Nong Nooch Botanical Garden: themed gardens covering an area of more than 2 square km, as well as shows and elephant riding and other exhibitions

Table of contents

1. Features of Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

2. How much are tickets to Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

3. How to get to Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

4. Nong Nooch Botanical Garden Map

5. Sightseeing bus at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

6. Show schedule at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

7. Sky Walk at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

8. Where to eat at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

9. Elephant ride at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

10. Nong Nooch Botanical Garden is constantly changing!

11. Is Nong Nooch Botanical Garden worth visiting?

This is the first part, which contains general information about Nong Nooch Botanical Garden, but does not provide an overview of the gardens. The second part will be dedicated exclusively to the Nong Nooch Botanical Gardens – they are amazing!

Features of Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

Nong Nooch Botanical Garden is a huge area with beautiful gardens on different themes. Most of the territory is open air, but there are also indoor greenhouses and an elevated road with various compositions.

Nong Nooch Botanical Garden is very big. VERY! For the whole day we were not able to explore the entire garden, our phones were dead and I began to feel dizzy at the end of this long day. At the same time, Nong Nooch Botanical Garden is very diverse. Each garden is a world different from others. And you manage to immerse yourself in each of these separate worlds, because they are huge, but at the same time executed delicately, with attention to detail.

In addition to plants, there is an elephant show and a national Thai theater.

In recent years, many statues have appeared in the park. In addition to animals, there is a whole avenue of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are made in full height…

Overall, this is an amazing place. Perhaps I would classify it as one of those places that you definitely need to visit in Thailand.

This place will impress you! Nong Nooch Botanical Garden will just blow your mind.

How much are tickets to Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

The price for foreigners is as follows:

Gardens only:

• Adult – 500 baht
• Child – 400 baht

For Thais, the price for an adult ticket is 300 baht. There is a promotion – 4 people pay as 2 people.

A ticket that includes a visit to the gardens, as well as a show of national Thai culture and an elephant show (called Beautiful garden + Nongnooch show and elephants show) for foreigners costs:

• Adult – 800 baht
• Child – 650 baht

If you are interested in food, then “Buffet lunch (Thai food), weekend and holiday only” costs:

• Adult (foreigner) – 500 baht
• Child (foreigner) – 400 baht
• Adult (Thai) – 350 baht
• Child (Thai) – 300 baht

How to get to Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

Nong Nooch Botanical Garden is inconvenient to visit by public transport. That is, theoretically, you can drive a white tuk-tuk to the turn from Sukhumvit road to Nong Nooch Botanical Garden. But the garden is still about 2.5 km from this place.

If you do not drive, you can use taxis or package tours that include delivery to Nong Nooch Botanical Garden.

For my first time (it was about 10 years ago and I had not yet driven any vehicle in Thailand), I came here by taxi, and we agreed with the driver that he would wait for us and take us back.

If you drive any vehicle, then getting to Nong Nooch Botanical Garden is very convenient. From Pattaya it is only 20 km to here. It is comfortable to travel both by car and by motorcycle.

Parking here is huge and free!

Nong Nooch Botanical Garden coordinates: go to map

Nong Nooch Botanical Garden Map

You will come across stands with a map and a “You are here” mark.

There you will also see a QR code, by scanning which you can download the map to your phone.

The latest maps of Nong Nooch Botanical Garden are posted approximately once a year on the official website: http://nicepattaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/27.MAP-2023-P27-copy.jpg

Sightseeing bus at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

A bus around the park for sightseeing (Sightseeing bus) costs:

• Adult (foreigner) – 200 baht
• Child (foreigner) – 150 baht
• Adult (Thai) – 150 baht
• Child (Thai) – 100 baht

Tickets for this bus are sold at the entrance, that is, in the same place as the entrance tickets.

This bus picks up at Butterfly Hill.

Please note that there are several buses with different routes. You can find a cheaper bus inside the park. For example, next to the Suspension Bridge there is a cafeteria and a bus stop there. The cost of the “Round trip on sightseeing bus” is:

• Foreigners – 80 baht
• Thais – 50 baht

If I understand correctly, this is a shorter route.

I rode this bus – it really exists.

According to the map, there should be another bus in the area of Cactus Garden 2 and Cactus Terrace. I passed there – at the time of my visit I did not see any buses there. But you can check if something has changed.

As I said, I rode the shorter route (from Suspension Bridge). But even a longer route (judging by the map) does not imply covering every garden – that is, it is a quick sightseeing drive along the widest road. Nevertheless, it’s worth taking this bus for at least two reasons:

First, the bus enters the nurseries:

• Fern Nursery
• Indoor Plant Nursery
• Annual Flower Nursery
• Hortus Botanicus

The entrance to the nurseries is not closed and, theoretically, you can walk there. But the nurseries are huge (about the size of all the other gardens combined) and there are not many foot visitors there. Therefore, the best option is to take a bus there so as not to waste too much effort and time.

Secondly, the bus is a respite from walking. That is, this is a way to relax with benefit.

The bus passes along Dinosaur Avenue (the tallest dinosaurs are located here) – this also creates an interesting impression.

Dinosaurs at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden (Sightseeing bus ride):

Nurseries at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden (Sightseeing bus ride):

Bonsai Garden and Agave Collection at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden (Sightseeing bus ride):

Show schedule at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

To attend the show, you can buy a combined ticket that includes admission to the gardens and the show. It may be possible to buy individual tickets for the show – I haven't checked.

Elephant show and Thai cultural show take place three times a day, at the following times:

• 10.30 (ends at 11.30)
• 13.13 (ends at 14.30)
• 15.00 (ends at 16.00)

As you can see, the show lasts one hour.

The show takes place in places marked on the map as Elephant Theater and Scala Theater. These theaters are located near the main entrance and ticket offices.

Sky Walk at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

In addition to all the wonders of Nong Nooch Botanical Garden, there is also an elevated road. It is quite extensive and offers a different viewing angle.

The Sky Walk is shown in pink on the map. As you can see, the path is very long and even branched in places.

My original idea – to quickly walk along the Sky Walk as a sightseeing tour, and then descend and return to the places we liked the most – failed miserably. Firstly, you won’t be able to complete the Sky Walk quickly – the path is too long and forked. Secondly, it’s very beautiful everywhere there and it’s difficult to stop taking pictures everywhere.

In general, we alternated our walk through Nong Nooch Botanical Garden with a ground and Sky Walk route.

Some scenery is aimed specifically at the elevated route. For example, huge beetles.

Or the spaces between gardens with numerous animal statues – you can’t get there by land.

Where to eat at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

Nong Nooch Botanical Garden has several restaurants, most of which are located near the main entrance – see map.

There is a nice cafeteria next to the Suspension Bridge. There you can buy coffee, desserts and other snacks.

And you will find another similar cafeteria next to Cactus Terrace. In both of these places you can have a light meal and relax in an air-conditioned area.

Some restaurants may be closed during weekday afternoons. We encountered this when we couldn’t find a single place to eat properly.

Elephant ride at Nong Nooch Botanical Garden

You can buy an elephant ride. To do this, go to the place marked Riding Elephant on the map (located near the main entrance, behind Car Museum 1).

The elephant ride goes to Bonsai Garden.

Nong Nooch Botanical Garden is constantly changing!

Nong Nooch Botanical Garden 10 years ago and Nong Nooch Botanical Garden are two different places.

The park has not only grown in terms of area, many of the gardens have become more saturated. Both the density of plants has increased, and new animal figures and decorative elements have appeared.

Overall the gardens have become more beautiful and much more spectacular.

This is the cactus garden as it looked 10 years ago:

You will see what cactus gardens look like now in the next part. In short, the difference is colossal.

And this is what the French garden looked like 10 years ago.

It is quite possible that during your visit to Nong Nooch Botanical Garden something will change again.

Is Nong Nooch Botanical Garden worth visiting?

Of all the paid places in Thailand, Nong Nooch Botanical Garden is completely worth the money spent on the ticket – down to the last baht.

This is an adventure for at least a full day.

If you set a goal to visit all the gardens, as well as watch a show and ride an elephant, and also look into the nurseries, then it is unlikely that anyone can do it in one day.

I definitely recommend Nong Nooch Botanical Garden to visit. Especially with children – this place will remain in their memory forever.

An overview of the gardens is given in the next part.

Continue reading: The most interesting places of Nong Nooch Botanical Garden