Ten days and three bases: Bangkok's river temples and Chinatown food stalls, Chiang Mai for the walled old city, the mountain temple and a day with elephants, then Krabi's karst coast — Railay by longtail and a boat day out to the Phi Phi islands.
first-timercitiesbeachesfood
Open this itinerary in Vacadu Plan your own trip
Numbered days, not dates — start it whenever you like, ideally January to February, November to December.
Chinatown on foot: a gold Buddha, a temple, dinner outdoors.
Five and a half tonnes of solid gold Buddha, plastered over for two centuries and only found in the 1950s when the stucco cracked as it was being moved. The Buddha hall is open daily, roughly 08:00 to 17:00, for a small cash fee; the two museums under it, which tell the Chinatown story, close on Mondays.
Chinatown's main Chinese-Buddhist temple, open daily and free to walk into, one minute from the MRT station that shares its name. Come at dusk, when the incense is thickest and people are queuing to shake fortune sticks.
The carts come out along Yaowarat and the lanes off it once the light goes — every night except Monday, which is the city's pavement-cleaning day and the one evening most vendors take off. Shophouse restaurants stay open then, so a Monday arrival is not a disaster, only quieter. Eat standing, pay cash, and let the queues pick for you.
Overnight
The riverside sliver of Charoen Krung between the Si Phraya and Sathorn piers, where the Skytrain meets the Chao Phraya boats — so the express boat to the old city leaves from the end of your street and the traffic that eats other people's days never touches you. Saphan Taksin station and the pier are a walk, not a taxi. It is also the best street eating in central Bangkok outside Chinatown, and rooms a block or two inland cost noticeably less than the ones on the water.
Palace, reclining Buddha, then the ferry across to Wat Arun.
Wat Phra Kaew and the Emerald Buddha stand inside the same walls and the same 500-baht ticket. The complex is open daily 08:30 to 16:30, but the ticket office shuts at 15:30 — be there at opening anyway, because there is no shade in those courtyards by eleven. The dress code is the strictest in Bangkok: shoulders and knees covered, nothing see-through; a counter by the gate lends wraps. Someone outside telling you it is shut today for a ceremony is almost always running the gem-shop scam — the palace does close for announced royal ceremonies, and the official site is where those are listed.
The 46-metre reclining Buddha is the headline, but the far courtyards — hundreds of chedis, almost no people — are the reason to stay. This is also the home of Thai massage, and the school inside still teaches and still takes walk-ins at a posted price. Open daily, about 08:00 to 18:30, ten minutes' walk from the palace gate.
Cross on the little ferry from Tha Tien pier beside Wat Pho — a few baht, cash only, boats every few minutes, three minutes on the water. Open daily 08:00 to 18:00. The steep steps partway up the central prang put you close enough to see that the whole surface is broken Chinese porcelain. The postcard view is from the east bank at dusk, which means coming back or catching it from a riverside terrace.
Overnight
A weekend market, a silk merchant's teak house, an evening flight.
Fifteen thousand stalls, and the name is the timetable: Saturdays and Sundays, 09:00 to 18:00, with a plant market midweek and a wholesale session on Friday evening. If your day here lands on a weekday, cross to Or Tor Kor opposite — a daily fresh market, and the better food stop regardless. Go at opening: the aisles are roofed but airless by noon. MRT Kamphaeng Phet comes up inside the market.
Six old teak houses reassembled beside a canal by the American who rebuilt Thai silk after the war and then walked into a Malaysian jungle in 1967 and was never found. Open daily; entry is only by the short guided tour that leaves every half hour, so allow for a wait. It is a five-minute walk up the canal from National Stadium BTS, which makes it an easy last stop before the airport.
About an hour and a quarter, many times a day, and cheap if booked ahead. Check which Bangkok airport your ticket names: the low-cost carriers fly from Don Mueang and the full-service ones from Suvarnabhumi, and the two are an hour apart across the city. The overnight sleeper from Krung Thep Aphiwat is the romantic alternative at twelve hours or so, but berths sell out weeks ahead and it costs you this evening instead of saving it.
Overnight
Sleep inside the square moat and the whole of Chiang Mai's first day is on foot — temples, coffee, the walking street's full length — while the songthaews that reach Doi Suthep and the elephant valleys pick up at the gates. The lanes off Ratchadamnoen are quiet after ten; the block nearest Tha Phae Gate is not, so ask which side of the street the room faces.
Two great temples inside the moat, then the walking-street corner.
The grandest temple inside the walls, and the part to seek out is the small Viharn Lai Kham behind the main hall: its murals tell the Sang Thong and Suwannahong tales, but painted in 19th-century Lanna dress, tattoos and market scenes, so they read as a portrait of the city that made them. Grounds open daily from early; a small cash fee for foreigners at the main halls, shoes off at every door.
A vast 15th-century brick chedi, missing its top since an earthquake, that held the Emerald Buddha for eighty years before it was carried off to Laos; the image only reached Bangkok two centuries later. Open daily for a small fee. Monks sit at tables in the grounds for an open 'monk chat' from mid-morning — they want the practice in English, and it is the most interesting half hour in the old city.
The old city's east gate, and the hinge of the week. On Sunday evenings Ratchadamnoen Road behind it closes for the Sunday Walking Street, roughly 16:00 until late; on Saturdays the equivalent market is on Wualai Road, in the silversmiths' quarter south of the moat. Any other evening this is just a brick gate and a square of pigeons — pleasant at sunset, and ten minutes' walk from dinner either way.
Overnight
The mountain temple, a tunnel temple, then the nightly bazaar.
The gold chedi on the mountain, up 306 naga-flanked steps or a short funicular for those who would rather not. Open daily, 30 baht for foreign visitors at the terrace, shoes off once you are on it. Red songthaews run up from town for a fixed per-person fare and leave when they fill — agree the price before you climb in, and go early, before the coaches and the midday haze.
A forest temple at the foot of the same mountain, with 14th-century brick tunnels you walk through, a lake full of fish and turtles, and Buddhist sayings hung from the trees in English. Open daily and free — there is a donation box, not a ticket — and quieter than anything inside the moat.
The market that runs every night of the week, which is why it is here rather than the walking streets: whatever weekday you land on, this one is on. Eat in the covered food courts off Chang Khlan Road; the stall goods repeat aisle after aisle, so haggle gently and only for something you actually want.
Overnight
The valley north of the city, then the oldest temple in town.
The river valley north of Chiang Mai holding the region's biggest concentration of elephant sanctuaries — about 60 km out, an hour on the road and more once the pickups are done. Pick one that offers no riding and stages no bathing show: observing, feeding and walking with the herd is the honest version, and the better places cap group size and are booked out a week or more ahead. Full-day programmes include hotel pickup, which is the only sensible way up here without your own car.
The city's oldest temple, dated to 1297, a year after Chiang Mai itself, on a quiet lane in the north-east corner of the moat — the right scale for the end of a long day out. Open daily; the two small crystal and marble Buddhas sit behind glass in the side hall, and the chedi is carried on a ring of stone elephants.
Overnight
Early flight, climb the steps before the heat, then the coast.
Two airlines fly this nonstop in a little under two hours, but only a couple of departures a day and not on every day of the week — so book it before anything else on the trip, and if the timings do not work, connecting through Bangkok is the ordinary fallback. The early departure is the one worth chasing: it buys you the climb below before the heat. Krabi airport is 25 to 45 minutes from Ao Nang by shared van, airport bus or metered taxi.
One thousand two hundred and thirty-seven uneven concrete steps up a limestone tower to a gold Buddha and a full circle of karst and mangrove. Open daily and free; cover your shoulders at the cave shrine below, and take your shoes off on the summit platform. Most people need an hour to get up, which is why this is the first thing off the plane rather than an afternoon errand — by midday the steps are an oven. It is fifteen minutes from Krabi airport, so it works with the bags still in the van.
The working town the province is named after, on a mangrove river twenty minutes from the temple and half an hour from the beach. A late lunch on the riverfront is the reward for the steps, and if you are still here after dark the night market by the pier is where the town eats. From here it is 25 to 45 minutes on to Ao Nang by shared van, airport bus or taxi.
Overnight
The mainland beach town the longtails leave from, and the pragmatic choice over Railay: Railay has no road, so staying there means a boat for every errand and a premium on every room. From the beachfront here the crossing is fifteen minutes whenever you want it. The west end towards Noppharat Thara is the quiet half of the strip.
Cross to the peninsula with no road, back for sunset.
Cliffs cut this peninsula off from every road, so a longtail from the Ao Nang beachfront is the only way in — about 15 minutes, a flat fare each way, and the boats leave when eight people are aboard rather than to a timetable. The scheduled shared boats run roughly 08:00 to 18:00; after dark there are fewer of them and they cost more. There is no jetty at either end: expect to wade shin-deep with your bag over a shoulder. Walk the five minutes through to Phra Nang beach on the far side, past the cave shrine of carved phalluses that fishermen still leave offerings at.
The long, casuarina-shaded beach that runs west from Ao Nang, part of the national park and far emptier than the strip in front of the hotels. Walk out along it in the last hour of light — at low tide a sandbar opens towards the islands offshore, and the sunset is the one Ao Nang is actually famous for.
Overnight
A day trip through the islands, snorkelling stops and Maya Bay.
Day boats run to the archipelago from the Krabi mainland year-round, about two hours each way on the big ferries and less on a speedboat, with a national park fee collected in cash on arrival on top of the ticket. Book the day before and check which pier your ticket uses and whether the transfer is included — that is the part people get wrong. The lagoons and snorkelling stops around Phi Phi Leh are the day; the village on Phi Phi Don is lunch and a viewpoint climb.
The cliff-ringed cove that the crowds ruined and a closure of nearly four years brought back. It works under rules now: boats moor on the far side and you walk in over a boardwalk, numbers are capped, and swimming in the bay itself is not allowed. It shuts completely every year through August and September for the reef to recover, which is one more reason this is a cool-season trip.
Overnight
A hilltop chedi, a last park hour, then the airport.
An hour and a half, and frequent. Book it into whichever Bangkok airport your flight home leaves from — Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang sit on opposite sides of the city with no quick link between them, and an airport swap on departure day is the one way this itinerary can go wrong. Leave the bags in left luggage at the airport rather than dragging them into town.
Bangkok's artificial hill, climbed by 344 shallow steps that spiral around the outside past bells you are meant to ring, to a gold chedi and the best free-standing view of the old city. Open daily, small fee at the top gate, and the ticket office closes well before dark. It is a manageable last sight with a bag in left luggage.
The city's central park, open daily from before dawn until late evening, with monitor lizards the size of dogs on the banks and outdoor aerobics classes at either end of the day. Two metro stations sit on its corners, and from Phetchaburi it is one change onto the Airport Rail Link for Suvarnabhumi — which is why this is the last stop rather than an earlier one.
Markets and street stalls over restaurants; carry cash and eat where the queue is
Two short domestic flights between regions; boats, Skytrain and songthaews locally
Three bases, no repacking mid-stay, and the elephant day deliberately long
Two adults, first time in Thailand
November to February — cool and dry in the north, dry on the Andaman coast
Costa Rica · 9 days
A nine-day self-drive loop: San José's museums, three nights under Arenal with a Rio Celeste day, two in the Monteverde cloud forest, then sloths and Pacific beaches at Manuel Antonio before the drive back.
natureroad-tripfamilybeaches
Greece · 7 days
Two days of Athens on foot, then the ferry out to Naxos for marble villages and long west-coast sand, on to Santorini's caldera rim for Akrotiri and the Oia sunset, and a short flight back for one last Athens night.
first-timerislandsbeachesfood
Iceland · 8 days
Iceland's Ring Road in eight days, anticlockwise from Reykjavík: south-coast waterfalls, the glacier lagoon at Jökulsárlón, the East Fjords, Dettifoss and Mývatn, whale watching from Húsavík, and the long western run home. Honest driving times, summer only.
road-tripnatureself-drivewaterfalls
Italy · 7 days
Three days in Rome — the ancient core, the Vatican, Trastevere — then the fast train south, Pompeii on the way, and three nights in Positano for Ravello's cliff gardens, an Amalfi ferry day and the Path of the Gods on foot.
first-timercitiestrainsbeaches
Japan · 10 days
The Golden Route done properly: four days in Tokyo, an onsen night in Hakone under Mount Fuji, three days in Kyoto, the deer and Great Buddha of Nara, and Osaka's street food — all by train, with dawn starts that get you the famous places empty.
first-timercitiesculturetrains
London · 5 days
Five gentle days at a family pace: Parliament and the wheel, the Tower and the glass floor, the free South Kensington museums, Greenwich by river boat, then the British Museum and the zoo — with a park or playground every afternoon.
familyfirst-timercitiesfood
New York City · 5 days
Five days on foot and by subway: Midtown's icons and Times Square at dusk, the 9/11 memorial and a free ferry past the Statue, Central Park and the Met, the High Line down to Washington Square, then Brooklyn out to Coney Island.
first-timercitiesfood
Paris · 4 days
Four days built around markets and market streets — Enfants Rouges, Montorgueil, Mouffetard and Aligre — with Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Luxembourg gardens and the Eiffel Tower after dark folded in between the meals.
foodcitiesfirst-timer
Portugal · 8 days
Eight days north by train: Belém and Alfama, a full day in Sintra, the Baroque Joanina Library in Coimbra on the way, then Porto's tiled centre, a Douro Valley rail day, and the port cellars of Gaia.
first-timercitiesfoodtrains
Every itinerary here is written as a real plan, then checked stop by stop before it is published: walkable distances, opening seasons, honest travel times, and two to four stops a day rather than a checklist. Nothing on this page is sponsored or paid for.
Days are numbered, not dated, so a plan never goes stale — open it in the app and it lands on real dates you can change. Coordinates come from Wikidata, and photos from Wikimedia Commons under the licence credited beside each image.
Spotted something out of date? Tell us: trips@vacadu.com.
More on where the coordinates and photos come from, and what to re-check before you go.
_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}