THE GRANTOURISMO TRAVEL GUIDE TO

Bangkok

Bangkok Travel Guide

Thailand’s cosmopolitan capital Bangkok can be a chaotic, complex and confounding city – until you cruise the Chao Phraya River, discover the Old City and its glittering pagodas and gleaming spires, and explore the quiet canals. For many visitors Bangkok is little more than a shopping stop punctuating a beach holiday. Yes, there’s cheap accommodation and dirt-cheap street food, but there are also beautiful boutique hotels, heady cafés and buzzy bars, and brilliant restaurants serving inventive Thai food – not to mention new art and design destinations, a rejuvenated riverside, and a rapidly gentrifying Chinatown. Go now.

Bangkok Itineraries

ONE DAY

Itinerary

One day in Bangkok Old City itinerary. The ubosot (main shrine) in Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok, Thailand. Copyright 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

TWO DAY

Itinerary

Err, Urban Rustic Thai, Bangkok, Thailand. Copyright 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved. 48 hours in Bangkok.

Stay in Bangkok

Swimming Pool on Level 27 at 137 Pillars Bangkok. Best Bangkok Hotel Swimming Pools.

Best Bangkok Hotel Swimming Pools from Rooftop Infinity Pools to Riverview Pools

Best Bangkok hotel swimming pools range from rooftop infinity pools atop luxury towers boasting dazzling panoramic vistas of the Bangkok skyline to garden swimming pools in the grounds of historic…

Best Bangkok Old City Heritage Boutique Hotels. Bangkok Publishing Residence, Bangkok, Thailand. Copyright © 2018 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved. Best Bangkok Old Town Hotels.

Best Bangkok Old City Heritage Boutique Hotels and Bed and Breakfasts

The best Bangkok Old City heritage boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts offer an intimate, personal experience, a quaint taste of the past, and a step back in time, as…

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Accomodation

Booking.com

Insurance

Safety Wing Nomads Insurance

Eat in Bangkok

Where to Eat in Chinatown Bangkok, Our Yaowarat Road Eating Itinerary. Bangkok street food, Yaowarat Road, Chinatown, Bangkok, Thailand. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Where to Eat in Chinatown Bangkok, Our Yaowarat Road Eating Itinerary

Where to Eat in Chinatown Bangkok overwhelmed us on our first visit to the Thai capital over twenty years ago. There were a bewildering number of eating options then and…

Best Restaurants in Asia for 2023 According to Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants List.

Best Restaurants in Asia for 2023 According to Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants List

The best restaurants in Asia for 2023 according to voters of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants List were announced in Singapore this week. At #1 is Le Du restaurant in Bangkok,…

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Drink in Bangkok

Silom Sathorn District of Bangkok – A Guide to Bangkok's Buzziest Area. Moko Cafe. Copyright © 2015 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Silom Sathorn District of Bangkok – A Guide to Bangkok’s Buzziest Area

Silom Sathorn district of Bangkok is one of the Thai capital’s buzziest areas right now. Home to a spate of new cocktail bars, sunny cafés, seductive speakeasies and two of…

Sipping Singha Beer in Bangkok. Soi 38, Thong Lor, Bangkok. Copyright © 2023 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Sipping Singha Beer in Bangkok

We love eating street food on the footpaths of Bangkok. But if there is a downside, it’s the sweltering heat and often stifling humidity that nearly constantly hangs over the…

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Explore Bangkok

Exploring Koh Kret Island, Bangkok, Thailand. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Koh Kret Escape – Exploring Bangkok’s Secret Mon Island on the Chao Phraya River

Koh Kret – or Koh Kred – a tranquil Mon island on the Chao Phraya River that remains something of a secret to most Bangkok visitors, and even to some…

Bangkok Riverside Renaissance – From the Village of Wild Plums to Venice of the East. Supanniga Cruise, Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok Riverside Renaissance – From the Village of Wild Plums to Venice of the East

A Bangkok riverside renaissance in the last six years has seen an abundance of new boutique hotels, restaurants, cafés, and bars sprouting along the banks of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River,…

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Experience Bangkok

Cooking with Poo Cooking Class. Cooking with Poo at the Helping Hands Thai Cooking School. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Cooking with Poo at the Helping Hands Thai Cooking School

From Klong Toey markets in Bangkok it’s a quick drive and a short stroll through Klong Toey slum to Saiyuud Diwong’s modest kitchen where we’re going to try our hand at, um, Cooking with Poo at…

Cooking with Poo Cooking Class. A Walking Tour of Klong Toey Markets. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Cooking with Poo – A Walking Tour of Klong Toey Markets

“Isaan people eat everything!” Poo tells our small group as we negotiate the muddy paths of frenetic Klong Toey market on a walking tour to purchase ingredients for our Cooking…

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Book Bangkok Tours

Absorb Bangkok

Best Bangkok Street Food Tours for Thai Food Lovers. © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved. Chille Paste Food Tour.

Best Bangkok Street Food Tours for Thai Food Lovers and Street Food Fans

The best Bangkok street food tours offer immersive experiences with expert culinary guides with a deep knowledge of Thai cuisine, dishes, ingredients, and Thailand’s culinary history and culture. They give…

Bangkok Food Tours – a Foodie Walk Through Old Bangkok. Bangkok Food Tours, Bangkok. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Bangkok Food Tours – a Foodie Walk Through Old Bangkok

We sighed with relief – and salivated too – when a trio of young Thai foodies set up Bangkok Food Tours and started offering foodie walking tours in Bangkok, one…

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Shop Bangkok

iBerry home-made ice cream, Siam Paragon, Bangkok. Bangkok's sweet spots. Copyright 2014 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Shopping Mall Sugar Rush: Bangkok’s Sweet Spots

I will always choose savoury over sweet, spice over sugar. My ideal dessert is something like this traditional chocolate Catalan treat, because it includes salt and olive oil. I’ll eat –…

Bangkok Shopping Malls: Monsoon Havens & Modern Town Squares. Loft, Siam Discovery Mall, Bangkok, Thailand. Copyright © 2023 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Bangkok Shopping Malls: Monsoon Havens & Modern Town Squares

The much-maligned shopping mall makes sense in steamy Bangkok, especially during monsoon season – just as it does in the oppressive heat of Dubai. Whereas the gritty streets of both…

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Festivals & Events in Bangkok

Celebrating Songkran in Thailand means getting soaked. The traditional Theravāda Buddhist festival to mark Thai New Year has turned into one big water fight over the years.

Celebrating Songkran in Thailand – A Big Water Fight and Buddhist Festival

Celebrating Songkran in Thailand means getting absolutely soaked. The traditional Theravāda Buddhist festival to mark Thai New Year has turned into one big water fight over the years. While you…

Novice monks gather in Bangkok for Visakha Bucha Day. Bangkok, Thailand. Copyright © 2023 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Monks in Bangkok, Visakha Bucha Day, Thailand

When there are 12,600 Buddhist monks from southern Thailand in one street of Bangkok at once, where, as a photographer, do you start trying to document the mass alms-giving that…

Bangkok Local Knowledge

Where David Thompson Eats in Bangkok. Thitid ‘Ton’ Tassanakajohn (L) and David Thompson (R) at Le Du Restaurant. Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Where David Thompson Eats in Bangkok – A Local Guide to Eating Out in the Thai Capital

Where David Thompson eats in Bangkok is a local guide to eating out in the Thai capital for food lovers. With hundreds of chefs, restaurateurs, gourmands, and food media converging…

Chef Jess Barnes Guide to Trashy Chinese Food in Bangkok, Thailand. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Chef Jess Barnes Guide to Trashy Chinese Food in Bangkok

We believe great food should be celebrated in its many forms, whether genuinely old and authentic or the good old-fashioned bastardised cuisines of the kind we grew up on in…

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Bangkok Resources

Chef Deepanker Khosla is the José Andrés of Thailand Feeding Bangkok’s Jobless. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Inspired by Jose Andres Haoma Bangkok Chef Deepanker Khosla is Feeding the Hungry

Chef Deepanker Khosla of Haoma Bangkok is feeding the hungry. Inspired by chef José Andrés his #noonehungry campaign will provide 1,000 meals a day for the jobless. Launching the initiative…

How to eat like locals when you travel. Start with a slurping pho from a tiny plastic stool... Pho noodle shop, Hanoi old town, Hanoi, Vietnam. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

How To Eat Like Locals When You Travel

How to eat like locals when you travel? There’s an abundance of advice out there: slurp soup from a street food stall, sample home-cooked food at a local home, savour…

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Bangkok Essentials

WHEN TO GO

Nov–Feb The temeratures in Bangkok don’t vary much, it’s the humidity and change of rain that varies, this is the best time to travel and it’s crowded.
Mar–Jun Weather This shoulder season is less crowded but the chance of rain is higher.
Jul–Oct Wet season commences and while it’s a little less crowded, the storms can be ferocious.

HEALTH

Bangkok has excellent healthcare facilities, in fact it’s where most people in Southeast Asia head for medical treatment if they can afford it and is a medical tourism destination. It’s still of great importance that you get full medical insurance for your visit. Recommended Vaccinations

VISAS

Nationals of most countries can get a free tourist visa on arrrival in Thailand, it’s the length of the visa that varies and can range from 15 days to 90 days. Overstaying visas incurrs daily fines and rules can change overnight so be aware. Some visas can be extended, check the Thai Immigration website.

CURRENCY

CURRENT EXCHANGE RATES

$1.00 USD = 35.69 THB
$1.00 AUD = 23.60 THB
€1.00 EUR = 39.04 THB
£1.00 GBP = 45.69 THB

The Thai currency (THB) is called the ‘Baht’, and it’s the only currency used in the country. In touristy areas they may acccept USD but and give change in THB but you’ll suffer an unfavourable exchange rate. It is, however, easy to change most major currencies into THB.

LANGUAGE

THAI IS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THAILAND.
Thai language, ‘hello’ in Thai, ‘sawasdee krab’, said by men, and ‘sawasdee ka’ said by women. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

ELECTRICITY

ELECTRICITY IN THAILAND IS 220 VOLTS. 50 CYCLES/SEC.
Electricity in Thailand is 220 volts. 50 cycles/sec. Power plugs used in Thailand. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

LOCAL TIME

Time in Bangkok:

Bangkok’s Time Zone is (GMT+7) Bangkok has never utilised daylight saving.

WEATHER

CURRENT THAILAND WEATHER

TRANSPORTATION

AIR/LAND/SEA

There are direct international flights to Bangkok from major international destinations. Domestic flights cover major tourist destinations. Less expensive is bus travel covering all of Thailand, but for major routes minivans are becoming more popular – not great for tall or large foreigners. Within towns and sections of cities, besides taxis and motor-taxis are pick-up trucks with benches in the back that run specific routes.

Bangkok Daily Costs

BUDGET

Daily Budget Up To:

US$30

  • Guesthouse dorm room: US$3–10
  • Cheap restaurants, street food: US$0.5–3
  • BTS Daily Ticket: US$3:60

MID RANGE

Daily Budget From:

US$31–200

  • Air-con hotel room: US$20–45
  • Good local restaurant meal: US$5–15
  • Medium distance taxi ride: US$4:50

LUXURY

Daily Budget From:

US$201+

  • Boutique hotel or resort: US$80–500
  • Degustation meal without drinks: US$50+
  • Private airport transfer: US$80+