🔄 Updated 21 Jun 2026
If you drive out from Bangkok to see the waterfalls or go rafting in Nakhon Nayok, almost everyone heads home with a bag of banana chips riding along. This area grows a lot of nam wa bananas, and when the harvest is heavy people turn it into dried snacks that keep for a long time. The chips are sliced thin and fried crisp like potato crisps, the sun-dried bananas are dried in the sun until chewy and naturally sweet, and the butter-baked ones are sweeter and richer, easy to keep snacking on. Here's where to buy, how to choose, and which shops people actually stop at.
The kinds of banana snacks you'll find in Nakhon Nayok
Before you go shopping, it helps to know the different types, because a lot of shops sell them all mixed together — banana, taro, sweet potato and pumpkin.
- Banana chips (kluai chap) — green nam wa bananas sliced thin and fried crisp, in sweet sugar-glazed, salted and paprika flavours. This is the local souvenir star.
- Sun-dried banana (kluai tak) — ripe nam wa bananas dried in the sun until chewy and naturally sweet; some makers press them flat and glaze them with honey for shine.
- Butter-baked banana — banana chips tossed with butter and sugar for a rich, buttery sweetness. Kids love it, and it's more moreish than the plain crisp version.
- Taro, sweet potato and pumpkin chips — usually sold right beside the banana chips in the same shop, so you can mix a bag for anyone who doesn't fancy banana.
How to pick a bag that's actually crisp
Pick up a bag and give it a gentle shake — if it's crisp you'll hear a clear, sharp rattle; if it's quiet and soft, it's already gone a bit damp. Check the frying or production date on the bag too. Chips fried fresh that week are crisper than stock that's been sitting around.
Want to taste deeper? Try a Nakhon Nayok food tour or cooking class
Half a day with a local who knows the lanes — or cooking a dish yourself — teaches you more than just eating. Book ahead on Klook or GetYourGuide.
Nakhon Nayok souvenir shops people actually stop at
Nakhon Nayok doesn't have big malls, so souvenirs are spread across roadside shops on the main routes and a handful of gift centres. We've ordered them by how convenient they are for anyone driving through, starting with the one place that has everything, down to the specialist shops that fry fresh.
Saranrom Nakhon Nayok Souvenirs
The most complete souvenir centre in town, with hundreds of OTOP products under one roof — banana chips, dried banana, taro chips, all the way to Ban Na chive cakes, tan palm cake and marian-plum rice crackers. There's a food court and coffee corner to take a break, and plenty of parking that can handle tour groups. Good if you want to make one stop and tick everything off.
Mae Tip Banana Chips (Sahathai Tha Thong Mai)
A banana-chip specialist that fries fresh every day. The whole point here is crisp, fresh and tight control over the ingredients — quality bananas, sliced evenly and thin. If you want chips that are genuinely crisp and not sitting in old stock, this is the one locals point you to. Find it around the Sahathai supermarket in Tha Thong Mai.
Khun Ae Chive Cakes & Phichaphat Souvenirs
A souvenir shop best known for thin-skinned Ban Na chive cakes, but you can grab banana chips and other dried snacks here too. Good if you want both a hot snack to eat now and keep-for-later souvenirs from a single shop.
Roadside stalls along Suwannason Road
All along Suwannason Road heading into town and out towards the waterfalls, roadside stalls sell banana chips, dried banana and taro chips, bundled into small bags at easy prices you can haggle over. The upside is they're easy to pull over at; the thing to watch is freshness, since some stalls leave the stock out in the sun for a long time.
OTOP homemaker stalls, Ban Na–Pak Phli
Ban Na and Pak Phli districts have homemaker groups making dried banana and banana paste as community products — handmade, in small batches, but with a natural taste that isn't too sweet. If you pass an OTOP fair or a community market around there, keep an eye out.
Straight talk
Nakhon Nayok isn't a town with big-brand dried-banana makers like Bang Krathum in Phitsanulok. What it's genuinely known for is banana chips and marian-plum souvenirs. If you're really set on dried banana, look for the homemaker stalls or ask at Saranrom — you'll get more of the real local thing than from the generic roadside stalls.
Pair it with the town's other souvenirs
Since you're stopping at a souvenir shop anyway, a lot of people carry banana chips home alongside the other things Nakhon Nayok is known for, so you've got both snacks and proper food covered.
Marian plum & sweet plum-mango
The fruit Nakhon Nayok is most famous for — sweet with a hint of sour. You'll find it fresh from around February to April, and processed into rice crackers and candied versions sold all year.
Ban Na chive cakes
Thin-skinned chive cakes with a generous filling — the town's go-to snack. Eat them hot or carry them home; almost every souvenir shop sells them.
Tan palm cake & pandan layer cake
Fragrant Thai cakes that Saranrom smokes with scented candle. Good to bring back for older relatives alongside the banana chips.
How to store and carry them home without spoiling
- Banana chips keep in a tightly sealed bag with the air pressed out, stored somewhere dry and out of the sun — they'll last several weeks. If they start going stale, a short blast in the microwave brings the crispness back.
- Sun-dried banana has higher moisture, so keeping it in the regular fridge compartment makes it last longer and stops mould. If you buy the honey-glazed kind, watch out for it sticking together.
- When transporting, keep the bags in a cool spot in the car — don't leave them sitting in a hot car in the sun, or the sugar glaze melts and goes sticky and the chips turn soft.
- If you buy from several shops, separate the bags by production date and eat the older-fried ones first, saving the freshest for last.
Plan a Nakhon Nayok trip that covers all the food and sights
See the Nakhon Nayok guide →