Baanrabiang Resort Amphawa — Wrought-Iron Balconies Over the Canal with Only 3 Rooms in the Floating Market
If you've ever walked the Amphawa Floating Market at dusk and looked up at the turquoise wooden shophouse with wrought-iron balconies leaning over the canal — that's Baanrabiang Resort Amphawa. It isn't a big resort. It's a two-storey timber building with a vintage cafe on the ground floor and just three rooms upstairs. What guests mention again and again is the clawfoot bathtub in every room and the private balcony that opens straight onto the rowboat vendors paddling the Amphawa canal below — pull the curtain in the morning and the floating market is right there.
First things first — Baanrabiang is not a large hotel. It's an old two-storey timber building painted turquoise, sitting right on the edge of the Amphawa canal. The ground floor is a vintage-styled cafe full of old collectibles — an antique telephone switchboard, tin toys, an old bicycle. Upstairs there are only three rooms: Suite Amour, Suite La Fleur, and Suite Quattro. With a count that small, several guests describe it as closer to renting a whole house than checking into a hotel.
The heart of the place is the classic wrought-iron balcony that hangs out over the canal. Suite Amour is the one people ask for most, because its balcony looks onto the floating market from two sides, finished in a soft green palette. Inside, the rooms run to wooden furniture, white iron bedframes, and warm timber walls. But the detail every reviewer comes back to is the clawfoot bathtub in each room — a soak in warm water at dusk while the rowboats drift past below is the kind of thing you don't get at an ordinary guesthouse.
We checked in on a Friday evening — parked at the back, walked straight into the market, and the turquoise building was right there at the canal edge. The wrought-iron balconies jutting out over the water looked exactly like an old postcard, except it was real and we were about to sleep there. The downstairs cafe was already open, coffee smell drifting out, shelves packed with an antique telephone switchboard, a rusted tin bicycle, clocks, old fans — the kind of place you could lose an hour just looking at things before you ever go upstairs.
Suite Amour is reached by a narrow wooden staircase. Open the door and the first thing you see is the balcony — wrought iron, looking onto the market from two directions. Turn right and you see the boat vendors setting up their floating tables below; turn left and it's wooden bridges and long-tail boats moored in a row. The room itself runs to a white iron bedframe with floral linens, warm timber walls, and the faint smell of old wood mixing with canal air through the balcony gap. But the set-piece is the clawfoot bathtub positioned by the window: fill it with warm water, slide in, and the rowboats drift past at eye level while the late afternoon light falls across the iron railings outside. That's not something you find in a standard guestroom.
Saturday morning, stepping out onto the balcony before the day-trippers arrived — the vendors below were already loading their boats, the quiet knock of hull against hull, low voices between neighbours. No tourists yet, just canal life as it runs every morning. Standing there with a coffee from the cafe below, watching all of it, felt nothing like a hotel stay. The whole rhythm of the place — the rowboats, the long-tails, someone hanging laundry on a canal-side rail, kids running across the footbridge — carried on entirely indifferent to whether you were watching or not. You didn't need to go anywhere. The whole reason you came was already right in front of you.
In the evening we went back down to the cafe, ordered iced coffees, sat among the old collectibles again before walking out to join the market. Stalls were open the length of the canal, the boat vendors shouting rice porridge and old-recipe coffee, the crowd thickening steadily with each half hour. By the time we came back in and climbed the stairs, the market was in full swing below — but inside the room, with the balcony doors pulled half-shut, it was manageable. By midnight, once the last food boat had gone, the canal went quiet in a way that felt almost startling.
Checked out Sunday late morning, and it was clear that what this place gives you is something most hotels cannot: the actual feeling of being inside the Amphawa Floating Market rather than near it. Not a tourist visiting — something more like a temporary resident. If you want a stay with a story, a room that earns its place in the memory of a trip, this is the kind of place that does it. Three rooms, a clawfoot tub, a canal below, and the market at your door.
On breakfast — because the ground floor is the property's own cafe, breakfast is served there in the morning, with a choice of a drink and a dish. If you're hungry later you can come back down to the cafe, or step out to eat in the floating market right at the door. One thing to know upfront: there is no swimming pool and no large restaurant here. If you want a place with a pool for kids to swim, this isn't it — but for a characterful canalside room at a reasonable price, Baanrabiang delivers.
The location is where this place wins. The building sits inside the Amphawa Floating Market itself — under a 2-minute walk to the canalside stalls. The Amphawa Chaipattananurak conservation project is a few steps next door. In the evening, if you want to take a boat out to watch the fireflies, the pier is very close. The Maeklong Railway Market (the umbrella-pulldown market) is about 15–20 minutes by car. The upside of staying in the market itself: once the day-trippers leave at night, it gets far quieter than you'd expect.
The score sits at 8.3/10 from 9 Trip.com reviews and 4.9/5 from 20 reviews on Tripadvisor. Guests praise the soft beds, the clean rooms, the strong water flow in the tub, and the privacy of having only three rooms. The honest caveat worth flagging: on Saturdays and Sundays the floating market is busy and the noise from below carries up to the rooms through the day and early evening. A few reviewers note that the bathroom in some rooms is fairly open to the bedroom — something to keep in mind if you're not travelling with someone close. Worth knowing so you pick the right room.
The bottom line: Baanrabiang Resort Amphawa suits couples or small groups who want a characterful canalside room as close to the floating market as you can get. Suite Amour starts around ฿2,800/night with breakfast. If you're a larger group, Suite Quattro sleeps up to four. Because there are only three rooms, it fills fast on long weekends — book several weeks ahead, and earlier still for a Saturday night.
Summary from Booking & Agoda
- ✓ Location inside the Amphawa Floating Market — walk to everything
- ✓ Clawfoot tub and canal-view balcony — a rare atmosphere
- ✓ Only three rooms, so it feels genuinely private
- ✓ Soft beds, clean rooms, charming vintage decor
- ! No swimming pool — not ideal with small children
- ! Market noise carries up to the rooms during the day on weekends
- ! Parking is limited and hard to find on festival days
- ✓ Suites are beautifully done — wooden furniture, iron bedframes
- ✓ Genuinely on the Amphawa canal — rowboat views from the balcony
- ✓ Relaxed ground-floor cafe with plenty of collectibles
- ✓ Close to the firefly boat pier and the Chaipattananurak project
- ! The bathroom in some rooms is fairly open to the bedroom
- ! Rooms sell out quickly on long weekends — book well ahead
- ! No lift — the rooms are upstairs and reached by stairs
- 💡If you want the best view — ask for Suite Amour, whose balcony looks onto the market from two sides → it's the most-requested room, so book several weeks ahead, especially for a Saturday night
- 💡If you're a larger group — Suite Quattro at 31 sqm has two beds and sleeps up to four, better value than booking two small rooms → roughly ฿3,800 on a weekday, higher on Saturdays
- 💡If you're sensitive to noise — avoid busy Saturday and Sunday nights, or be prepared for canal noise from below through the day and early evening → it quiets down considerably late at night once the market closes