals treat this as a weekly social outing, which gives the place a different energy than markets pitched purely at tourists. You'll see Hua Hin residents arriving early to claim courtyard tables, art students browsing the galleries, and the same vendors recognising regulars by name. Yes, it's touristy. But touristy for good reason.

What to See & Do

Cicada Art Factory

A covered gallery space sits near the main entrance, where local Thai artists display original paintings, sculpture, and ceramics. Lighting stays warm. The polished concrete floor amplifies the quiet, gallery-like hush, a striking contrast to the music a hundred metres away. Most pieces are for sale. Prices tend to be reasonable for original work.

Cicada Cuisine Food Court

The heart of the market for most visitors is a square of wooden tables ringed by maybe forty open-kitchen stalls. Expect the sizzle of pad thai woks, charcoal-grilled prawns split open and brushed with butter, wood-fired sourdough pizzas, mango sticky rice mounded onto banana leaves, and craft beer poured from a little timber bar in the corner. Communal seating means you'll likely share a table. Half the point.

The Amphitheatre Stage

An open-air semi-circle of tiered seating faces a small wooden stage. Live performances rotate through the night: singer-songwriters, jazz trios, and the occasional theatre piece in Thai. The acoustics are surprisingly good. The space is exposed. But you can hear the music clearly from most of the food courtyard.

Handmade Craft Stalls

Pine-shaded lanes between the main buildings are lined with stalls selling leather wallets stitched while you wait, hand-thrown stoneware mugs, screen-printed tote bags, beeswax candles, and silver jewellery. Vendors work in front of you. That makes the whole zone feel more like an artisan fair than a shopping arcade.

Cicada Market Lawn

Open grassy area near the entrance. Families spread out picnic-style. Kids run barefoot before the music starts. This is where the bigger weekend bands set up. Worth a few minutes even if you're not eating, a good place to gauge the night's energy before you commit to a table.

Practical Information

Opening Hours

Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings only, typically from around 4pm until 11pm. Stalls open in stages. Craft vendors usually set up first, food gets going from about 5pm, and live music tends to peak between 7pm and 9pm. Closed Monday through Thursday. That catches a lot of first-time visitors out.

Tickets & Pricing

Entry is free, worth flagging because there's no ticket booth or gate. You walk straight in. Budget mid-range for a sit-down meal with a drink. Food stalls are slightly more expensive than Hua Hin's roadside markets but cheaper than the beachfront restaurants. Craft prices vary widely. Smaller ceramics and prints sit in the affordable-souvenir bracket, with larger artworks running into a splurge.

Best Time to Visit

Saturday is the headline night: fullest stalls, best music line-up, biggest crowd. Friday is noticeably quieter. Some prefer that because you can browse the art without elbowing through. Sunday brings a softer crowd. It's the wind-down evening. Arrive by 5:30pm for a courtyard table without circling. The food court is shoulder-to-shoulder by 7pm. Avoid the first hour after heavy rain. The pine-needle paths get slippery and several outdoor stalls pack up.

Suggested Duration

Two to three hours hits the sweet spot. Enough to browse the craft lanes, eat dinner properly, and catch at least one music set. Die-hard art browsers and slow eaters easily stretch it to four. Passing through for food? An hour is workable, but you'll miss the rhythm of the place.

Getting There

Cicada Market sits at the southern end of Hua Hin, on Khao Takiab Road, roughly ten minutes by car from the central beach area. A metered taxi or Grab from downtown Hua Hin is easiest, costing budget-friendly money each way. Ask the driver to wait. Or book a return Grab. Taxis are scarcer this far south after 9pm. The green songthaews that run the Hua Hin to Khao Takiab route pass within a short walk and are the cheapest way in. They thin out in the evening. Free parking is on-site for anyone driving or arriving by scooter. The lot fills by 6:30pm on Saturdays. Get there early if you want a spot near the entrance.

Things to Do Nearby

Khao Takiab (Monkey Mountain)
A small temple-topped headland sits about five minutes further down the road. Cheeky macaques own the staircase. Pair it with Cicada. Arrive in late afternoon, climb for sunset views over the Gulf, then head to the market as the lights come on.
Khao Takiab Beach
Quieter than Hua Hin's main strip. Horse riders pass along the sand. A row of low-key seafood shacks lines the way. A nice pre-market wander if you want to wash the day off before dinner.
Tamarind Market
A smaller weekend market is a few minutes' drive away. It leans more toward food and bar stalls than crafts. Some visitors do both on the same Saturday. Tamarind first for a drink. Then Cicada for dinner and music.
Hua Hin Night Market (Chatchai)
The classic downtown night market: busier, brasher, and far more tourist-tat heavy. Worth seeing once for contrast. It's everything Cicada is deliberately not.
Plearn Wan Vintage Village
A retro-styled open-air complex midway between downtown and Cicada, designed to look like 1950s Thailand. Best in late afternoon. Go before the market opens. Ideal if you're travelling with kids or anyone who likes a photo opportunity.

Tips & Advice

Cash is still king at most stalls. Bring some. A handful of the bigger food vendors take QR-code Thai bank transfers. But craft sellers almost always want cash. No ATM inside the market grounds.
If you're coming specifically for the food (and the search data suggests a lot of people are), do one full lap of Cicada Cuisine before committing. Portions are smaller than typical Thai mains. That's good news. The trick is to share four or five dishes across a table rather than ordering one each.
Mosquito repellent is worth slipping into your bag. The pine-shaded courtyard looks idyllic. But the bugs come out hard around dusk, mostly in the rainy months from June through October.
Skip the market entirely if you're in Hua Hin Monday to Thursday. It's flat-out closed. A surprising number of guidebooks still don't make that clear.
Buy art early in the evening if something catches your eye. Vendors don't restock. The most distinctive ceramics and prints tend to sell by 8pm on Saturdays.
The amphitheatre fills up fast once a popular act starts. Want a seat? Drift over about fifteen minutes before the hour rather than waiting for the music to pull you in.

Tours & Activities at Cicada Market

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