Bangkok runs on contradiction: glittering royal temples beside elevated highways, five-star hotels above night markets selling grilled skewers for a dollar. It's a transit hub for the region but easily worth three or four days on its own.
Good to know
- Use the BTS Skytrain and MRT to skip the traffic — a single taxi ride can eat an hour.
- Dress modestly (covered shoulders and knees) for the Grand Palace and Wat Pho.
- Bargain at markets, but not at malls or with tuk-tuk fares already agreed.
Eat this
Places the planner can use
Mark places as a must or something to skip. The itinerary is built only from this list; ★ marks the destination’s highlights.
Dazzling royal complex and home of the revered Emerald Buddha — strict dress code, shoulders and knees covered.
Home to a 46-metre gold-plated reclining Buddha and Thailand's original public school of traditional massage.
Teak stilt house of the American silk entrepreneur who vanished in 1967, filled with Southeast Asian art.
Central green lung with a lake, monitor lizards and free-to-join tai chi at sunrise.
Sky-high cocktail bars like Vertigo or Sky Bar looking down over the city's grid of lights as the sun sets.
An hour of therapeutic stretching and pressure-point work at a proper Thai massage parlour, not the tourist kind.
Riverside temple encrusted with porcelain shards, climbable in steep steps for a view across the Chao Phraya.
Fifteen thousand stalls of clothes, antiques, plants and food under one roof — wear comfortable shoes and bring cash.
Neon-lit street stalls grilling satay and cracking crab omelettes after dark — come hungry and share everything.
Backpacker strip of bars, buckets and street stalls that never quite sleeps.
Slow boat past the lit-up Grand Palace and Wat Arun with a buffet dinner on deck.
An hour outside the city, longtail boats loaded with tropical fruit and noodle soup paddle narrow klongs at dawn.