Royal Palaces in Thailand

King Rama I founded the Grand Palace in 1782 when he moved the capital across the river to Bangkok, and it was the royal home until the 20th century. It is still used for state ceremonies, and the visitable parts fill a walled riverside compound in Bangkok’s old town.

You enter through the Wiset Chai Si gate on Na Phra Lan Road and start in Wat Phra Kaew, the royal temple. Its ordination hall holds the Emerald Buddha, a small green jade figure about 66 cm tall that is the most sacred image in the country; the king changes its golden robes three times a year at the start of the hot, rainy and cool seasons. Around it are the gold-tiled Phra Si Rattana Chedi, the library pavilion, a stone model of Angkor Wat and cloisters painted with the Ramakien, the Thai Ramayana, in 178 scenes. The Royal Pantheon opens only on Chakri Day, 6 April.

From the temple you walk into the palace courtyards. The highlight is the Chakri Maha Prasat throne hall of 1882, a European building wearing a Thai spired roof, flanked by the older Dusit Maha Prasat throne hall with its tall white and gold spire. The inner court, where the royal women once lived, is closed. The ticket also covers the air-conditioned Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles near the exit.

Allow two to three hours. Go at 8:30am, before the tour groups, which peak from 10am to 1pm.

• Hours: open daily from 8:30am, with ticket sales until 3:30pm. Visitors are inside until about 4:30pm.
• Price: 500 baht (about US$15) for foreigners, including Wat Phra Kaew and the textile museum. Thai nationals enter free. Buy at the ticket hall inside the gate or on the official Grand Palace site.
• Getting there: the Chao Phraya Express Boat to Tha Chang pier, a five-minute walk, or the MRT Blue Line to Sanam Chai, about 15 minutes on foot. Pair it with Wat Pho next door and Wat Arun across the river.
• Dress code: checked at the gate and strictly enforced. Banned: sleeveless tops, vests, crop tops, see-through tops, shorts, mini skirts, torn trousers, tight trousers and leggings, cycling pants and pyjama-style trousers. Wear loose long trousers or a long skirt and a shirt with sleeves. Sandals are fine. If you are turned back, you can rent or buy a cover-up near the entrance.
• Inside: shoes off for the Emerald Buddha hall, no photos inside it, and sit with your feet tucked behind you, never pointing at the image.

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace sits on an island in the Chao Phraya about 20 km south of Ayutthaya. What you see now was mostly built by King Rama V in the 1870s and 1880s, and it is the most relaxed palace in the country: lawns, ponds and topiary elephants. The postcard image is the Aisawan Thiphya-At, a Thai pavilion standing in the middle of a pond. There is also a Chinese-style throne hall, the Phra Thinang Wehart Chamrun and a lookout tower you can climb.

Entry costs around 100 baht and the palace opens daily from about 8am to 4pm. The grounds are large, so many people rent a golf cart or a bicycle at the gate. The same dress rules as the Grand Palace apply, and the palace occasionally closes for royal functions.

Across the river, reached by a small cable car, Wat Nivet Thammaprawat is a Buddhist temple built to look like a Gothic church, with stained glass. Bang Pa-In is an easy add-on to an Ayutthaya Historical Park day trip: trains from Bangkok stop at Bang Pa-In station, a short tuk-tuk ride away, and see our day trips from Bangkok for how to combine them.

Phetchaburi, about two hours south of Bangkok, has two very different palaces. Phra Nakhon Khiri, known locally as Khao Wang (“palace hill”), was built by King Rama IV in 1859 across the three peaks of a hill above the town. The western peak holds the throne halls and residence and an observatory for the king, a keen astronomer; the central peak has a white chedi and the eastern peak a temple. The views over the plain and the town’s temples are the reason to come, especially in the late afternoon. Entry for foreigners is about 150 baht, with a cable car up the back of the hill for a small extra fee, or a 20-minute walk up the front. Keep food and bags closed: macaques live on the hill and snatch anything loose.

Phra Ram Ratchaniwet, or Ban Puen Palace, at the south of town, is the opposite: a European residence designed by the German architect Karl Döhring for King Rama V and finished in the 1910s, with Art Nouveau tiles and ironwork. It stands inside a military base, so carry your passport. The fee is small, around 50 baht.

Mrigadayavan Palace, on the beach between Cha-am and Hua Hin, is the most beautiful of the summer palaces. King Rama VI had it built in 1923 and 1924 as a seaside retreat: 16 golden teak pavilions on stilts, painted cream and pale green, joined by long covered walkways that once ran down to a bathing pavilion on the sand. You walk barefoot through the royal rooms. Entry is a small fee, and it is usually closed on Wednesdays; check before going. Sarongs and wraps are available at the entrance if you arrive in shorts.

In Hua Hin itself, Klai Kangwon Palace (“far from worries”), built by King Rama VII in the late 1920s, is a working royal residence. It is generally not open to visitors, and when it has opened in the past it was only on certain days when the royal family was away. Do not plan a trip around it; you can see the gates from the road.

Bhubing Palace stands near the top of Doi Suthep, about 4 km past Wat Phra That Doi Suthep above Chiang Mai. Built in 1961 as the royal family’s winter residence, it is less about the buildings, which you see only from outside, than the gardens: roses, fuchsias, a reservoir and cool mountain air. Entry is about 50 baht, and it is usually open in the morning and afternoon with a break at lunch. The palace closes whenever the royal family is in residence, most often for some weeks between January and March, and sometimes at short notice, so check before the drive up.

Doi Tung Royal Villa, high on Doi Tung in the far north near Mae Sai, was the home of the Princess Mother, King Bhumibol’s mother, from 1988. The wooden house, part Swiss chalet and part Lanna, is now a museum of her life beside the terraced Mae Fah Luang Garden. Tickets are sold separately for the villa, the garden and the hall of inspiration, or as a combination, each around 100 baht. It is about 90 minutes from Chiang Rai; pair it with Wat Phra That Doi Tung and the Golden Triangle.

King Narai’s Palace in Lopburi was built from 1665 by King Narai of Ayutthaya, who used the town as a second capital. The brick walls, gateways and rows of arched niches for oil lamps survive, and a later 19th-century residence inside now holds the Somdet Phra Narai National Museum. The national museum’s foreigner fee is 150 baht and it usually closes on Mondays and Tuesdays. Walk on to Wichayen House, the residence of foreign envoys, and Phra Prang Sam Yot, where the town’s monkeys live.

Phra Chuthathut Palace on Ko Si Chang, an island a 45-minute ferry ride from Sri Racha, was King Rama V’s seaside retreat in the 1890s. It was abandoned after the French naval blockade of 1893, and its teak mansion was taken apart and rebuilt in Bangkok as Vimanmek. What remains is a quiet restored garden with terraces and ponds, a good half-day away from Pattaya’s crowds. Entry has been free or close to it.

Sanam Chandra Palace in Nakhon Pathom, an hour west of Bangkok, was King Rama VI’s country palace, built in the 1900s and 1910s around a French-chateau-style mansion and a Thai house on a lake, with a statue of the king’s dog, Ya-le. It is on university grounds, so open hours can be limited, and the fee is small. Pair it with Phra Pathommachedi, the tallest chedi in Thailand.

Wang Na, the Front Palace, was the residence of the uparat, the deputy king, until the post was abolished in 1885. Its surviving halls are now the National Museum Bangkok, next to the Grand Palace, and the Buddhaisawan Chapel inside, with its 18th-century murals and the revered Phra Phuttha Sihing image, is the best-preserved royal interior you can walk into in the city. The museum is usually open Wednesday to Sunday, with a foreigner fee of about 200 baht.

Dusit Palace, the garden palace King Rama V built north of the old town from 1897, is a different story. Vimanmek Mansion, said to be the largest golden teak building in the world, closed to visitors in 2016 and was later dismantled for restoration, with no reopening date announced. The Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, an Italian marble building with a dome, and the other Dusit halls have been closed or open only by special arrangement since the late 2010s. Tour sites still list them; treat any opening as unconfirmed until an official site says so. Chitralada Royal Villa nearby is a royal residence and closed to the public. Visit the open Wat Benchamabophit, the Marble Temple, instead.

In the far south, Phra Tamnak Thaksin Ratchaniwet in Narathiwat has opened its gardens to visitors when the royal family is not in residence, but most governments advise against travel to Narathiwat province.

Fees and hours change, sometimes without notice; check before you go.

Staff expect visitors to show the respect Thais show the monarchy. Thailand’s lese-majeste law makes insulting the king or royal family a crime with prison terms of 3 to 15 years per count, applied to foreigners too; our Thai culture guide explains what that means day to day.

• Dress: shoulders and knees covered at every palace, not only the Grand Palace. Loose trousers or a long skirt, a top with sleeves, nothing tight, torn or see-through.
• Shoes: off before entering throne halls, royal residences open to visitors and any hall with a Buddha image. Wear slip-on footwear.
• Photography: usually banned inside throne halls, the Emerald Buddha hall and furnished royal rooms, and allowed in courtyards and gardens. Follow the signs and the guards, and do not pose disrespectfully with royal portraits or symbols. Drones need permission and are not allowed over palaces.
• Behaviour: keep your voice down, do not sit on walls or steps of buildings, and do not touch the exhibits. If the royal or national anthem plays, or a royal motorcade passes, stand still and wait.
• Closures: royal ceremonies, state visits and residence stays close palaces at short notice. Check official channels on the day.