By BestHotelPai Team · Updated October 24, 2026
Pai has two different answers to 'where do I get wine?'. For a bottle to take back to your villa: Tops Daily Pai, the town's supermarket-brand store, or the minimarts — within Thai legal sale hours of 11:00–14:00 and 17:00–24:00. For a glass with dinner and an evening on the walking street: Vermut Café at 35/1, where around 60 wines are all poured by the glass to a measured 120 ml line. Most guests use both in one trip.
Buying a bottle of wine in Pai today
Pai is a small town and its wine shelf is short: the minimarts carry a handful of bottles, and that is about it. Tops Daily Pai, the town's supermarket-brand store, adds a proper supermarket wine shelf — the first in Pai. Check opening hours on the door.
Whatever the shop, Thai law (as of 2026) allows alcohol sales only from 11:00 to 14:00 and from 17:00 to midnight, and not at all on major Buddhist holidays or election days. If the plan is a sunset bottle at the villa, buy it before 14:00 or after 17:00.
When a supermarket bottle is the right call
A bottle for the garden at Eden Villa or 365 Vila Connect, something to open on the terrace at Betel Palm Village, a picnic by the rice fields, a gift to carry home: that is what a supermarket is for. Pick by label, pay shop prices, pour it yourself. For a bottle, Tops Daily is where we send guests.
When a glass at Vermut Café is the better evening
Vermut Café at 35/1 Pai Walking Street is our pick for the best wine bar in Pai, and the reason is checkable: around 60 wines and every one of them is available by the glass, poured at your table to a marked 120 ml line. You can taste a Chilean Carménère next to a Loire white without committing to either bottle, ask the counter what goes with the food you carried in from the market stalls (street food is welcome at the table, one drink per person), and walk back along the walking street afterwards.
Opening a bottle you have never tried is a bet. A measured glass is a tasting — and in a town where most bars pour a house red and white, that is the difference. Our full guide to the bar is at /vermut-cafe-pai.
Side by side
Tops Daily: bottles to take away, during legal shop hours, chosen from the label, drunk wherever you like. Vermut Café: by the glass or by the bottle at the table, every day 17:00 to midnight (last orders 23:30), a list chosen by tasting, cocktails from ฿150, small plates, live music on selected evenings, two floors and a balcony over the street. Different jobs. The supermarket is for the villa; the bar is for the evening.
Where to stay so the walk home is the easy part
The Arch Casa is a three-minute walk from Vermut Café's door, which makes it the simplest base for an evening of wine on the walking street. For the supermarket-bottle side of the trip, Eden Villa and 365 Vila Connect are whole houses with a garden — Eden has a full kitchen — and Betel Palm Village has private terraces. All six stays on this site are booked direct with the owners on WhatsApp +66 99 926 5639, up to 10% below Booking.com, with free cancellation up to 7 days before arrival.
