Ayutthaya Travel Guide

Yes. It's the easiest great sight to reach from Bangkok, and walking or cycling between the ruins of a city that was once among the largest in Asia is something you can't do anywhere else in Thailand. Wat Mahathat's Buddha head is the famous photo, but the scale of Wat Chaiwatthanaram and the three chedis of Wat Phra Si Sanphet are what stay with you.

It's a ruin site, not a living temple town like Chiang Mai, so the interest is history and atmosphere. It's also hot and exposed, so go early, take water, and don't try to see everything.

Ayutthaya or Sukhothai? Sukhothai is older, quieter and more beautiful, set in a park of lotus ponds, but it's six to seven hours north by bus. Ayutthaya is the one you can see from Bangkok in a day.

A day trip is enough for the highlights. Take an early train from Krung Thep Aphiwat, cross on the ferry, rent a bike, and you can see Wat Mahathat, Wat Ratchaburana, Wat Phra Si Sanphet and Wat Chaiwatthanaram before an evening train back. A tour does the same with a guide and an air-conditioned van, which helps in the heat.

A night is better if you can spare it. You can be at Wat Mahathat when it opens, take your time with the outlying temples, watch the sunset at Wat Chaiwatthanaram, and eat at the night market. The riverside guesthouses are good value, and the town is quiet once the tour groups leave.

One thing I'd skip is the elephant ride. The Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal still offers rides past the temples, and it's exactly the kind of elephant tourism the sanctuaries elsewhere in Thailand were set up to replace.

Ayutthaya is famous for two things. Boat noodles, small bowls of rich, dark beef or pork broth, are a local specialty, and Pa Lek on Bang Ian Road has a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Roti sai mai, threads of spun sugar wrapped in a thin pancake, is the town's sweet, sold from the shops lining U-Thong Road opposite the hospital.

In the evening, the Bang Ian night market, from about 17:00 to 21:00, is the place for dinner, and the riverside restaurants near the station serve the big river prawns the province is known for.

Take the train. Trains run through the day from Krung Thep Aphiwat, about an hour for around ฿20 in third class, and the Bangkok Connex is a direct air-conditioned service of about 75 minutes. Slower ordinary trains still leave the old Hua Lamphong station. Ayutthaya's station is on the east bank, so cross to the island on the ฿10 ferry just across the road.

Minivans from Mo Chit take one and a half to two and a half hours, a Grab costs about ฿900, and river cruises such as the Grand Pearl take you up by coach and back down the Chao Phraya by boat, from about ฿1,850. My Bangkok to Ayutthaya guide has every train time.

The old city is a flat island, so a bicycle is the best way to see it, about ฿50–100 a day from the shops by the ferry pier and the guesthouses. Bring water and a hat, because there's little shade between the temples.

Tuk-tuks wait at the station and the ferry pier and charge about ฿200–300 an hour, which is the easy way to reach Wat Chaiwatthanaram and the temples off the island. Agree the route and the price before you set off. Boat trips around the island in the late afternoon pass several of the riverside temples.

November to February is the best time, when the mornings are cooler and the skies are clear. It's also when the province holds its festivals, with Loy Krathong on the rivers and the World Heritage Fair's light shows at the ruins.

March to May is very hot, with highs near 36°C in April by the Bangkok normals, so start at opening and rest in the middle of the day. The rains run from May to October and peak in September, and the late rainy season sometimes brings floods. In late September 2026 the army built barriers along the river at Wat Chaiwatthanaram, which stayed open.