Central Thailand Travel Guide

Central Thailand is the flat, fertile basin of the Chao Phraya river, the rice bowl that fed every Thai kingdom and the region most visitors pass through on their way north or south. It deserves more time than that. Rivers and canals still shape life here, threading past paddy fields, temple towns, floating markets and two former royal capitals, and almost everything is within a few hours of Bangkok.

Bangkok itself is the reason most people come: one of Asia’s great cities for food, shopping and nightlife, with the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun along the river. An hour or so north, Ayutthaya was the capital from 1351 until the Burmese sacked it in 1767, and its brick ruins are an easy day trip by train, bus or boat. Further on, Lopburi is one of the oldest towns in the country, best known for the macaques that live around the Khmer towers of Phra Prang Sam Yot.

To the west, Kanchanaburi sits where two rivers meet below forested hills, with the bridge on the River Kwai, the war cemeteries and Hellfire Pass on the Death Railway, and the turquoise falls of Erawan. Further up the valley, Sangkhla Buri has a Mon village and a long wooden bridge over a reservoir. South of Bangkok, the floating markets of Damnoen Saduak and Amphawa lead on to the hilltop palace town of Phetchaburi and the beach resort of Hua Hin, with the limestone coast of Khao Sam Roi Yot beyond.

November to February is the most comfortable time to visit; March to May is very hot, and the rains from about June to October can flood low-lying areas late in the season. Trains, buses and minivans run everywhere from Bangkok, so the region is easy to explore without a car.