A Two-Week Thailand Itinerary: Bangkok Is Worth More Than One Night

Thailand is three different holidays in one country, and the mistake first-timers make is trying to link them by road. The country is roughly 1,000 miles top to bottom, and overland travel between the regions eats days.

A two-week Thailand itinerary does all three comfortably. Ten days does two of them well.

The three regions, and what each is for

Bangkok is the arrival city and the one most people under-book. The north, meaning Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, is mountains, temples and cooler air. The south is the beaches, split between the Andaman coast and the Gulf coast, which have opposite weather.

Fly between them. Bangkok to Chiang Mai is about 80 minutes, Bangkok to Phuket or Krabi about 90. The overnight train to Chiang Mai is an experience worth having once, but it costs you a working day at each end.

Give Bangkok three nights, not one

The standard itinerary gives Bangkok a night on arrival and a night before the flight home. That is a mistake born of jet lag.

The Grand Palace and Wat Pho are best at opening, before the heat and the coach groups. Wat Pho holds the reclining Buddha and is the calmer of the two. Wat Arun across the river is better in late afternoon light, and the cross-river ferry costs a few baht.

Chatuchak Weekend Market runs Saturday and Sunday only. If your dates include a weekend, keep one of those days free.

And give yourself one evening with no plan at all. Bangkok after dark is the point of Bangkok.

Four nights in the north, and the elephant question

Chiang Mai is walkable, surrounded by mountains, and about ten degrees cooler than Bangkok in the hot season. The old city sits inside a square moat and you can cross it on foot in twenty minutes.

On elephants, be careful who you book with. No riding, no chains, no bullhooks. Any camp offering rides is not a sanctuary regardless of what it calls itself. The genuine ones let you observe and feed, and nothing more.

Chiang Rai is a three-hour drive north and makes a long day trip or a better overnight. The White Temple is a contemporary artwork rather than a historic site, and it is more interesting for it.

The coast most people get wrong

This is where timing decides everything. The Andaman coast, meaning Phuket, Krabi and Phi Phi, is at its best November to April. The Gulf coast, meaning Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, runs on a different cycle and is driest February to September.

So a July trip does not mean skipping the beaches. It means going to the other side.

Khao Sok National Park sits between the two coasts: limestone karsts, a reservoir, and floating raft houses. It is the least visited thing on this list and the one guests talk about afterwards.

Khao Sok is the one we push hardest with people who have done a beach holiday before and want this one to be different.

What a two-week Thailand itinerary looks like

Three nights Bangkok, four nights Chiang Mai with a Chiang Rai overnight, two nights Khao Sok, four nights on whichever coast the season favours, one night back in Bangkok before the flight.

That is two internal flights and one long transfer. It is not a rushed trip.

Onward tickets, covered knees, and the hot season

Thai immigration expects an onward ticket. Temples require covered shoulders and knees, for everyone, and enforcement at the Grand Palace is strict. The hot season peaks March to May and is genuinely hot, so the shoulder months either side are more comfortable for a first visit.

Our guide to using your phone abroad covers the data question, which matters more here than it does in Europe. If you want the trip built for you rather than booked piece by piece, that is what our custom itineraries service is for.

Call Exquisite Travel Group on (916) 757-6300 and we will start from your dates, because which coast you end up on is decided by the calendar rather than by preference.