The floating markets before eight. The islands by the end of the week.
Which four-island longtail actually stops long enough to swim. What a morning with elephants outside Chiang Mai costs. Whether Maya Bay survives the speedboat crowd. Reviews of every tour you can book in Thailand.
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5Bangkok, the north, and whichever coast the weather favours.
Six bases carry most Thai itineraries: the capital and its river, the mountain city, the Andaman beach towns and the Gulf islands. What each one is for, and the day out it is worth flying in for.
The best of southern Thailand is only reachable by boat.
Longtails to the four islands off Ao Nang, speedboats to Phi Phi and Maya Bay, kayaks paddled under the karsts of Phang Nga. Choose the hull first and the island second — it decides how many stops you get and how long you sit in the sun.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · Phi Phi Islands Speedboat Day Tour
Phi Phi by speedboatMaya Bay early, lunch on Phi Phi Don, back before five.
Longtail island hopsWooden boats, four beaches, no timetable worth the name.
Sea caves by kayakPaddled into the hongs while the tide still lets you in.
Snorkel daysReef stops on both coasts, by longtail or speedboat.
All 91 boat days in Thailand →
Thailand’s most-booked days out.
The full Thailand list →Two markets, an elephant camp and a longtail boat carry more Thai travellers than anything else on this site. Here is what each morning actually involves.
1
Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway Market
Review of Bangkok’s $25 market day trip, with train-track stalls, floating boats, food tips, timing advice, and honest value guidance.
From · $25
Read our review →
2
Half-Day Thai Cooking Class at Organic Farm in Chiang Mai
from $29
3
The Old Siam: Damnoen Saduak and Maeklong Railway Market
from $32
4
Ayutthaya Temples Guided Tour with Lunch
from $28
5
Train Market & Floating Market with Boat Ride
from $25
6
Elephant Sanctuary, Waterfall & Bamboo Rafting
from $60
7
Doi Inthanon National Park Eco-Friendly Tour
from $46
8
Ayutthaya & Ayothaya Floating Market Day Trip
from $48
Bangkok rewards an early start and a boat.
The Grand Palace opens at half eight and is unbearable by eleven. Wat Arun looks better from the river than from its own courtyard. The floating markets sit ninety minutes west of town, so the good ones come with a pickup before dawn and a nap on the way back.
- 1Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway Marketfrom $25
- 2The Old Siam: Damnoen Saduak and Maeklong Railway Marketfrom $32
- 3Ayutthaya Temples Guided Tour with Lunchfrom $28
A morning with elephants, an afternoon under a waterfall.
The Chiang Mai day runs to a pattern: feeding and river-washing with the herd before the heat, then bamboo rafting and a swim at Mae Wang or the sticky falls at Bua Thong. Camps cap their groups, so the ones worth going to are gone days ahead.
You eat better on a Bangkok pavement than in most dining rooms.
A cooking class starts at a market stall, sorts out galangal from ginger and ends with the four dishes you will genuinely cook again. Street-food walks run after dark through Chinatown. The floating markets are as much lunch as they are photographs.
- 1Half-Day Thai Cooking Class at Organic Farm in Chiang Maifrom $29
- 2Cooking Class, Market & Thai Herbs Garden Tourfrom $31
- 3White Orchid Chao Phraya Dinner Cruise free Beerfrom $35
What a day out in Thailand actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Most of the country’s best mornings cost less than the taxi to the airport did at home.
Temple mornings, market runs, cooking classes and the shared longtail hops out of Ao Nang.
The full-day standards: Phi Phi by speedboat, an elephant camp, Ayutthaya with lunch, the Similan run.
Private drivers, chartered boats, diving courses and the one splurge a trip can carry.
Three Thai days you cannot book anywhere else.
Beaches and night markets run the length of the region. A stadium card in Bangkok, a market that folds itself away for a passing train, and a bay you enter through a cave in the rock do not.
Muay Thai at the old stadiums
Bangkok’s two big stadiums run fight cards on set nights, and the crowd is half of it: the reedy pi chawa going up with the pace of the fight, the betting hand signals thrown across the upper tier, five rounds that usually finish well before the fifth. Ringside puts you close enough to hear the shins land; the upper rows are where the noise is.
- 1Muay Thai Boxing Tickets at Rajadamnern Stadium★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 4,740 reviews
- 2Patong Boxing Stadium Muay Thai Match Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,203 reviews
- 3Phetch Buncha Boxing Stadium Muay Thai Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 789 reviews
The Maeklong railway market
The market is laid out on a working railway line an hour west of Bangkok. Minutes before the train, the vendors crank their awnings back and slide the crates off the rails; the carriages come through at walking pace with the lychees inches from the wheels, and the whole thing is pushed out again before the last coach clears. Most trips pair it with the boats at Damnoen Saduak.
- 1Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway Market★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 26,723 reviews
- 2The Old Siam: Damnoen Saduak and Maeklong Railway Market★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 10,992 reviews
- 3Train Market & Floating Market with Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 9,547 reviews
The hongs of Phang Nga Bay
The limestone islands out of Phuket are hollow. At the right state of the tide a guide paddles you flat on your back through a cave barely a metre high and into a hong: a collapsed cavern open to the sky, walled in cliff, mangrove at the waterline and usually completely silent. The tide dictates everything here, which is why the departure time is not up for discussion.
- 1Phang Nga Bay Sea Cave Canoeing & James Bond Island by Big Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,666 reviews
- 2Mu Ko Ang Thong Park Cruise with Kayaking Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 3,728 reviews
- 3Phang Nga Bay and Canoeing Tour by Big Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,528 reviews
Four Thai bookings that will not wait.
Nearly everything in this country can be arranged the night before from a beach bar. These four cannot. They run on capped permits, tide tables, temple opening hours and a fixed fight card.
- 01Phi Phi Islands and Maya Bay Day Trip with LunchThe bay closes for weeks each year while the reef recovers, boats land at the back of the island rather than in it, and the number of people allowed ashore at once is capped.
- 02Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun Guided TourThe gates shut in the early afternoon and the complex closes outright for royal ceremonies. The dress code is enforced at the entrance, not politely overlooked.
- 03Elephant Sanctuary, Waterfall & Bamboo RaftingCamps run one morning and one afternoon session with a hard cap on each. The morning slot, the cool one, is the first to go.
- 04Muay Thai Boxing Tickets at Rajadamnern StadiumThe stadiums fight on set nights of the week, and the ringside rows sell out long before the upper tier does.
Thailand’s two coasts have opposite wet seasons.
The Andaman side takes its monsoon from May to October and the Gulf takes its in November and December, which is why Samui works in June and Phuket works at Christmas. Rain here also tends to arrive as a two-hour block rather than a lost day: a class, a covered market or a stadium fills it exactly.
By place — the capital, the north and both coasts
By kind of day — boat, temple, kitchen or ring
Bangkok north to Chiang Mai, then south until the road runs out.
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