Nong Nooch Tropical Garden in Pattaya, the Jurassic Park of Thailand
Welcome to Jurassic Park Thailand! Wait I thought this was a flower garden?
Awarded as the 4th most beautiful garden in the entire world, Nong Nooch Tropical Garden Pattaya is a massive floral garden covering a whopping 1,700 rai, or 670 acres of land. While it’s officially known as a garden, Nong Nooch is more like Thailand’s version of Jurassic Park.
The Nong Nooch Tropical Garden is densely littered with all sorts of themed gardens, entertainment avenues, cafes and restaurants, and statues of so many different creatures to bear witness to. There is just so much to explore, you might become disoriented or miss out on notable attractions if you don’t have a guide to point you in the right direction.
Not to worry, I got lost in Nong Nooch for you, so join me in this comprehensive guide to having the ultimate day trip to Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens in Pattaya!
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4th Most Beautiful Garden in the World!
There are perhaps well over 2 dozen themed gardens to explore at Nong Nooch
A quick little history lesson.
Established in 1954 by Mr. Pisit Tansacha and Mrs. Nongnooch Tansacha, the 670+ acres of land was meant to be a fruit plantation, however the owners changed their minds and decided to populate the area with tropical flowers and turn the property into a wildlife conservation project.
The Nong Nooch Tropical Garden was officially opened to the public in 1980, and has since become a popular tourist attraction within Thailand and the Chonburi province, even going on to win many international awards and to be crowned as the 4th most beautiful garden in the world.
Fun fact, Nong Nooch also houses a Cycad gene bank, as the garden is also a major scientific center for South East Asian Cycad species.
How to Get to Nong Nooch Tropical Garden
Nong Nooch is not far from Pattaya City, perfect for a day trip!
Unfortunately there aren’t any cheap options to travel directly to Nong Nooch Tropical Garden from either Bangkok or Pattaya. Since Nong Nooch Tropical Garden is an attraction and not a provincial hub, these routes are operated by mainly private taxi companies. I took my own personal car there.
The journey from Bangkok to Nong Nooch is 170km and will take approximately 2.5 hours.
From Pattaya to Nong Nooch, it’s about 25km and will take approximately 30 minutes.
Personal Car - Can be tiring, but you can drive leisurely at your own pace and stop at various destinations along the way. You can rent a car here for a fair price.
Taxi/Bus/Van - Expensive, however also very comfortable and trustworthy as the service is operated by private companies.
If choosing to take the private transport services, the price from Bangkok to Nong Nooch Tropical Garden can range from 1700 THB to 2600 THB depending on whether you are choosing a taxi or van etc… If you are riding from Pattaya to Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, expect to pay around 900 THB.
Another way to travel to Nong Nooch Tropical Garden is by purchasing a packaged tour that includes a pickup and transport service directly from your hotel in Pattaya. I will explain more about these tours in the ticket prices section below.
You can book a taxi/bus/van service using the widget below or by clicking the links above. Just select your starting location (Bangkok, Pattaya, etc…).
A word of warning though, if you take a personal car, be ready for the awful parking situation. The parking area is a giant uncovered plot of land, that’s right, your car will turn into an oven in the 40°C Thai heat, and it could easily take you 10 minutes to walk from your car to the entrance of Nong Nooch Garden.
Nong Nooch Tickets Prices and Tours
That aunty must’ve felt at peace walking through this gardens
Nong Nooch Tropical Garden sells their ticket as packages which includes an assortment of other activities and quality of life features in addition to access to the gardens themselves.
A word of warning though, since Nong Nooch Tropical Garden is a major tourist attraction in the area, foreigners will unfortunately be subjected to the “Foreigner Tax” where ticket prices for foreigners are exorbitantly higher than the ticket prices for locals…
It’s the reality we have to live with when traveling in Thailand, although I am Thai myself (well, half Thai), I am completely against this form of subtle discrimination.
Nong Nooch Tropical Garden Tickets and Packages
Walk- in Package and Admission prices for foreigners are as followed, if you are a local Thai, then expect to pay about 300 THB less:
Package 1 - Admission Only
Adult - 600 THB | Child - 400 THB
Package 2 - Admission + Sightseeing Bus (Recommended)
Pre-book a ticket here at a discounted and fair price (400 THB from 700THB)!
Adult - 700 THB | Child - 600 THB
Package 3 - Admission + Show
Adult - 800 THB | Child - 650 THB
Package 4 - Admission + Buffet Lunch
Adult - 800 THB | Child - 650 THB
Package 5 - Admission + Sightseeing Bus + Buffet Lunch
Adult - 1000 THB | Child - 750 THB
Package 6 - Admission + Sightseeing Bus + Show
Adult - 1000 THB | Child - 750 THB
Package 7 - Admission + Show + Buffet Lunch
Adult - 1200 THB | Child - 1000 THB
Package 8 - Admission + Sightseeing Bus + Show + Buffet Lunch (Complete Package)
Adult - 1400 THB | Child - 1150 THB
Children are classified as being between 90 - 130cm in height. Children under 90cm can enter for free.
Buffet Lunches are Thai or Indian food and are only served on weekends and public holidays between 11:30AM - 2:30PM.
I would highly recommend you pre-purchase a ticket here, not only is it a fair-er price (you’ll pay the same as the locals), but it is also at a discounted price, once purchased you can redeem the ticket for no additional costs at the entrance building to Nong Nooch Garden.
Nong Nooch Tropical Garden Tours
As for Tours, there are some tours that operate out of Pattaya City. One such tour is a day trip that takes you to Koh Larn an Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, as mentioned earlier these tours also include a pickup and transport service directly from your Pattaya Hotel.
The tour includes tickets to front row seats for the Nong Nooch Theater Shows, and activities such as parasailing, banana boat rides, and jet skiing on the Koh Larn Island Paradise.
If you are interested in the tour, you can book the Koh Larn and Nong Nooch Garden Tour here for a great price. You can search for other similar tours via the widget below, however I wasn’t able to find a tour solely for Nong Nooch, so a tour might not be the best option if you just want to visit this garden.
Nong Nooch Theater and Elephant Shows
Live performances beats modern cinemas any day of the week, especially if it’s a traditional Thai performance
Nong Nooch Theater is a separate building within the Nong Nooch Garden complex. There are 2 shows available to watch at Nong Nooch, The theater hosts traditional Thai shows, while the Elephant shows are performed at another location.
While I was there I didn’t have the opportunity to watch the traditional Thai shows, but I did have a glimpse at the Elephant shows. Note that if you didn’t buy the package that includes the shows, you’ll need to pay extra for the show’s admission fees.
Traditional Thai Shows
The Traditional shows, shows traditional (obviously) contemporary and cultural Thai performances such as, elegant dances, aggressive martial arts, and dramatic costume performances.
The shows are hosted 6 times a day, every day. Be sure to double check what times are the performances so you don’t miss them!
Elephant Shows
The Elephant shows displays the skills and abilities of these majestic creatures, from painting, playing football, basketball, bowling, and so much more…
In addition to these shows, you can also feed bananas to elephants and take photos with them up close.
Elephant shows are hosted only 2 times a day, everyday. So be sure to triple check, when the show times are.
Show Elephants are known to walk a fine ethical line, I cannot attest to how these beautiful creatures are treated, so make that decision yourself about if you want to interact with these shows.
Nong Nooch Pattaya Garden & Resort
You could stay at the Nong Nooch Resorts and not even visit the gardens and still hav a great time
Despite the name, Nong Nooch Pattaya Garden and Resort, is not just a single resort, but 4 resorts. All having different themes, attractions, and facilities, but all located within the Nong Nooch Garden complex.
I didn’t stay at the resorts so I can’t say anything about their quality, but judging by their website and pictures it looks pretty good and well maintained with lots of fun activities and things to do.
The 4 resorts are:
Nong Nooch Resort - Modern-style residence with private balconies
Lakeside Villas - Modern-style residence with views of the flower gardens
Garden Villas - Resort-style residence with plenty of activities
Rimnam Villas - Peaceful and quiet waterside residence, good for groups of travellers
You can read more about the Nong Nooch Resorts and book rooms at their website here.
Exploring Nong Nooch Tropical Garden
This place is huge, take your time and explore like there is no tomorrow
Alright, we got the important information out of the way, if you want a quick summary of the important details you can scroll down to the end of this article.
Now, lets get to actually exploring Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens!
The Nong Nooch Tropical Garden is divided into multiple gardens, I didn’t get the chance to visit them all as there was just soooo much to see and do in a single day, however, I will be showing you some of the more grander and elaborate gardens.
If you want a list of the gardens and “valleys” you can find in Nong Nooch here they are (the bold ones are the ones I will be talking about):
French Gardens
Stonehenge Garden
Pottery Garden
Cactus & Succulent Garden
Variegated Plants
Rock Valley
Ant Tower
Butterfly Hill
Orchid & Bromeliad Display Garden
Flower Valley
Bonsai Garden
Dinosaur Valley
I’m probably missing a few but that’s sort of the gist.
Entrance Area
Friendly Elephants roam freely, don’t be scared!
Once you go pass the ticket gate, you’ll be in the entrance area, yeah obviously, but the thing is, if you told me that this is entire Nong Nooch Garden, I wouldn’t bat an eye, that’s because the entrance is massive and is home to a bunch of smaller gardens, museums, restaurants, theaters, etc…
This is where you’ll be boarding your sightseeing bus if you purchase. package that includes it.
Note on the sightseeing bus, The bus only stops at 2 locations:
In the resort area, where the pottery garden is located
right in the far end/middle of the Nong Nooch Garden, in the Dinosaur Valley and French Garden.
Dek Baan Nawk
It was awkward meeting a celebrity, alright
A little interlude, throughout Nong Nooch, you’ll find these chubby gecko men dressed up as various pop culture characters and designs.
They are lovingly named “Dek Baan Nawk” which translates to “countryside/rural kid”. I might be totally wrong as it could be a slang or a phrase that I am unfamiliar with, but essentially these guys are sort of the like the mascot of Nong Nooch Garden.
throughout my adventures, I have found all sorts of variations of Dek Baan Nawks like: Joker, Kill Bill, Slipknot, Evis, IT, Queen, etc…
There are probably hundreds of these guys scattered throughout the gardens, see what sort of funky Dek Baan Nawks you can find.
Butterfly Hill
I wonder if someone ever proposed to their partners at Nong Nooch
The Butterfly Hill is located on the left side of the entrance when you come in, It’s an ornamental garden that is decorated with various types of colorful flora arranged in a shape of a butterfly wing.
The atmosphere is quite romantic as well, with giant heart shaped garlands (is it even called a garland?), sprinkled all over the hill.
The Butterfly Hill is also decorated with an assortment of animal sculptures, probably enough to fit Noah’s Ark.
While Butterfly Hill is pretty big it can’t compare to some of the other gardens we’ll be visiting down below.
Pottery Garden
How is that pottery pillar even physically possible?
The Pottery Gardens is truly a unique concept, I have never seen or heard of something like this before.
The garden is laid out in such a way that it feels like you are trekking through a jungle. I found it a bit random that there are sculptures of dinosaurs here, in fact there are a lot of dinosaurs in Nong Nooch.
The garden is enclosed in it’s own space, that gives you the illusion that you are lost in a an ancient Aztec jungle or something like that.
Beautiful vegetation and towering trees aside, the main highlights here are of course the clay statues and sculptures.
Mount Rushmore: Pottery Edition
Some of the sculptures take the “Pottery” concept way too seriously, yes there are statues and sculptures made from literal clay pots, among them you’ll find a jeep and a boat, all of these are made from interconnected clay pots.
Wild.
I didn’t post their pictures, I want you to see them for yourself :)
Rock Canyon
These rock pillars are structurally sound, they won’t fall over… Probably
The Rock Canyons are essentially that, a canyon made out of rocks stacked on top of each other. it might not sound or look special but the atmosphere and environment is totally different once you are walking in the middle of it.
It feels like a budget Grand Canyon, which isn’t a bad thing.
Surrounded by towering Cycad trees, if you are lucky enough to be there when there aren’t many people then it honestly feels like you are in an ancient Mayan ruin.
From this angle, it doesn’t even feel like you are in a public garden attraction
Also I like to point out that right next to this Rock Canyon is an indoor Bellinee’s coffee shop, which is very much appreciated as the sweltering heat you’ll experience while walking through this open air “Budget Grand Canyon” is anything but budget…
I use the phrase “Budget Grand Canyon” lovingly by the way. The rock canyon is probably my favorite part of Nong Nooch because it is so out of place and a completely different vibe to the tropical flora theme of the rest of Nong Nooch Garden.
Nong Nooch French Gardens
Witness the migration of the brachiosaurus
Nong Nooch features not 1, but 2 French Gardens, although both of these kind of blend together to form one mega French Garden.
The garden is huuuuuuge. It’s more of a valley than a garden, adding to that, the garden is surrounded by rock cliffs and stupas to prevent the valley from collapsing on itself. The visuals look very surreal if you are looking up from within the valley.
I’m running out of caption ideas guys
I looked at some pictures form the past and it seems that the French Garden was once populated with all sorts of vibrant plants and vegetation, nowadays it’s just green.
This could be seasonal however, I visited during the rainy season, the weather was very hot, humid, and wet, I don’t know anything about growing flowers, but I assume that at this time of the year, growing them would be hard.
I don’t know if these sculptures are size accurate, but these guys are awe inspiring in their size
What the Nong Nooch French Gardens lack in flowers, it more than makes up for it in large dinosaur sculptures. There are so many dinosaurs…
I swear they could just rename Nong Nooch Garden to “Jurassic Park Thailand” and I think everyone would be totally be ok with that.
Nong Nooch really feels like you’ve discovered a long forgotten land
This section of the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden has a skywalk that you can use to traverse from one garden to another.
This is the most comfortable way to explore the gardens as the skywalk has roofing, meaning you won’t be attacked by the sun’s rays.
Although it can be confusing to find your way around, there are signs but they don’t really help much as everything is just labeled like “Cactus Garden 1/2/3”.
Nong Nooch Dinosaur Valley
Take care of your children, they could get eaten, I know my childhood self would’ve freak the f*** out
The Dinosaur Valley is technically it’s own separate section of the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, but in actuality, I would say the entirety of Nong Nooch IS the Dinosaur Valley. It’s just that this one particular area has a higher concentration of Dinosaur sculptures.
If dinosaurs were till around, do you think we would breed the smaller ones to keep as pets?
The whole valley is designed like an exhibit, with winding roads leading to different environments showcasing their respective dinosaur inhabitants.
Walking around and looking at all the different Dinosaurs was really cool, I’ve discovered some species that I’ve never even heard of before.
The sightseeing busses pass through this area and I can’t help but wonder why they won’t do a sort of night safari tour through the Dinosaur Valley, that’d be awesome.
The bajadasaurus pronuspinax, an absolute chad rocking that sweet mohwak
These beasts aren’t docile either, well technically they are cause they’re just sculptures, but I mean these guys make sounds.
Yeah, some of these gigantic lizards growl and roar at you as you walk past them. Come on Nong Nooch, this is the perfect setup for a night safari tour!
I think this Kronosaurus is a bit lost, the ocean is that way buddy
One thing to complain about though, is that the Dinosaur Valley is big and you will be doing a lot of walking to reach every corner of the valley.
With the scorching heat of the Thai summer, this excursion is anything but pleasant, so be sure to bring plenty of water and a fan to cool yourself.
And if you didn’t purchase the admission package with the included sightseeing bus, you’ve made a huge mistake.
This one just looks goofy. They all kinda look goofy to be honest
The Dinosaur Valley blends into the French Gardens, to get a scenic view of the gardens like in my pictures above you’d have to walk up a mountain.
And let me say, that I felt like Indiana Jones trekking through a forgotten world.
Details About Nong Nooch Tropical Garden
In Thai culture, managing to crawl or walk under an Elephant is considered good luck
Nong Nooch Tropical Garden Pattaya is a large 600+ acre garden that is awarded the title of the 4th most beautiful garden in the world. The garden is home to many vibrant and exotic species of flora, as well as thousands of statues and decorative items that bring the gardens to life.
Location: 34 Na Chom Thian, Sattahip District, Chon Buri 20250
Opening Hours: 8:00AM - 6:00PM | Mon - Sun
Phone: 081 919 2153
How to get to Nong Nooch Tropical Garden
Bangkok to Nong Nooch, 170km and 2.5 hours.
Pattaya to Nong Nooch, 25km and 30 minutes.
Personal Car - driving a your (or a rented) personal vehicle
Transport Service - using a Taxi/Bus/Van transportation service.
Accommodations Around Nong Nooch Tropical Garden Pattaya
The main accommodation that will most likely peak your interest is the Nong Nooch Resorts that is part of the Nong Nooch Garden Complex. You can click the link to check out more details and to book a room.
Other than that, if you are intending to spend some time in Pattaya, I recommend you look for accommodations in Pattaya City instead, as Nong Nooch can be enjoyed in a single day trip and doesn’t warrant an overnight stay.
You can use the handy dandy widget below to search for accommodations in the area.
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