Thailand · Changwat Songkhla
Where to Stay in Hat Yai, Changwat Songkhla
Hat Yai is a city of southern Thailand near the Malaysian border, the great commercial hub of the south, a town of markets and food below a hill of golden shrines.
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Where to stay in Hat Yai
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Hat Yai turns on the town or the hill. The centre keeps the markets, the food streets, and the malls within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the shopping. The hill rises to the west.
Crowds fill the night market. Out toward the park and the lake, the town gives way to the hilltop shrines, the floating market, and the road to Songkhla. A room out of the centre trades the streets for the green hills, the calm lake, and the golden shrines above the town.
The lake runs to the sea. Stay downtown for the markets, or out for the park. The busy markets and the golden shrines hold the southern city.
About Hat Yai
Hat Yai is the market city of southern Thailand.
What is Hat Yai known for?
In the far south near the Malaysian border, on the neck of the peninsula, it grew as a railway town and a trading centre, and it keeps the busy markets and food streets of the south, the hilltop park with its great golden Buddha and Guanyin, the floating market on the canal, and the road to the lake of Songkhla. Crowds fill the market streets. Shrines gleam on the hill.
What are the main landmarks in Hat Yai?
The hilltop park is the pride of Hat Yai. The great golden Buddha and the tall Guanyin above the town, gleaming over the streets, are the emblem of the city, out of downtown. A market floats on a canal.
The floating market of Khlong Hae draws crowds by the water nearby, while the food streets, the great Songkhla lake, and the border road mark the country around Hat Yai.
What is the history of Hat Yai?
Hat Yai grew at a railway junction. Where the line to Malaya branched south, a small village swelled into a busy town, and traders and shops filled its streets. The market drew the south.
Goods and travelers came from across the south and from Malaya to Hat Yai, and it became the commercial heart of the region. The town rose as a shrine and a resort. On the hill above the streets a great golden Buddha and a tall Guanyin were raised, and a park drew pilgrims and visitors.
The food made it famous. Its markets and food streets drew crowds from near and far, and the town grew as the market city of the south, keeping its trade, its shrines, and its food. The trains still fill the station.
Hat Yai keeps its market city on the peninsula.
Where is Hat Yai?
Hat Yai lies in the far south of Thailand, on the narrow neck of the Malay Peninsula. The city sits on a plain by low green hills, a little inland from the coast, near the great Songkhla lake, with the peninsula narrowing around it and the mountains of the Malay border rising to the south. The green hills ring the town.
Rice fields spread to the lake.
What is the climate of Hat Yai?
Hat Yai has a hot, rainy monsoon climate. Warm damp weather holds all year on the peninsula, with heavy monsoon rains late in the year and warm humid air throughout. The monsoon floods the plain.
Bright days follow the rains.
How do you get to Hat Yai?
Hat Yai lies in the far south of Thailand, on the rail to Malaysia. The southern railway and the highway run down to it from Bangkok, and roads cross the border to Malaysia. Flights land from Bangkok.
Bangkok lies far to the north.
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More cities in Changwat Songkhla
Updated August 2026