Bangkok has more sights than you can fit into three days, and that is not a problem you need to solve. The city is too big to tick off and the neighbourhoods are too far apart to grab everything on the way. You choose here, or the heat chooses for you.
A few things simply belong on a first visit: the temples along the river, an evening eating your way through Chinatown, and at least one boat instead of a taxi. Others are a great extra if you stay longer, because every trip across this city costs time you will want to spend carefully.
So where do your Bangkok days go, and what do you save for next time?
Want the practical side first, like how many days you need, where to sleep and how to get there? That is all on our Bangkok page.
Street food in Chinatown
For most backpackers this is the real highlight of Bangkok, and it costs almost nothing. Yaowarat Road is half asleep during the day, but once it gets dark the neon comes on, the carts roll out onto the pavement and every corner smells of something different.
Go at around seven, because that is when the carts open. A dish from a cart costs around €1.50, so you can easily do three or four stalls in one evening. Do not sit down at the first restaurant you see. Walk around, look for the queue of locals and join it. What to order and which other streets to hit is all in our Bangkok street food guide.
Say nothing about spice and you get the Thai version. If you want it milder, ask for mai phet. And come hungry, because this is not a one-plate kind of night.
Our verdict: absolutely, ideally on your very first night
The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew
If you only visit one historic site in Bangkok, make it this one. You get why the moment you walk in: golden roofs, colourful detail and buildings glittering in every direction. From 1782 this was the royal heart of the city, and inside the walls you will also find Wat Phra Kaew, the temple of the famous Emerald Buddha.
Go early, before the heat builds and the tour buses arrive. The complex sits on the river, so from Banglamphu you can walk there or take the Chao Phraya Express for about €0.40. Cover your shoulders and knees, or you are not getting in.
If someone walks up and tells you the palace is closed today, keep walking. It is the best known scam in Bangkok and it always ends in a tuk-tuk heading for a jeweller.
Our verdict: absolutely, even with the crowds
Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha
Wat Pho is a few minutes’ walk from the Grand Palace, and that is no coincidence: you do both on the same morning. The reclining Buddha is forty-six metres long and fills the entire hall, so you never see it all at once. You walk along it and discover it bit by bit.
Do not stop at that one hall. The temple complex around it is bigger than most people expect, with quiet courtyards, rows of Buddha statues and far more calm than you will find a hundred metres away at the palace.
Plan it straight after the Grand Palace, while you are already dressed for temples and already in that corner of the city.
Our verdict: a must, and give it more than fifteen minutes
Wat Arun across the river
For us, the most beautiful temple in Bangkok. The Temple of Dawn stands with its distinctive tower right on the Chao Phraya, and that water around it makes it feel completely different from the temples on the other bank. Only up close do you see that the whole tower is inlaid with porcelain.
You get there on the little ferry from the Wat Pho side, a crossing of a few minutes. That rounds off the classic one-day loop: the Grand Palace first, then Wat Pho, then the boat over to Wat Arun. Afterwards you ride the Chao Phraya Express back.
More of a late riser? Hang around on the far side until the sun drops. Wat Arun at sunset, seen from the opposite bank, is the picture of Bangkok most people take home with them.
Our verdict: the most beautiful of the three, so save it for last
A local boat on the Chao Phraya
You do not need to book a tour for everything in Bangkok. Just hop on a local boat on the river: it costs about €0.40 and shows you the city from a completely different side. Temples, old wooden houses, luxury hotels and skyscrapers all drift past.
The Chao Phraya Express runs right past the stretch you need to be on anyway, so it takes no extra time out of your day. Better still, the water is often faster than the road, and you are not stuck in traffic while the meter runs.
Stand at the side rather than sitting inside. It is hot, but at least on the water you get a breeze.
Our verdict: cheap, cool and more fun than any taxi
A day trip to Ayutthaya
Eighty kilometres north of Bangkok lies the old capital of Thailand, now a field of temple ruins and weathered towers. After two days of traffic and skyscrapers it is a breath of fresh air, and it is the best slice of history you can reach from the city.
You can get there by train, or book a day tour with lunch that takes you past the main temples in a single day. Count on a full day, not a quick morning.
Do this on your third day, not your first. If you have only just landed in Thailand, a long day out in the heat is exactly what you do not need. How Bangkok fits into a three-week trip is in our Thailand itinerary.
Our verdict: go for it if you have three days or more
One night on Khao San Road
Is Khao San Road touristy? Absolutely. Does that mean you should stay away? No. Especially on your first backpacking trip through Thailand, it is fun to wander it for one evening: bars, music, street food, buckets and backpackers from all over the world packed into a few hundred metres.
It is busy, chaotic and pretty over the top, but it is a good time. There is nothing to plan and nothing to book. You just walk in and the rest happens on its own.
After that one night you have seen it. From then on, head into Soi Rambuttri, the street right next to it: the same backpacker vibe but more relaxed, with live music and terraces where you can still hear each other talk. And do not leave your drink unattended on Khao San.
Our verdict: one night is plenty, then Soi Rambuttri
Got time to spare in Bangkok?
Another temple or two
Bangkok has some four hundred temples. With the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun you have seen the most beautiful and the most important, so after that you go on instinct. Wat Saket and its Golden Mount is a good one, because you climb a staircase to a view over the rooftops of the old city. Keep it to one or two a day, because in this heat that is plenty.
An hour cooling off in a mall
The malls are huge and sometimes almost an attraction in their own right, with food courts where you eat for a few euros and air conditioning where you can recover for a bit. Pick one, cool down, then dive back into the city.
Khao San Road at the right time
Everything that makes Khao San fun happens after eight in the evening: that is when the stalls spill into the street and everyone sits outside. During the day it is a quiet street you can happily walk through on your way to the temples. So come back at night for the atmosphere.
The smartest way to get around
Use Grab for your rides: the price is fixed up front and there is nothing to haggle over. If someone at a sight tells you it is closed today and offers you a cheap tuk-tuk loop, thank them politely and keep walking. Those loops end at a jeweller or a tailor where the driver gets his commission. Walking on to the entrance and checking for yourself works every time. How the boats, the metro and the night buses work in the rest of the country is in our guide to getting around Thailand.
Our top five in Bangkok
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- Street food along Yaowarat Road in Chinatown, from about seven in the evening
- The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, as early in the morning as you can manage
- Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha, straight afterwards
- Wat Arun across the river, ideally around sunset
- A local boat on the Chao Phraya instead of a taxi
Still got time after that? A Muay Thai night at Rajadamnern Stadium is the best way to fill an evening. If you are there at the weekend, go to Chatuchak: the market only runs on Saturday and Sunday and a few hours disappear there without you noticing. And if you want the skyline from above, go for the skywalk at King Power Mahanakhon or just a rooftop bar with a beer.
So what do you really have to do in Bangkok?
Honestly? Nothing on this list is compulsory. Bangkok is simply too big for a checklist: for every temple you tick off there are three streets you will never set foot in. Your best day here will probably be the one where you tear up your plan halfway through, wander down a random soi and sit wherever it is busy. So use this list to choose, and leave room around it.
If we had to pick just one thing: eat. Sit down at a cart on the pavement where only Thai people are sitting, point at whatever your neighbour is having and order that. €1.50, ten minutes, and it is the bit of Bangkok you will still be telling people about a year from now.
And give the city two days before you make up your mind. For almost everyone the first day is the hardest of the whole trip: the heat, the traffic, the sheer amount of everything. Then something shifts, and you find yourself on a plastic stool by the road with a plate of noodles, wondering why you only planned three days here.
