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Country guide
Thailand is 513,120 km² and 76 provinces, plus Bangkok, which is not a province at all but a special administrative area with an elected governor of its own. The 65,975,198 people counted in 2024 spread across four regions that behave like four separate trips: the central plain along the Chao Phraya, the north around Chiang Mai and the old Lan Na kingdom, the Khorat Plateau in the northeast, and the long strip of the Malay Peninsula in the south. Most itineraries take two of the four. Taking all four is largely a schedule of internal flights.
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · Preecha.MJ · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Supanut Arunoprayote · CC BY 4.0
Photograph · Полина Славянская · CC BY 3.0
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
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Typical visit duration
The Grand Palace is the walled royal compound on the east bank of the Chao Phraya that Rama I began on 6 May 1782, an act that also founded Bangkok.
Wat Phra Kaew is the royal chapel standing inside the Grand Palace wall, and it is the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand, by function rather than by consensus of guidebooks.
Wat Pho, in full Wat Phra Chetuphon, is the temple immediately south of the Grand Palace, and it is the only monument in Bangkok carrying an international documentary-heritage inscription.
Wat Arun stands on the Thonburi bank of the Chao Phraya, directly across the water from the old royal city, and it is the one Bangkok monument built to be read from the river.
The Bangkok National Museum occupies the Wang Na, the front palace of the Second King, on Na Phra That Road beside Sanam Luang, and it is the head institution of Thailand's national museum service under the Fine Arts Department.
Wat Suthat Thepwararam is one of only ten first-class royal temples in Bangkok, and the one written into the city's original plan rather than added beside it.
The Jim Thompson House is the preserved Bangkok home of the American who rebuilt the Thai silk trade after the Second World War, and the standard reference example of Thai vernacular domestic architecture kept as a museum.
Wat Benchamabophit is Rama V's marble temple, built in 1900 as part of the Dusit district he laid out for himself, and the clearest surviving statement of what the Thai monarchy meant by modernisation.
Chatuchak is the weekend market that the Thai government's own Bangkok page calls the largest in the world, and it is large enough that the claim is hard to argue with: Wikivoyage records roughly 8,000 vendors on 35 acres and…
Yaowarat Road is the mile and a half of Chinatown that records the commercial history of Bangkok, as against the royal history a few streets north.
Wat Saket is a working royal monastery in Pom Prap Sattru Phai, on the eastern edge of the old royal island, and it is older than the city that grew around it.
The Golden Mount is a hill that was never meant to be one.
Wat Traimit stands at the western gate of Yaowarat, where Chinatown meets the road in from Hua Lamphong, and it exists in the guidebooks for one object: a Sukhothai-style Buddha image of solid gold.
The Erawan Shrine is a small open pavilion on the corner of the Ratchaprasong junction, hemmed in by department stores and skywalks, holding a gilded four-faced image of Phra Phrom — the Thai form of Brahma.
Museum Siam is a museum about being Thai, in a building that was designed by an Italian.
The National Museum of Royal Barges is a single covered boat shed on the bank of Khlong Bang Kok Noi, on the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya, where the Fine Arts Department keeps the royal ceremonial barges out of…
Wat Bowonniwet Vihara is the headquarters temple of the Thammayut order, and that single fact governs everything a visitor sees in the compound.
Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall is the domed marble building at the head of the Royal Plaza in Dusit, and it is the one entry on this list that cannot be entered.
Wat Mahathat Yuwaratrangsarit is a first-class royal temple of the highest grade — one of only six ratchaworamahawihan temples in Thailand — with an Ayutthaya-period foundation and a position that is itself a statement: it stands on Maha Rat Road…
Wat Ratchabophit Sathit Maha Simaram is Rama V's own foundation of 1869 and the most formally peculiar of Bangkok's royal temples, which is exactly why it is worth seeing after the canonical ones rather than before them.
Wat Ratchanatdaram Worawihan stands where Ratchadamnoen Klang meets Maha Chai Road in Phra Nakhon, and it is on itineraries for one building inside it: Loha Prasat, the metal-spired monastery.
Lumphini Park is Bangkok's oldest public park, 360 rai — about 57.6 hectares — of lake, lawn and rain tree in Pathum Wan, wedged between the Silom and Sathorn office towers and Rama IV Road.
The Democracy Monument stands on a traffic circle where Ratchadamnoen Avenue crosses Dinso Road, in Phra Nakhon district, roughly halfway between Sanam Luang and the Golden Mount.
Bangkok (Hua Lamphong) railway station is the former central passenger terminal of Thailand, a domed Italian neo-Renaissance building in Pathum Wan operated by the State Railway of Thailand.
Victory Monument, in Thai Anusawari Chai Samoraphum, is a military memorial at the centre of a large traffic circle in Ratchathewi district, where Phahonyothin, Phaya Thai and Ratchawithi roads meet northeast of central Bangkok.
Khao San Road is a 410-metre street in Phra Nakhon, a few minutes' walk from the Chao Phraya, whose name means milled rice and whose reputation has nothing to do with rice.
Sanam Luang, "royal turf", officially Thong Sanam Luang, is the great open field in front of Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace in Phra Nakhon district - 74.5 rai, about 119,200 square metres of grass ringed by tamarind trees…
Assumption Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangkok, standing in Soi Oriental off Charoen Krung 40 in Bang Rak, a short walk back from the Chao Phraya river.
The Giant Swing, Sao Chingcha in Thai, is a 21.15-metre red teak frame standing on an open island in front of Wat Suthat in Phra Nakhon, and it is the last physical trace of a Brahmin ceremony that Bangkok stopped…
Suan Pakkad Palace is closed.
Suan Pakkad Palace is a private aristocratic compound on Si Ayutthaya Road in Ratchathewi, south of the Victory Monument, where Prince Chumbhotbongs Paribatra, who lived from 1904 to 1959, and his wife Princess Chumbhot assembled a residence out of old…
The Bangkok City Pillar Shrine is the oldest thing in Bangkok, and it is older than the city in the strict sense: the acacia pillar at its centre was raised on 21 April 1782, before the walls, before the ministries…
Dusit Palace is not a palace to tour but a royal quarter of Bangkok, roughly 64,749 square metres bounded by Ratchwithi Road to the north, Si Ayutthaya Road to the south, Ratchasima Road to the west and U-Thong Nai Road…
The Siriraj Medical Museum is a cluster of six museums of medical curiosities inside Thailand's oldest hospital, on the Thonburi bank of the Chao Phraya, and it is the most useful antidote in Bangkok to a week of gilded temples.
Pak Khlong Talat is Bangkok's wholesale flower market, and it is the city's largest trading ground for cut flowers, garlands and ritual offerings — a district of lanes at the mouth of the Khlong Lot canal in Phra Nakhon where…
The Rama VIII Bridge is an asymmetric cable-stayed crossing of the Chao Phraya River, 475 metres long with a 300-metre main span, hung from a single inverted-Y pylon 160 metres tall that stands on the Thonburi bank.
The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre is the city's principal public venue for contemporary art, a free public building at the Pathumwan intersection that the Thai government's own Explore Bangkok listing names as the place where emerging Thai artists show.
Phaya Thai Palace is a group of early twentieth-century royal halls at 315 Ratchawithi Road in Ratchathewi, standing inside the walls of a working army hospital rather than behind a ticket office.
Chatuchak Park is the public park on the west side of Kamphaeng Phet 3 Road in Chatuchak district, the green half of the block whose other half is the weekend market.
The Mahanakhon SkyWalk is Thailand's highest observation deck, at the top of the pixelated tower in Bang Rak whose bitten-away spiral of glass boxes made it the most recognisable building added to Bangkok's skyline in a generation.
Sathorn Unique Tower is an unfinished skyscraper off Charoen Krung Road in Sathon, and it is the most conspicuous ruin in a modern Asian capital.
Wat Ratchapradit Sathitmahasimaram is the smallest of Bangkok's first-class royal monasteries, a walled grey-marble compound of 2 rai 2 ngan 98 square wah — about 4,400 square metres — on Saranrom Road in Phra Nakhon, immediately south of Saranrom Park…
Wat Rakhangkhositaram is a second-class royal monastery on the Thonburi bank of the Chao Phraya in Bangkok Noi, directly opposite the Grand Palace and a few minutes' walk south of Siriraj Hospital and Wang Lang market.
Sa Pathum Palace is a working royal residence in Pathum Wan, hidden behind a wall that runs along Phayathai Road between Siam Paragon and the Siam Kempinski Hotel.
Talat Noi is a working riverside quarter on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya, immediately south of Bangkok's Chinatown, and it is a place rather than a venue: no gate, no ticket desk, no operator.
Phra Racha Wang Derm — the Old Palace, or Thonburi Palace — is the palace King Taksin had built in 1767 on the west bank of the Chao Phraya at the mouth of Bangkok Yai canal, and it was his…
Benjakitti Park is a 450-rai forest park in Khlong Toei, wedged between Ratchadaphisek Road, the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center and the back of the Sukhumvit office district, and it is the most ambitious piece of public landscape Bangkok has…
Bangkok Arena is an indoor sports hall in Nong Chok, at the far eastern edge of Bangkok, owned and operated by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
The National Aviation Museum of the Royal Thai Air Force is the air force's own collection, established in 1952 and laid out along the edge of Don Mueang air base in northern Bangkok, next to the domestic airport it shares…
Vimanmek Mansion is a former royal villa in the Dusit Palace complex in Dusit district, and it cannot currently be visited.
Paruskavan Palace, Wang Parusakawan in Thai, is a cream-brick European villa in Dusit that King Chulalongkorn built for his son Prince Chakrabongse Bhuvanath when the prince came home from his military education in Russia.
Saranrom Palace is a two-storey brick palace on Sanam Chai Road, immediately east of the Grand Palace and facing the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, designed by the Englishman Henry Alabaster and begun in 1866.
Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, known to Bangkok as Wat Khaek and formally as Wat Phra Si Maha Uma Thewi, is the principal Tamil Hindu temple in Thailand, standing at the corner of Si Lom Road and Pan Road in Bang…
Bang Khun Phrom Palace is the riverside residence built for Prince Paribatra Sukhumbandhu on Samsen Road in Phra Nakhon, and it is opened to visitors by the Bank of Thailand, which has owned the compound since 1945.
The Customs House, Sulakasathan in Thai, is the neo-Palladian river frontage at 300 Soi Charoen Krung 36 in Bang Rak, built between 1886 and 1888 to the design of the Italian-Austrian architect Joachim Grassi during the reign of King Chulalongkorn.
Wat Yannawa is the temple on Charoen Krung Road in Sathon whose principal monument is a full-size masonry Chinese junk with two chedis rising from its deck.
Wat Intharawihan in the Bang Khun Phrom quarter of Phra Nakhon is the temple of Luang Pho To, a standing Buddha in the posture of receiving alms that rises 32 metres and is the second tallest Buddha image in Bangkok.
Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre is the modernist cinema at the corner of Charoen Krung and Tripet roads in Wang Burapha, opened on 2 July 1933 and built with 9,000,000 baht of King Prajadhipok's personal money to mark the 150th anniversary…
Queen Sirikit Park is a botanical garden of 0.22 square kilometres in Chatuchak district, northern Bangkok, established in 1992 and opened on 19 December 1996 to mark Queen Sirikit's sixtieth birthday.
Wat Thepthidaram Worawihan is a royal monastery on Maha Chai Road in Phra Nakhon, one of the three temples King Rama III founded during his reign.
Sukhothai Palace is a royal residence on Samsen Road in Dusit district, Bangkok, and it is not a visitor attraction: it remains in use and is closed to the public.
Suan Luang Rama IX is the largest park in Bangkok, covering 500 rai, or about 80 hectares, in Prawet district in the south-east of the city.
Wat Mahannapharam Worawihan is a third-class royal monastery on the eastern side of Tanao Road in Sao Ching Cha subdistrict, Phra Nakhon, a few minutes from the Giant Swing in the oldest part of Bangkok.
Benjasiri Park is a 29-rai public park on Sukhumvit Road between Soi 22 and Soi 24 in Khlong Toei, laid out by the Finance Ministry's Treasury Department on ground that had belonged to the Meteorological Department and opened on 12…
Chaliam La 56 Bridge carries Phaya Thai Road over Khlong Saen Saep on the boundary between Pathum Wan and Ratchathewi, a short reinforced-concrete arch that most of Bangkok knows by its nickname rather than its name: Saphan Hua Chang, the…
Siriraj Bimuksthan Museum occupies the old Thonburi railway station on the Siriraj Hospital grounds in Bangkok Noi, and it is two things at once: a preserved terminus and a museum about the ground it stands on.
Wat Pathum Wanaram is a royal temple standing in its own belt of old trees between Siam Paragon and CentralWorld, in the middle of Bangkok's densest shopping district.
Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall is the main residence of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, Rama X, in Bangkok, and it is closed to the public in every sense: no tours, no ticket, no visiting hours and no admittance to the grounds.
Wat Mangkon Kamalawat is the largest and most important Chinese Buddhist temple in Bangkok, standing on Charoen Krung Road between sois 19 and 21 in Pom Prap Sattru Phai.
Siam Commercial Bank's Talat Noi branch is a working bank counter housed in the building that once served as the head office of the first Thai commercial bank, standing on the Chao Phraya riverbank in Samphanthawong.
Devavesm Palace is a neoclassical riverside palace on Samsen Road that today belongs to the Bank of Thailand and is not on the Bank's list of places the public may book.
Wat Hua Lamphong is a third-class royal monastery of the ordinary type in Bang Rak, pressed directly against Sam Yan station on the MRT Blue Line, and it is best known in Bangkok as a place to make merit by…
Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen is a third-class royal monastery of the ordinary type standing on what is effectively a small square island in the canals west of the Chao Phraya, and it is the home temple of the Vijja Dhammakaya…
The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles is a textile museum inside the Grand Palace, occupying the Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana Building just inside the palace's outer court, and it is the quietest, most air-conditioned room on the whole compound.
Holy Rosary Church, known in Thai as Wat Mae Phra Luk Prakham and to its Chinese congregation as Wat Kalawar, is the Catholic parish church of Talat Noi, standing on the Chao Phraya at Soi Wanit 2 off Yotha Road…
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Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall is a single-storey timber throne hall inside the Dusit Palace precinct, built in 1903-1904 by order of King Chulalongkorn after his first tour of Europe and designed by the Italian architect Mario Tamagno.
The National Gallery on Chao Fa Road is Thailand's first state institution for collecting, conserving and exhibiting the nation's art, and it occupies the old royal mint building at the north end of the Rattanakosin island, a five-minute walk from…
Wat Kalayanamit Woramahawihan is a second-class royal temple on the Thonburi bank of the Chao Phraya, at the mouth of Khlong Bangkok Yai in the old Kudi Chin quarter, and it was founded in 1825 by Chao Phraya Nikorn Bodin…
Ton Son Mosque is the oldest mosque in Bangkok and in Thailand, standing on the left bank of Khlong Bangkok Yai in Wat Arun subdistrict, Bangkok Yai district, on the Thonburi bank of the river.
The equestrian statue of King Chulalongkorn stands at the centre of the Royal Plaza in Dusit, south of the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, and it is the monument Thai visitors mean when they speak of paying respects to Rama V.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, known as MOCA Bangkok, is a privately owned art museum in Chatuchak, established on 23 March 2012 and built around the collection of the business executive Boonchai Bencharongkul.
Wang Lang Market is a daily market in Bangkok Noi district, on the Thonburi bank of the Chao Phraya beside Siriraj Hospital, and it runs for 300 metres along a narrow lane between the Siriraj pier and Arun Amarin road.
Luang Sathorn Mansion, also known as Sathon Mansion, is a neoclassical house of 1888 at 106 North Sathon Road in Bang Rak, and it is the surviving physical explanation of how Sathorn came to exist.
Tha Phra Chan is a pier on the east bank of the Chao Phraya on Rattanakosin Island, in Phra Nakhon District, and the name has spread from the jetty to the whole warren of lanes behind it — Bangkok's best…
Saranrom Park, or Saranrom Royal Park, is a 23-rai public park directly east of the Grand Palace, run by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, and one of the few green spaces in Rattanakosin that a visitor can simply walk into and…
The Snake Farm at the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute is the visitor-facing part of a working antivenom laboratory belonging to the Thai Red Cross Society, on Rama IV Road in Pathum Wan.
The Royal Cemetery at Wat Ratchabophit Sathitmahasimaram is a walled garden of thirty-four monuments on Atsadang Road beside the old city moat, holding the ashes and remains of the consorts and children of King Chulalongkorn.
Bang Luang Mosque, also called Kudi Toh Yi and Kudi Khao, the White Kudi, is a mosque built in the shape of a Thai temple hall — brick and lime plaster throughout, whitewashed, with its woodwork painted green, and no…
Wat Prayurawongsawat Worawihan is a Buddhist monastery on the Thonburi bank of the Chao Phraya whose claim on a visitor's attention is a restoration rather than a relic.
Wat Ratcha Orasaram Ratchaworawihan is the temple where Thai religious architecture changed direction.
Wat Phra Si Mahathat Woramahawihan is Bangkok's political temple.
Suan Wachirabenchathat is a 375-rai public park in Chatuchak district, run by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, which lists it under its older popular name Suan Rot Fai, the Railway Park.
The Immaculate Conception Church at Samsen is the oldest Catholic church in Thailand, and its history is a record of three separate refugee arrivals rather than of a single foundation.
MBK Center is an eight-storey shopping centre at the corner of Rama I and Phaya Thai Roads in Pathum Wan, and it is the one large Bangkok mall that never became a luxury mall.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors, Wikidata ·
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