Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and the sea.
Grand Palace mornings, Chiang Mai kitchens, longtail boats out to the limestone islands. What each one is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven for a first Thailand trip.
Bangkok temple mornings, the boats out of Ao Nang, a Chiang Mai kitchen with a market run attached. These are the ones travellers come back for, and the ones that go first in high season.
The Old Siam: Damnoen Saduak and Maeklong Railway Market
Paddleboat to Damnoen Saduak, then watch the Umbrella Pulldown Market at Maeklong on a 7-hour Bangkok day trip.
From $32 per person
Read the review →
★ 4.7Safe betAyutthaya Temples Guided Tour with LunchFrom $2810,535 reviews
★ 4.7Sells out earlyTrain Market & Floating Market with Boat RideFrom $259,547 reviews
★ 4.6Crowd favouriteDoi Inthanon National Park Eco-Friendly TourFrom $466,667 reviews
★ 4.7Worth the bahtAyutthaya & Ayothaya Floating Market Day TripFrom $486,084 reviews
★ 4.9Easy first dayElephant Sanctuary & Waterfall Group TourFrom $505,780 reviews
★ 4.9Repeat bookingCooking Class, Market & Thai Herbs Garden TourFrom $314,824 reviews
The limestone comes straight out of the sea.
Longtails leave Ao Nang and Nopparat Thara before the wind gets up, and by ten you are anchored off Poda with the karst towers going vertically out of green water. Four Islands, Hong, Phi Phi and Phang Nga all run from the same few beaches. The boat you pick decides how much of the day is swimming and how much is engine noise.
Andaman side or Gulf side?
The two coasts have different seas, opposite seasons and different boats. Work out which one your dates suit and most of the trip arranges itself around it.
Andaman, longtail
The four-island day
6 hours · from $43 · 3,952 reviews
Out of Ao Nang on a wooden longtail to Poda, Chicken Island, Tup and Phra Nang. Shallow turquoise, a sandbar you can walk at low tide, lunch on the beach. Slower and a good deal louder than a speedboat, and much closer to the water.
See the Krabi boats →
Andaman, speedboat
The Phi Phi run
6 - 10 hours · from $34 · 3,204 reviews
Ninety minutes out of Phuket, forty-five from Krabi, then Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon and Viking Cave in one loop. Take the early departure. The bay runs on a daily cap and the afternoon boats queue for their slot.
See the Phi Phi trips →
Gulf side
The other coast
4 hours · from $52 · 4,149 reviews
Samui, Koh Tan and the Ang Thong archipelago sit in a different sea, and it is at its flattest from June to September when the Andaman is blowing. Shorter crossings, and snorkelling straight off the back of the boat.
See the Samui boats →
The river does the evening properly.
Dinner boats leave Asiatique and Iconsiam once the heat drops, and Wat Arun and the Grand Palace go floodlit from the water. Above them the decks at Mahanakhon and Baiyoke sell the same view with a glass in your hand. One night of a short trip is worth spending on either.
Learn it where it grows.
The Chiang Mai classes start at a farm or a wet market, so you meet the galangal and the makrut lime before you cook with them. Three hours later you have pounded curry paste from scratch and eaten far too much of your own lunch.
Sanctuaries, and how the elephants are kept.
There is no riding on any of these. A morning is feeding, watching and usually a walk down to the river, and the better places keep the herd in forest rather than on concrete. Each listing says how many elephants the camp holds and how much of the day is actually spent with them.
Ayutthaya burned in 1767.
Ayutthaya ruled from 1350 until the Burmese burned it in 1767, and what survived stands in a park you can cycle around in a morning. Sukhothai came before it, Bangkok after. Most tours pair the ruins with a river lunch and have you back in the city for dinner. Shoulders and knees covered at every working temple, including the ones inside the ruins.
Kanchanaburi
The Thailand-Burma Railway.
Between 1942 and 1943 the Japanese army built a railway from Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma, using Allied prisoners of war and conscripted Asian labourers. Tens of thousands of them died building it, and the great majority of those were the Asian labourers.
The line still runs as far as Nam Tok. The bridge over the Khwae Yai, the cutting at Hellfire Pass, and the war cemeteries at Kanchanaburi and Chungkai are all open to visitors. Tours from Bangkok take a full day, and most also stop at Erawan Falls in the national park nearby.
Thailand splits into a few good bases.
Bangkok for the temples and the river. Chiang Mai for the mountains and the kitchens. Krabi and Phuket for the Andaman boats, Samui for the Gulf. Ayutthaya sits an hour north of Bangkok and takes a day.
Water, kitchen, or temple?
A dozen ways to spend a Thai afternoon. Whichever one sounds like your week, the prices and the running times are already on the page.
The floating markets are west, the ruins north.
Ayutthaya and the floating markets sit north and west of Bangkok. Chiang Rai's white temple and the summit road up Doi Inthanon are day runs from Chiang Mai. Phang Nga Bay is the boat everybody takes out of Phuket.
Bangkok, the north, then the sea.
You cannot do Thailand in one trip, but you can do the run that everybody does for a reason. Land in Bangkok, go north for the mountains and the kitchens, finish on whichever coast your dates suit.
Days 1–3
Bangkok first
The Grand Palace and Wat Pho on the first morning, while the jet lag still has you awake at six. The Damnoen Saduak boats and the Maeklong track market the next day, then a dinner boat on the Chao Phraya.
Plan the Bangkok days →
Days 4–6
North to Chiang Mai
Doi Suthep at sunrise before the coaches, a cooking class that starts in the market, a sanctuary morning with the herd. Chiang Rai's white and blue temples if you have the extra day.
Plan the north →
Days 7–10
South to the water
Krabi for the longtails and the climbing at Railay, Phuket for the speedboats out to Phi Phi. Between June and September, take the Gulf side instead and go to Samui.
Plan the coast →
Just added, Bangkok to the Gulf.
★ 4.5Chiang mai Hike & Downhill Bike Adventure –Suthep National ParkFrom $75204 reviews
★ 5.0Basic Diver ( One Day Experience)From $127205 reviews
★ 5.0Advanced Adventurer – 2 days ( Advanced Open Water)From $326206 reviews
★ 5.0Whitewater Rafting AdventureFrom $97205 reviews
★ 4.5No.1 Full-Day Chiang Mai Caving & Jungle Kayaking: Chiang DaoFrom $81206 reviews
★ 5.0Private Culinary Kickstart Tour of Bangkok with a LocalFrom $55207 reviews
★ 4.5Khao Sok: Private Night Safari Adventure w/ Hotel TransferFrom $48207 reviews
★ 4.9Private Tour with Driver and Custom ItineraryFrom $92208 reviews