9 Best Places to Go Shopping in Samui

Central Festival Samui describes itself as 'the most complete and largest lifestyle shopping complex in Samui’; with 3 storeys and around 90,000 sqm of retail space, there couldn't be a better description for this huge shopping and dining mall. It's located between Chaweng's Beach Road and the nearby lake.

Central Festival Samui has brought Chaweng Beach well and truly into the 21st century, offering over 200 shops, bars, restaurants and recreational activities to the ever-growing number of visitors to this favourite Koh Samui destination. If you're looking for something in particular while in Samui, this is your best bet. 

Lamai Walking Street (aka Lamai Jai Dee Walking Street, meaning Lamai Kind-Hearted Walking Street) is held every Sunday on Lamai Beach Road in between the fresh market and the bridge in the northeastern part of the town. For this occasion, the road is closed off to traffic and is full of stalls selling clothes, handicrafts and local street food.

The items for sale at Lamai Walking Street are affordable, which makes this shopping spot a good place to pick up souvenirs and little presents to bring back home for friends and family. But as in most southern Thai walking streets, the real highlight is the outstanding choices of delicious food to be sampled here, from grilled corn to pad thai to kebabs to pizza to barbecued seafood to cocktails and more. 

Fisherman’s Village Walking Street brings the quiet, sleepy town of Bophut to life every Friday from 5 pm to 11 pm. It sees the narrow Beach Road and adjoining streets crammed with market stalls and shoppers from across Koh Samui, with a diverse range of wares available at very low prices.

Many of the stalls at the Fisherman’s Village walking street sell much of the same items as you’d find in markets throughout Thailand, including 100-baht T-shirts, simple jewellery, handbags, sunglasses, beer cosies, souvenirs, watches of questionable mechanical soundness, and cheap electrical goods. As with all market shopping in Thailand, a certain amount of judgement and measured expectations is necessary when selecting your purchases.

Chaweng Beach Road is lined on both sides with stalls and boutiques that are stocked with beachwear, sportswear, imported leisurewear, and cheap-and-cheerful holiday gear. 

The northern end of Chaweng Beach Road, close to Central Festival shopping mall has plenty of independent shops for fashion and beachwear, while the central section of the 3-km road has a group of souvenir and craft shops where you're likely to find some interesting keepsakes to take home. Simply stroll along the main beach road and take in the bustling scenes that constitute shopping in Chaweng.

Lamai night market is a fun place to go shopping in Samui, with plenty of typically souvenirs like T-shirts, carved ornaments, and cheap jewellery. There are also a lot of branded goods of questionable authenticity, which are best avoided.

In the centre of town, diagonally opposite McDonald's and leading to a square surrounded by beer bars, you'll find a night market that has a lot of similarities with Bangkok's Patpong but on a smaller scale.

At Chaweng Walking Street Market, you can sip on a cocktail while out shopping, both for very little money, too. This riot colours, sounds and scents towards the southern end of Samui's most popular resort town combines a food court with market stalls, creating a vibrant night market atmosphere.

This 130-metre-long street is a place where you can haggle for items such as T-shirts, sunglasses, jewellery, beach dresses, lamps, flip-flops, bags of all shapes and sizes, carved wooden souvenirs, kids clothing and cosmetics, among other things.

Meanam Walking Street is only a couple of hundred metres long but it’s packed with interesting stalls, snack vendors and even mobile cocktail bars. The items on offer are a fairly typical mix of colourful T-shirts, fisherman pants, wooden crafts, and Thai-looking homeware.

This is a lovely but rather noisy family experience and the only difficult thing about visiting Mae Nam walking street on Thursday evenings when the market takes place is finding a place to park nearby. Things get going here around sunset but it's busiest from 7 pm until around 10 pm. 

The Wharf Samui is a stylish cross between a shopping mall and a marketplace. A 5,000 sqm open-air space with around 120 units in a mix of eastern and western historical architectural styles, it blends smoothly with the existing attractions of Fisherman’s Village, adding an impressive selection of good-quality products and services to the already excellent shopping in Bophut.

The Wharf stretches all the way from Beach Road to the main Koh Samui ring road (Route 4169), with most of that space serving as an expansive car park. The plaza-like shopping area borders on the beachfront with a selection of restaurants.

Samui Hot Club is an independent fashion brand that has 3 separate branches in different areas of Samui. Each branch has row after row of colourful sarongs, T-shirts, beachwear and more, all billowing under extra-strong ceiling and floor fans. It's worth noting that Samui Hot Club has strict purchasing rules: customers are not allowed to try items on and, once purchased, the shop will not refund or exchange them.