Please critique my Bangkok itinerary

Our last year’s vacation got pushed to January due to my surgery and we’re thinking of Thailand since the weather is relatively clement that time of year and I can get us there on (economy class) miles. We only have about a week unfortunately, arriving midnight on 1/17 and leaving the morning of 1/25.

My tentative plans are


Saturday – Chatuchak Market

Sunday – Floating Market (possibly this tour - https://www.getyourguide.com/damnoen-saduak-floating-market-l33868/bangkok-half-day-damnoen-saduak-floating-market-tour-t75196)

Monday - Grand Palace and Wat Phra

Tuesday to Thursday afternoon – three day trip out of Bangkok to see Ayutthaya and the waterfalls (River Kwai & Ancient Thai Kingdoms by Intrepid Travel with 12 Tour Reviews (Code: TTAR) - TourRadar)

Thursday evening and Friday - TBD.

Opinions, advice, you’re crazy to go for only one week (I’m low on vacation time), you’re crazy not to go to Chiang Mai, etc. all welcome.

Make sure to eat some street food and take in the culture:

Yes, street food is a given :slight_smile:

I thought it only took One Night in Bangkok to Make a Hard Man Humble

Thank you so much for the great afternoon chuckle!

Do you get your kicks above the waist?? Chinatown is large and authentic and worth a visit for a meal. At the floating market, don’t fall out of the boat; nasty stuff in the water.

Yes, Chinatown is on the list. I’m now considering Huay Mae Khamin Falls instead of Erawan.

If you can fit it in… North to Chang Mai or south to one of the islands.

If you plan on visiting Thailand again then I’d wait because you won’t need to visit Bangkok again and it’s a very large country so you can easily do 4 days in the North and another 4 days in the south. Or longer…

There’s good recommendations in this thread.

+1 for the southern Islands, last time we went we had 3 days in Bangkok and the flew down to Koh Samui for a week in a pool villa next to the beach and then back to Bangkok for 1 night before flying back to NZ

In my opinion, 2-3 days in BKK is more than enough. BKK is pretty boring. Dont drink any of their water including ice. Again,in my opinion street foods are overrated and I wouldn’t even eat it.
Dont get scammed into buying Gold. No tipping is necessary and please dont do it. Phuket is overrated as well. Go to Chang Mai or Koh Samui.
Not sure what type of trips you prefer (adventures, diving, that type or just site seeing/shopping/foodie) but if you are the adventurous type next time consider Cebu.

I posted a thread a couple of years back with my experiences on the food side. Bo.lan is worth watching the Chef Table in and then visiting. Too bad you just missed Gaggan (closed in Aug)… was fantastic and ran $150 or so for one of the best restaurants in Asia.

JW Marriott was a great hotel and you can earn/use Bonvoy points.

His new restaurant seems a bit weird. I’m really not inclined to fill out a questionnaire on things like my favorite rock band to get a reservation.

He’s a different kind of a guy, at least from my limited interaction with him. I crashed the tail end of a dinner with friends that were foodie “influencers,” and he took them out on the back patio, bought them a round of cocktails and hung out and chatted for 45 minutes. Guy was in a concert tee that had been washed 3,000 times and baggy jeans and was totally cool. When you’re routinely best of or one of the top restaurants in Asia… you don’t need to chat with “influencers.”

So there are a couple ways you can do street food - the “Find the busiest stall and then point”, or something a bit more structured. We’ve done both and I prefer the more structured route, especially in a place with very unfamiliar foods and little spoken English by the vendors. While you will likely still get some delicious food using the former approach, I found that not knowing at all what my choices were, what a particular stall was best at, and not knowing what I was eating (not from a “gross” or health perspective, but simply curiosity) all detracted from the experience.

By more structured I mean participating in a food tour. I’m sure there are lots of good ones, but I can in particular recommend Chin from https://www.foodtoursbangkok.com/. We did a private street food tour, and she really customized it based on our likes and what we were interested in trying. Not only was it very helpful to have a local helping order/translate for us, but she was also very informative in providing context and information about what we were eating. On top of that, we were absolutely stuffed as we ate almost non-stop from 10am to 5pm.

Thanks Brandon!

I’d suggest a trip to a rooftop bar. It’s been 12 years or So since I was there but I think this is the spot we went to:

Nighttime views of bangkok are spectacular and a nice contrast to the streetlevel heat and noise.

I enjoyed the day trip we did out to Kanchanaburi. Your 3 day tour covering the same area looks good and would give more time to explore than 1 day - so looks like a good plan.

Nothing quite smells like a food alleyway in Bangkok… YMMV

Gaa is well worth a visit, we went there after Gaggan closed suddenly. Relatively affordable and was one of our meals of the year. The wine scene isn’t great in BKK but went to a really cool divey natural wine (I know, I know) bar called Kangkao. Cocktail scene is more developed at the moment.

Good news is I’m finally over my jet lag.

Bad news is we leave in 2 days.

Great trip so far will report in more detail when I get back.