Nong Nooch Tropical Garden Pattaya

Nong Nooch Gar­den near Pat­taya is the largest botan­i­cal gar­den in South­east Asia. The exten­sive gar­dens cov­er an area of ​​approx­i­mate­ly 600 acres, which was orig­i­nal­ly to be used as a plan­ta­tion for grow­ing local fruits. How­ev­er, they decid­ed to turn the area into a gar­den to pre­serve cer­tain vari­eties of plants and flow­ers, and lat­er opened up to tourists. Here you will find a huge vari­ety of plants and flow­ers in a per­fect­ly pre­served envi­ron­ment.

Themed gardens

Sev­er­al sec­tions of Nong Nooch have spe­cif­ic themes. The almost four-acre wide French gar­den was inspired by the gar­dens of the 17th-cen­tu­ry Palace of Ver­sailles. In the Ani­mal Gar­den you will find sculp­tures of camels, kan­ga­roos, lla­mas, leop­ards and deer. Stone­henge’s gar­den is mod­eled after a famous pre­his­toric mon­u­ment in Eng­land, and the gen­tle slope of But­ter­fly Hill is plant­ed with many vari­eties of col­or­ful, but­ter­fly-shaped flow­ers. Bon­sai Gar­den, Desert Rose Gar­den, Ital­ian Gar­den, Orchid Gar­den, Cycad Val­ley and Bromeli­ad Gar­den are just a few of the mag­nif­i­cent Nong Nooch themed gar­dens in Pat­taya.

Orchids, Palms and Cycad

Thai­land is known for its beau­ti­ful orchids. In Nong Nooch Gar­den, you can admire over 650 vari­eties with a huge vari­ety of flow­ers. The trop­i­cal gar­den also offers guests many palm trees. Cur­rent­ly, more than 1,100 palm vari­eties grow in its sec­tions, more than any­where else in the world. It also hous­es one of the largest col­lec­tions of cycad vari­eties in the world. Cycads grow main­ly in trop­i­cal envi­ron­ments and can live for a very long time, up to sev­er­al hun­dred years. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, many species of cycad are endan­gered.

Nong Nooch Gar­den part­ners with orga­ni­za­tions like the IUCN (Inter­na­tion­al Union for the Con­ser­va­tion of Nature) to research and build a diverse col­lec­tion of Cycads, espe­cial­ly the endan­gered species. The main goal of the reserve is to pre­serve these beau­ti­ful plants for future gen­er­a­tions.

Cacti, Heliconias and Gingers

The Trop­i­cal Gar­den fea­tures a col­lec­tion of cac­ti and suc­cu­lents that typ­i­cal­ly grow in dri­er desert con­di­tions. Although the Thai cli­mate is too humid for these plants, the spe­cial­ists of the reserve man­aged to grow them and cre­at­ed an ide­al envi­ron­ment. A huge col­lec­tion of hun­dreds of vari­eties of Heli­co­nia and Gin­ger­flow­ers is also present in the gar­dens. These beau­ti­ful plants that Thai­land is so famous for are known for their vibrant col­ors. Among the islands of Thai­land, Pat­taya is the most attrac­tive in this regard.

Fun at Nong Nooch Garden

Vis­i­tors can enjoy numer­ous activ­i­ties at Nong Nooch Gar­den. View an excit­ing pro­gram of Thai cul­tur­al tra­di­tion­al cer­e­monies, includ­ing a wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny, tra­di­tion­al Thai dances with dancers in ele­gant attire, and musi­cal per­for­mances. You can also watch demon­stra­tions of ancient sword fight­ing tech­niques, mar­tial arts and ele­phant-mount­ed sol­diers, just like in the era of the Ayut­thaya king­dom. These shows are held four times a day, name­ly at 10:30, 13:30, 15:30 and 16:30.

The gar­den tour takes you through over three kilo­me­ters of spe­cial ele­vat­ed walk­ways, offer­ing excel­lent views of the Euro­pean Gar­den, Trop­i­cal Palm Gar­den, But­ter­fly Hill and Stone­henge Gar­den. Alter­na­tive­ly, you can book a 30-minute sight­see­ing tour by bus, or rent a bike.

There are sev­er­al restau­rants and a food court with­in Nong Nooch Gar­dens serv­ing Thai, West­ern, Indi­an and seafood dish­es. There are also sev­er­al dif­fer­ent types of accom­mo­da­tion avail­able where you can stay overnight.

How to get to Nong Nooch Garden

Nong Nooch Gar­den is locat­ed almost 20 kilo­me­ters south of Pat­taya City. You can take a spe­cial bus that goes here. The bus is a con­vert­ed pick­up truck with a min­i­mum of ameni­ties and no air con­di­tion­ing. The price depends on your nego­ti­at­ing skills. Take a taxi if you pre­fer a more com­fort­able ride. But before you go, nego­ti­ate with the taxi dri­ver about the price.

Opening hours and ticket prices

Nong Nooch Trop­i­cal Gar­den is open from 8 am to 6 pm sev­en days a week. The tick­et price for an adult is 500 baht, for chil­dren — 300 baht.