Thailand Heritage & Beach

Temples First, Then the Sea

1. 1Bangkok

   Arrival in Bangkok

   

   Morning

   Your guide meets the group in the arrivals hall at Suvarnabhumi Airport and a private coach runs into the city. Arrival times vary by flight, so the day is built around the schedule rather than against it, with the check-in beside the river timed to when the group actually lands.

   Afternoon

   Time to settle in and shake off the flight. Bangkok announces itself slowly from the hotel, a capital built on a scale the rest of the country never attempts, before the evening turns to the oldest quarter in the city.

   Evening

   After dark the guide leads a walk through Chinatown, down Yaowarat Road where the gold shops give way to the street kitchens, roast duck and noodle stalls and carts of mango with sticky rice, the solid-gold Buddha of Wat Traimit standing nearby for the quiet of the temple before the noise of the street.

   

2. 2Bangkok

   The Grand Palace and the River

   

   Morning

   A full morning at the ceremonial heart of the city, the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the seat of the kingdom for more than two hundred years, then Wat Pho next door, where the gilded reclining Buddha runs forty-six metres end to end and the country's first centre of public learning still teaches traditional medicine in the side halls.

   Afternoon

   Across the Chao Phraya to Wat Arun, the temple of dawn, its porcelain-clad prang best seen from the water, then a longtail boat through the canal communities of Thonburi, the old city that still lives at the pace of the river behind the high-rise one bank over.

   Evening

   The evening is free, useful for the Chatuchak weekend market if the dates fall right or a quiet hour in Lumphini Park before dinner in the city.

   Meals · B / - / -

   

3. 3Ayutthaya

   Ayutthaya, the Lost Capital

   

   Morning

   An hour and a half north by private coach to Ayutthaya, the capital that ran the kingdom for four centuries until a Burmese army burned it in 1767. At Wat Mahathat a sandstone Buddha head sits cradled in the roots of a bodhi tree, grown around the stone over the centuries since the city fell, the single image most travellers carry away from the old capital.

   Afternoon

   Wat Phra Si Sanphet and its three restored chedis on the royal palace grounds, then the rows of robed Buddhas at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon beneath a chedi tall enough to climb for the view across the ruins. The scale of the site only registers from inside it.

   Evening

   Back to Bangkok by early evening for the last night on the river, the third in the same hotel so the day trip needs no change of base.

   If the season shifts

   The middle of the day is hot on the open ruins in the dry season. When the schedule allows we start the historical park early and hold the shaded sites for the heat of the afternoon.

   Meals · B / L / -

   

4. 4Chiang Mai

   North to Chiang Mai

   

   Morning

   A morning flight north to Chiang Mai, the cultural capital of the north and once the seat of the Lanna kingdom, a little over an hour in the air against most of a day on the road.

   Afternoon

   The road climbs the mountain on the city's edge to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, the gold chedi that has looked down on Chiang Mai since the fourteenth century, reached by a staircase flanked by two long nagas or by funicular for those who would rather save their legs, with the city laid out on the plain below.

   Evening

   Down into the walled old city for a night market in the Lanna heart of the town, the lanes between the temples given over after dark to food and the crafts of the north.

   Meals · B / - / -

   

5. 5Chiang Mai

   Elephants and the Old City

   

   Morning

   A morning at an elephant venue in the hills near Chiang Mai. The venue is under verification against the four floors we apply to any elephant site: no riding, no bathing or washing by visitors, no hand-feeding or unbarriered contact, and no performances. That assessment is still open, so we do not yet say the venue clears it. The morning is spent watching the herd at a distance in its own routine and learning from the keepers how each animal is cared for.

   Afternoon

   Back to Chiang Mai and the square old city inside its moat, time among the Lanna temples the north built in its own style, Wat Chedi Luang with its half-ruined royal chedi and Wat Phra Singh at the western gate, with the afternoon left unhurried.

   Evening

   If the dates line up the Saturday or Sunday walking street takes over a whole lane of the old city after dark; otherwise a quiet dinner inside the walls.

   Meals · B / L / -

   

6. 6Phuket

   South to the Andaman

   

   Morning

   A morning flight south to Phuket, the country's largest island and the base for the Andaman coast, the temples and mountains of the north traded for the sea in the space of a couple of hours.

   Afternoon

   Check-in at the beach resort and the first afternoon of resort time, the pool and the sand after five days of touring, with nothing on the schedule but the coast.

   Evening

   Sunset at Promthep Cape, the headland at the southern tip of the island where the day ends over the water and the Andaman opens out to the west.

   Meals · B / - / -

   

7. 7Andaman Sea

   A Day on the Andaman

   

   Morning

   A boat day out into the marine national parks of the Andaman, to the reefs of the Surin Islands, far enough offshore to have stayed quiet, the snorkelling rather than the beach the whole reason for the crossing.

   Afternoon

   The day moves between anchorages over the coral, longtails and a dive boat standing off the reef, lunch taken on the water or on a sheltered beach, with time in the shallows for snorkellers of every level.

   Evening

   Back to Phuket by late afternoon, the boats in before dark, for a last evening on the resort coast.

   If the season shifts

   The Surin Islands national park closes through the southwest monsoon, roughly mid-May to mid-October. In those months the marine day runs instead to Phi Phi Leh and the limestone lagoons of the lower Andaman, where the water stays sheltered and workable later into the year.

   Meals · B / L / -

   

8. 8Phuket

   Phuket Old Town and the Coast

   

   Morning

   A slow morning on the coast, the beach or the resort spa, the one unstructured stretch of the route after a week of moving.

   Afternoon

   An afternoon walking tour of Phuket Old Town, the Sino-Portuguese shophouses of Thalang Road in their faded pastels, the legacy of the tin-mining merchants who built the town long before the beaches were the draw, with the cafes and the weekend market for the last of the shopping.

   Evening

   A final evening on the Andaman coast, dinner by the water to close the route.

   Meals · B / - / -

   

9. 9Phuket

   Departure

   

   Morning

   Breakfast at the resort. The guide coordinates the departure transfers, timing each vehicle to the individual flight schedules so no one waits at the airport longer than they have to.

   Afternoon

   Private transfer to Phuket International Airport for outbound flights, whether a domestic connection through Bangkok or a direct international departure. Groups extending onward in the south or across to the islands can be routed from here.

   Evening

   The route ends at the airport. Safe travels.

   Meals · B / - / -

   

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