Where Should You Stay in Hat Yai?
Hat Yai, the largest city of Songkhla province, was my home for a number of years in the south of Thailand. It is near the Malaysian border. The main campus of the first and largest university in the south, Prince of Songkhla University, is located in Hat Yai. Its airport has international flights to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore aside from domestic flights to key destinations in the country including Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Rayong, Khon Kaen, and Udon Thani.
If you are on a budget, there are also buses and trains. The Hat Yai Junction is a major train station in Thailand. The city is indeed a hub for travel. It offers a wide range of accommodation depending on your taste and budget. You can do your own research or take note of some of the hotels listed below. I am not affiliated with any of these hotels. I have included them here for reference, but I do get a small commission when you book through Agoda using the links.
Buri Sriphu Hotel and Convention Centre
This city in the south has a strong Chinese influence. It is hard not to notice Chinese structures and signages in Chinese characters when you walk around the downtown area. Hat Yai is known to have more Thai Chinese citizens than other cities of comparable size in other parts of Thailand. It is famous for its Vegetarian Festival, which is an annual event during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar. Several shops selling vegetarian food participate. In the future when you need an accommodation during the festival, check out the list of hotels below and the previous list as well.
The Smart Hotel Hat Yai Dream Premier
B2 Hat Yai Boutique and Budget Hotel
There is no beach in Hat Yai. The nearest is more or less 40 minutes away by car in Songkhla. I lived in Hat Yai for years and I think its major attraction is shopping. You can buy almost anything at ASEAN Night Bazaar from clothes to food without spending a lot. I used to go there on weekends with friends or with my younger brother after church. Another place to check out if you want to buy clothes is Greenway Night Market. Like the rest of Thailand, street food is popular especially when the sun starts to set.
If you are downtown, you can see most of them outside Lee Gardens Plaza across Central department store. Kim Yong Market and Santisuk Market nearby are also worth a visit if you want to buy local food, fruits, and souvenirs. However, these days I have heard the area around Lee Gardens is no longer the favorite hangout place since the opening of Central Festival.
When I was still in Hat Yai, there was no Central Festival yet, even when I first went back in October 2013. I met with old friends and we went to the 33rd Floor Sky Buffet of Lee Gardens Plaza to eat. I left the city for good more than a year before that. My second visit was in 2015 and the latest was in 2017, which was very quick.
Meanwhile in the old days, English movies were mostly, if not all, dubbed in Thai until Diana Shopping Complex started showing English movies with English audio. At first we had to make sure because it was not always like that. For grocery shopping, we used to go to Carrefour until they replaced it with Big C. Around the time I left, there were two Big C stores in Hat Yai. Aside from Thai Chinese, there are also many Thai Malays in the city. Finding halal food is not a problem in Hat Yai because of its large Muslim population.
