Best Day Trips from Bangkok

For four centuries, from its founding in 1351 until the Burmese army burned it in 1767, Ayutthaya was the capital of Siam and one of the largest cities in Asia, a river island trading with China, Japan, Persia and the European companies. What survives is a field of brick prangs, headless Buddhas and restored chedis spread across the island and its banks, listed by UNESCO as the Ayutthaya Historical Park.

The essential sights are close together in the centre of the island. Wat Mahathat is where a stone Buddha head sits wrapped in the roots of a fig tree. Wat Ratchaburana next door has a tall prang you can climb into, with faded murals in its crypt. The three great chedis of Wat Phra Si Sanphet stood in the grounds of the royal palace. Off the island, Wat Chaiwatthanaram on the west bank is the most photogenic ruin, best at sunset, while Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon and Wat Phanan Choeng to the southeast are working temples, the second with a huge seated Buddha revered by the Thai Chinese.

Ayutthaya is about 80 km north of Bangkok. Trains take around one and a half to two hours and drop you on the east bank, a short ferry ride from the island; minivans leave from the northern bus terminal. Once there, rent a bicycle or hire a tuk-tuk by the hour, start early before the heat builds, and cover shoulders and knees for the active temples.

Half an hour south of Ayutthaya, the royal summer palace at Bang Pa-In is the easiest add-on to an Ayutthaya day. A king of Ayutthaya built the first palace on this river island in the 17th century; after the old capital fell it was left to the jungle until Rama IV and Rama V rebuilt it in the 19th century as a retreat in a mix of styles. Around a series of ornamental lakes stand a Thai pavilion floating on the water, a Chinese-style throne hall, a lookout tower and European villas, with clipped topiary between. Across the river, reached by a small cable car, Wat Niwet Thammaprawat is a Buddhist temple built to look like a Gothic church, complete with stained glass. Members of the royal family still stay at the palace, so dress rules are strict: no shorts, short skirts or sleeveless tops. Bang Pa-In has its own station on the northern railway, and many Ayutthaya tours stop here first.

Kanchanaburi, about 130 km west of Bangkok, is where the Japanese army began the Thailand-Burma Railway in 1942, forcing Allied prisoners of war and conscripted Asian labourers to cut a line through some 415 km of jungle and mountains. More than 12,000 prisoners and many tens of thousands of Asian workers died. The town is now a riverside resort, but the war is never far away.

The steel bridge over the Khwae Yai River, made famous by a 1957 film, still carries trains, and you can walk across it between them. In the town centre, the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery holds nearly 7,000 graves of British, Australian and Dutch prisoners, kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre beside it explains the building of the line. A second cemetery, Chungkai, lies on the riverbank just outside town.

The most moving site is Hellfire Pass, about 80 km further northwest, a cutting dug through rock by hand, by lamplight, in a few months of 1943. An Australian-run museum stands at the top, and a walking trail follows the old trackbed. On the way, the surviving section of the railway runs from Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok, crossing the timber Wang Pho viaduct on a ledge above the river; riding it is one of the best short train journeys in Thailand. Erawan National Park, with its seven-tiered waterfall and turquoise pools, and Sai Yok National Park are further up the valley.

Trains to Kanchanaburi leave from Thonburi station in Bangkok Noi and take about three hours; buses and minivans are quicker. A single day from Bangkok covers only the bridge and the cemetery, so stay at least one night if you want Hellfire Pass and the railway too. Skip any attraction offering elephant rides or animal photo sessions.

Bangkok’s western hinterland is a maze of canals and orchards, and three markets there make the classic market day. Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, about 100 km southwest of the city, is the famous one: women in straw hats paddling boats piled with fruit, noodles and coconut sweets along narrow canals. It is now aimed squarely at tour groups, with souvenir stalls along the banks, but it is still colourful if you arrive by about 8am, before the coaches. Pay for a boat ride only once you have agreed the length and the route.

Maeklong Railway Market in the town of Samut Songkhram is a fresh market laid out directly on the tracks of a working railway. A few times a day a train creeps through, the vendors pull back their awnings and baskets with seconds to spare, and everything is back in place as soon as it has passed. The train times are the whole point, so check the current timetable before you go.

Amphawa Floating Market, a few kilometres from Maeklong, comes alive in the late afternoon and evening from Friday to Sunday. Boats grill seafood beside the canal, and the old wooden shophouses along the water are full of Thai families from Bangkok. After dark, boats take visitors out to see fireflies in the riverside trees. Tours combine Damnoen Saduak in the morning, Maeklong at midday and Amphawa at dusk in one long day.

About an hour west of Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom is one of the oldest towns in Thailand, a centre of the Mon Dvaravati culture whose Buddhist monuments date from well over a thousand years ago. Its landmark, Phra Pathommachedi, is the tallest stupa in Thailand at about 120 metres, a great orange-tiled bell that Rama IV began rebuilding over the ruins of an ancient chedi and that was completed in 1870. Cloisters, chapels and a large standing Buddha surround it, and a market spreads around the base. It is an easy half day on its own, or a stop on the way to Kanchanaburi or the floating markets.

Only about 20 km north of central Bangkok, Ko Kret is a small island in the Chao Phraya near Nonthaburi. It was cut off from the bank in 1722 when a canal was dug across a bend in the river to shorten the boat journey to Ayutthaya, and after the fall of Ayutthaya Mon refugees were settled here. Their descendants still throw red earthenware pots by hand, and you can watch them at work in the riverside workshops. A path circles the island, so the best way round is on foot or by rented bicycle, past orchards, temples and the leaning white Mon chedi at Wat Poramai Yikawat on the island’s tip. At weekends the lanes near the landing fill with food stalls and Bangkok day-trippers; on weekdays it is very quiet. Ferries cross from the pier at Wat Sanam Nuea in Pak Kret.

Also close to the city, Bang Krachao, inside a loop of the river near Phra Pradaeng, is a protected pocket of palms, mangroves and elevated cycle paths, reached by a short boat ride from the Khlong Toei side.

Lopburi, about 150 km north of Bangkok, was a Khmer provincial centre long before Ayutthaya, and King Narai made it his second capital in the 17th century. Its best-known monument is Phra Prang Sam Yot, three linked laterite towers built in the Khmer style around the 13th century. Narai’s palace complex, Phra Narai Ratchaniwet, holds a museum, and the ruins of the house of his Greek adviser, Constantine Phaulkon, stand nearby. The old town is also home to hundreds of long-tailed macaques, who roam the shophouses and the temple ruins. Keep your bags closed and food out of sight, and don’t feed them. Trains take about three hours, so Lopburi can be paired with Ayutthaya on the same line, ideally with a night in Ayutthaya.

Khao Yai was Thailand’s first national park, created in 1962, and is part of the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is about three hours by road northeast of Bangkok, and its forested hills hold one of the country’s best chances to see wild animals: white-handed gibbons calling at dawn, great hornbills, macaques and, on the park roads, wild elephants. The waterfalls, including Haew Narok and Haew Suwat, are at their fullest in the rainy season. A day trip is possible but rushed, since the best wildlife watching is at dawn and dusk. Stay a night near Pak Chong or inside the park, hire a local guide with a telescope, and if you meet an elephant on the road, stay in the vehicle and keep your distance.

The nearest beaches to Bangkok are on the eastern Gulf coast. Pattaya, about two hours away, is a big, brash resort, but it has two good day-trip reasons: the Sanctuary of Truth, an enormous seafront temple-palace carved entirely from wood that has been under construction since 1981, and Ko Lan, a small island with clear water about 45 minutes away by ferry. Ko Samet, further east, has finer white sand and a national park setting, but the drive to the pier at Ban Phe in Rayong plus the boat makes it at least three hours each way. Go for a night or two rather than a day.

To the south, Phetchaburi is one of the most rewarding stops in central Thailand and two to three hours from Bangkok. On the hill above town, Phra Nakhon Khiri, the palace Rama IV built around 1860, mixes Thai, Chinese and European buildings and has views over the plain. Outside town, the Tham Khao Luang cave temple is filled with Buddha images lit by shafts of sun through openings in its roof, best around midday. The town itself has well-preserved wooden shophouses and is known for its desserts.

An hour further on, Hua Hin has been the royal seaside resort since the 1920s. Its railway station, with a red-and-white royal waiting pavilion, is one of the prettiest in the country, and between Hua Hin and Cha-am the teak seaside palace of Maruekhathaiyawan, built for Rama VI, stands on stilts by the sea. Hua Hin is a long day from Bangkok, and many people spend a night here, or use it as a base for Kaeng Krachan and Khao Sam Roi Yot national parks.

Trains are the most pleasant way to reach Ayutthaya, Bang Pa-In, Lopburi, Phetchaburi and Hua Hin. Most long-distance services now leave from Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal at Bang Sue, which took over most long-distance services in 2023; some slower ordinary trains still start at the old Hua Lamphong station in the centre, so check which station your train uses. Trains for Kanchanaburi and Nam Tok leave from Thonburi station, across the river from the old city. Minivans and buses run to every destination in this guide from the main bus terminals, and are faster for the floating markets, Nakhon Pathom and Pattaya. For the markets, Khao Yai and anywhere you want to combine several stops, a car with driver for the day saves a great deal of time. See Getting Around Thailand for how the rail and bus networks work.