Thailand travel guide
Thailand travel guide: cities, islands, and the right route
Thailand remains Southeast Asia’s most accessible adventure – top beaches, exceptional food, two-month visa-free for most nationalities, and an infrastructure that handles 40 million tourists yearly without losing its texture.
Destinations we cover in Thailand
Country overview
Thailand is a tropical-monsoon country with a clear November-February dry season window and a separate northern hill region with distinct climate. The new TDAC (Thailand Digital Arrival Card, free, takes 3 min online) is required from mid-2025.
- Language
- Thai. English common in Bangkok, Chiang Mai tourist areas, and at major hotels; limited elsewhere.
- Currency
- Thai Baht (THB). ATMs widely available; SuperRich exchange booths offer the best rates.
- Best time to visit
- November-February for cool dry season. Avoid March-May extreme heat. June-October monsoon is workable in Bangkok but tougher in the north (haze can be severe).
- Trip highlights
- Bangkok’s temples + rooftop bars + street food, Chiang Mai’s mountain villages + ethical elephant sanctuaries, the Songkran (April) + Yi Peng (November) festivals.
Thailand travel guide
Thailand is Southeast Asia’s easy-to-love classic — temples, street food, beaches and warm hospitality at great value.
- Bangkok — temples, markets and the Grand Palace.
- Chiang Mai — northern culture, temples and ethical elephant sanctuaries.
- The islands — Phuket, Krabi and Koh Samui for beaches.
When to go & budget
The cool, dry season (November-February) is best. Thailand is famously affordable — street food costs a couple of dollars, and mid-range travel runs $70-120/day.
Know before you go
Dress modestly at temples, carry cash (baht), use the BTS in Bangkok to beat traffic, and use cheap domestic flights to link regions. Ten days covers Bangkok, the north and the islands.
How to structure a first trip: Bangkok plus one region, not two
A first trip of 10 to 12 days works best as Bangkok plus one other region, either the north or one coast; squeezing all three regions into that length means a transfer day every three or four days, and the three-region route sits more comfortably at about 14 days. The limit is not flying time, which is short, but transfer days: every change of region costs most of a day once airport time and check-in are included.
A workable split for 10 to 12 days:
- Bangkok, 3 to 4 nights, ideally divided between arrival and departure.
- North, 5 to 6 nights: Chiang Mai as the base, with Pai (roughly 135 km along Route 1095 and its 762 curves, about 3 to 3.5 hours by shared minivan) or Chiang Rai (about 3.5 hours by Greenbus) as the single side trip. Choosing both means two long road days out of six.
- Or islands, 5 to 6 nights, on one coast only. Phuket and Krabi are about 160 km and three hours apart by road, and Krabi to Koh Lanta is roughly three hours by van including a short ferry, so two Andaman bases are easy. Mixing the Andaman with the Gulf adds a full transfer day.
To avoid backtracking through Bangkok, book the domestic legs as a triangle: Bangkok to Chiang Mai, then Chiang Mai nonstop to Phuket or Krabi (about two hours), then back to Bangkok for the flight home. Overlanders can break the Bangkok to Chiang Mai run at Sukhothai, about 7 hours by bus from Bangkok and about 5.5 hours from Chiang Mai, which turns one very long day into two manageable ones with the ruins in between.
Getting around Thailand: what each leg really takes
Domestic flights link the three regions in about 60 to 90 minutes, and everything else is measured in half-days. Bangkok to Chiang Mai is roughly 700 km; the flight takes about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, while the best overnight sleeper, train number 9, is scheduled at about 12.5 hours and other services run 11 to 14. The train wins on cost and on saving a hotel night; the flight wins on time.
South, Bangkok to Phuket and Bangkok to Krabi are each around 1.5 hours in the air, with several low-cost carriers flying from both Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang. Koh Samui is different: only Bangkok Airways flies nonstop, about 1 hour 5 minutes, and fares reflect that. The cheaper route is the train to Surat Thani, about 9 to 12 hours, then a transfer to Donsak pier and a ferry of roughly 1.5 hours to Samui, which makes a 12 to 15 hour day door to door.
On the Andaman side, Phuket to Koh Phi Phi ferries take about one to two hours from Rassada pier, and Phuket to Krabi is about three hours by road. In the north, Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai is about 3.5 hours by bus and Chiang Mai to Pai about 3 to 3.5 hours by minivan on a mountain road that is hard on anyone prone to motion sickness.
Within Bangkok, both airports have rail. The Airport Rail Link from Suvarnabhumi reaches Phaya Thai in under 30 minutes, with a Blue Line interchange at Makkasan for Phetchaburi MRT, and Don Mueang is about 17 minutes from Krung Thep Aphiwat on the SRT Dark Red Line, which is linked by an underground walkway to the Blue Line's Bang Sue station.
When to go, coast by coast, and what two budgets really look like
Thailand has no single rainy season, so the best month depends on which coast is booked. The Andaman coast around Phuket and Krabi is wettest from May to October and peaks in September; the Gulf islands around Koh Samui and Koh Phangan are wettest from October to December and peak in November, which means they are often dry while the Andaman is soaked. Bangkok itself is wettest in September, at over 200 mm, and hottest in April at around 31C on average. The north has a separate problem that is not rain: agricultural burning produces heavy haze from February to April, worst in March, so the cool months of November to January are the ones to give Chiang Mai. A February to April trip should trade the north for the Andaman coast, and a July to September trip should choose the Gulf.
Two daily budgets, per person, all-in:
- Budget: around $30 to $50 a day covers a fan or basic air-con room, street food and market meals, local buses and the occasional third-class train. Most of the sleeper-train and minivan journeys above fit inside it.
- Mid-range: around $70 to $120 a day buys three-star hotels, restaurant dinners, domestic flights instead of night trains, and a tour or two.
Expect Bangkok and Phuket to run about 30 percent above Chiang Mai, and peak-season rates from November to February to sit up to about 30 percent higher than the shoulder months. Songkran in mid-April also pushes prices up for a week.
Thailand Travel Guide FAQ
What’s the best itinerary for Thailand?
Bangkok, Chiang Mai in the north, and a few days on the southern islands — about 10 days.
When is the best time to visit Thailand?
November to February — the cool, dry season with the most comfortable weather.
Compare Thailand with other destinations
Still deciding where to go? See how Thailand stacks up head-to-head:
Torn between destinations? See our honest comparisons: Bali vs Thailand, Greece vs Thailand, Thailand vs Mexico, Thailand vs Cambodia, Philippines vs Thailand, Maldives vs Thailand, Sri Lanka vs Thailand, Singapore vs Thailand, Malaysia vs Thailand, India vs Thailand, Vietnam vs Thailand, Thailand vs Indonesia, Bali vs Thailand, Vietnam vs Thailand, Japan vs Thailand.
Plan the practical side: Cost of 1 Week in Thailand Americans.
Still deciding on Thailand?
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How far does your money go? Read our Global Travel Affordability Report 2026 — 200 countries ranked by cost, with the cheapest regions and countries to travel.
More guides: What to pack for Thailand
Best time to visit Thailand (real climate data)
Best months: January, December, February.
Thailand’s warmest month is April (avg 34°C / 93°F), the coolest is December (low 22°C / 71°F). The wettest is September (325 mm) and the driest is January.
Source: Open-Meteo ERA5 climate normals (2019–2023). See the full month-by-month weather →
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Before you go: see whether they speak English in Thailand and what to wear, check the tap water, sort your mobile data, and find out if it is a cash or card destination, and brush up on local etiquette.
Still deciding? Read our honest take: Is Thailand worth visiting? The honest verdict
