7-Day Bangkok Itinerary — Floating Markets, Chinatown & the River Kwai

The Grand Palace

📍 Rattanakosin

Get there at opening — the tour groups land by 10. Strict dress code: covered shoulders and knees.

Wat Phra Kaew

📍 Grand Palace complex

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha — Thailand's holiest image, carved from a single block of jade, in robes the King changes each season.

Wat Pho

📍 South of the Grand Palace

The 46-metre gold Reclining Buddha, mother-of-pearl feet — then a stop at the temple's massage school, the oldest in Thailand.

Tha Tien Pier

📍 Maha Rat Road

Lunch at the shophouses by the pier, then the 5-baht cross-river ferry — the cheapest boat ride in Bangkok.

Wat Arun

📍 Thonburi bank

Climb the steep central prang studded with broken Chinese porcelain. Come back to the opposite bank at dusk — it lights up gold.

Sala Rattanakosin

📍 Maha Rat Road riverfront

Rooftop dinner directly across the river from Wat Arun — the lit-up prang is the backdrop.

Wat Saket

📍 Golden Mount

344 spiral steps past bells and prayer walls to the gold chedi — the best old-town panorama in Bangkok.

Wat Suthat

📍 Sao Chingcha

One of Bangkok's oldest royal temples, with the towering red Giant Swing frame outside its gate.

Thipsamai Pad Thai

📍 Maha Chai Road

The city's most famous pad thai, wrapped in a thin egg net, cooked over charcoal woks since 1966.

Pak Khlong Talat Flower Market

📍 Chak Phet Road

Mountains of marigolds, jasmine garlands and orchids moved by the armful — Bangkok's 24-hour flower market.

Phra Sumen Fort

📍 Santichaiprakarn Park

A white 1783 fort on a riverside lawn where locals picnic at sunset — breathing room before the chaos next door.

Khao San Road

📍 Banglamphu

Love it or roll your eyes at it — one evening of the backpacker circus, mango sticky rice in hand, is part of the Bangkok syllabus.

Wat Traimit

📍 Chinatown

The Golden Buddha — 5.5 tonnes of solid gold, hidden under plaster for two centuries until it was dropped by a crane in 1955.

Sampeng Lane Market

📍 Soi Wanit 1

A shoulder-width lane of fabric, toys and haberdashery running the length of old Chinatown — commerce at maximum density.

Nai Ek Roll Noodle

📍 Yaowarat Road

Michelin Bib Gourmand kuay jab — peppery rolled rice noodles with crispy pork, served at a sprint since 1960.

Talat Noi

📍 Riverside Chinatown

The photogenic quarter of street art, ancestral shrines and courtyards full of vintage engine parts — Bangkok's best aimless wander.

ICONSIAM

📍 Thonburi riverbank

Take the free shuttle boat across — the indoor 'floating market' food hall on the ground floor does regional Thai dishes stall by stall.

Yaowarat Road

📍 Chinatown

Neon signs and woks on fire — graze the night stalls: guay tiew kua gai, roast chestnuts, bird's nest shops, T&K Seafood's pavement tables.

Jim Thompson House

📍 Rama I Road

The teak house-museum of the American who revived Thai silk, assembled from six antique houses — then vanished in Malaysia in 1967.

Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

📍 Pathumwan

The white spiral galleries opposite MBK — free contemporary Thai art, and the city's best air-conditioned hour.

Erawan Shrine

📍 Ratchaprasong

The four-faced Brahma shrine on Bangkok's busiest corner — traditional dancers perform for devotees whose prayers came true.

Lumphini Park

📍 Silom

Bangkok's central park — swan boats, outdoor gyms, and two-metre monitor lizards cruising the lakes like small dinosaurs.

Mahanakhon SkyWalk

📍 King Power Mahanakhon, Silom

Stand on the glass floor 310 metres over Silom as the sun drops and the city grids light up.

Maeklong Railway Market

📍 Samut Songkhram

Vendors fold their awnings back eight times a day as the train rolls through inches from the produce — check the train timetable and stand where the stallholders tell you.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

📍 Ratchaburi

The classic paddle-boat market — touristy, yes, but boat noodles and coconut pancakes handed up from a canoe are still worth one morning.

Amphawa Floating Market

📍 Amphawa

The Thai crowd's floating market (Fri–Sun afternoons) — grilled river prawns eaten on the canal steps.

Wat Bang Kung

📍 Bang Kung, Samut Songkhram

A tiny ordination hall swallowed whole by a banyan tree — the roots are the walls now.

Asiatique The Riverfront

📍 Charoen Krung Road, Bangkok

Back in the city: night market and giant ferris wheel on the old East Asiatic docks.

Thailand-Burma Railway Centre

📍 Kanchanaburi

Start here — the small, serious museum that makes the whole valley legible: the Death Railway, built by POWs and forced labourers in 1942–43.

Kanchanaburi War Cemetery

📍 Saeng Chuto Road

6,982 Allied graves in immaculate lawns, directly opposite the museum — a quiet ten minutes that recalibrates the day.

Bridge over the River Kwai

📍 Kanchanaburi

Walk the black steel spans of the real bridge — trains still cross it slowly enough that you step to the side platforms.

Krasae Cave

📍 Tham Krasae, Sai Yok

The wooden Death Railway viaduct hugging the cliff above the river — the cave shrine sits right beside the tracks; the view is the day's payoff.

Chatuchak Weekend Market

📍 Kamphaeng Phet Road

15,000 stalls in 27 sections — go early, get lost on purpose. On weekdays the plant sections and Or Tor Kor next door still run.

Or Tor Kor Market

📍 Kamphaeng Phet Road

One of the world's great fresh markets — durian in season, curry stalls at the back for lunch, and fruit you'll want to smuggle home.

Wat Benchamabophit

📍 Dusit

The Marble Temple — Carrara marble, gables of Chinese porcelain, and the courtyard of 52 bronze Buddhas showing every regional style.

Benjakitti Forest Park

📍 Ratchadaphisek Road

The new wetland park threaded with elevated boardwalks — skyline reflections in the lagoons at dusk.

Sky Bar at Lebua

📍 State Tower, Silom

The gold-domed rooftop 63 floors up — one farewell drink over the river bend you've spent a week criss-crossing. Smart casual required.