Bangkok to Ayutthaya

Since the northern line moved out of Hua Lamphong, the trains you want leave from Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal at Bang Sue — reachable on the MRT Blue Line, and a genuinely pleasant place to wait, which is not something anyone said about the old terminus. Around sixteen fast services a day head north through Ayutthaya, and the useful ones for a day trip cluster in the early morning: roughly 06:10, 07:10, 07:30, 08:45 and 09:05, with second-class air-con on some and third-class fan on others.

Do not overthink the class. This is a one-hour ride through rice fields, the fan carriages have the windows open and the better view, and the price difference between ฿70 and ฿125 is not the point of your day. Buy at the window on the morning if you're flexible — Ayutthaya is a commuter stop, not a route that sells out. Book ahead only if you need a specific departure to make a specific tour.

A handful of ordinary trains still run the route from Hua Lamphong for as little as ฿15–20. They take closer to two hours with every halt, which is either the charm of the thing or forty wasted minutes, depending on your mood and the month. In April, when Ayutthaya's open ruins hit 38°C by noon, the forty minutes matter more than the ฿50.

Minivans leave the Northern Bus Terminal at Mo Chit roughly hourly from 06:00 into the afternoon, cost ฿150–340, and are advertised at 1.5 hours. That figure assumes the expressway is clear, which it is at 06:00 and rarely afterwards. The realistic range is 1.5 to 2.5 hours, and the variance is entirely on the Bangkok end — once you're past the northern suburbs the road is quick.

The case for the van is that it drops you closer to town than the station does, on the same side of the river as the ruins, which saves you the ferry. The case against is that Mo Chit is itself a trek from most Bangkok hotels, so you are frequently spending forty minutes getting to the terminal to save five minutes on a river crossing. If you're staying anywhere with easy MRT access, the train wins on total door-to-temple time almost every morning.

Ayutthaya station sits on the east bank of the Pa Sak river; the historical park is on the island opposite. Turn left out of the station, walk about 200 metres to the riverside, and a small passenger ferry crosses for ฿5–10 in roughly five minutes. It runs continuously through the day. The tuk-tuk drivers who meet the train will not mention this and will quote you ฿150–200 to drive round via the bridge instead — which is a fine option if you're carrying luggage or travelling with kids, and an unnecessary one if you aren't.

On the island, the flat compact layout makes a bicycle the obvious choice: ฿40–100 a day from the shops clustered near the ferry landing and around the northwest of the island. The main temple cluster is a fifteen-to-twenty-minute walk or a five-minute ride apart. The exception is Wat Chaiwatthanaram, which sits across the water on the west side and is far enough out to justify a tuk-tuk — which is also why hiring one by the day at ฿350–600 makes sense if you want that temple at golden hour without a sweaty ride home in the dark.

On tickets: entering the park costs nothing, and you pay per temple — ฿50 at the major sites, ฿20 at the smaller ones. If you're visiting four or more of the big six, the ฿220 combined ticket pays for itself. Buy it in cash at the ticket window of any of the six it covers; it's valid for thirty days, which is more generous than a day trip needs but useful if you're basing in Ayutthaya for a couple of nights.