Bangkok in 3 days: the palace, the river and the weekend market

Three days in Bangkok divide by how you travel: the river and the Old City on day one, the BTS through the center on day two, the MRT to the weekend market and a ferry to Wat Arun on day three. The Bangkok travel guide has the background on the city, and the Thailand guide shows where the islands and the north fit after it.

Two things fix the order. The Grand Palace sells its first tickets at 8:30, and that hour decides how hot the visit is, so it opens the trip. Chatuchak is a weekend market, so day three has to land on a Saturday or Sunday. Everything else can move.

Each day starts from a station or a pier, and roads are left out on purpose: Bangkok traffic is slow, and the trains and boats are not. The plan works from any base near a BTS or MRT station; where to stay in Bangkok compares the areas. Prices are the ones each sight published on 13 October 2026, in baht.

Go by river. The palace's own directions start at BTS Saphan Taksin: leave by Exit 2, walk to Sathorn Pier and take the orange-flag express boat to Tha Chang, pier N9. The boat charges a flat 19 baht. From an MRT base, Sanam Chai station is the alternative, with a bus from Exit 1.

Be at the gate for 8:30. Since January 2024 visitors enter through the Mani Noppharat gate. The 500-baht ticket covers the palace grounds, Wat Phra Kaew (the Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textile inside the same compound, and an audio guide in eight languages rents for 200 baht against a passport or a credit card. The palace is strict about clothes: dress codes at temples, mosques and churches has the full list, which names shorts, sleeveless tops, see-through tops and torn or tight pants.

Prices and directions are on the palace's practical information page, and the ticket rules in its FAQ.

Wat Pho is next door, south along the palace wall. It holds the Reclining Buddha and a school of traditional Thai massage, and you take your shoes off before entering its religious buildings. The temple is open until 19:30, so there is no need to rush the palace to get here. The school's price list starts at 340 baht for 30 minutes of Thai or foot massage and 520 baht for an hour, a reasonable way to sit out the early afternoon.

Hours, fee and massage rates are on the temple's visit plan page.

For the evening, walk to Sanam Chai station and ride the MRT Blue Line two stops to Wat Mangkon. Yaowarat Road, the main street of Chinatown, is outside, and its street food is busiest after dark. The same line carries on to Si Lom and Sukhumvit when you are done.

Jim Thompson House opens at 10:00, and it is the day's one ticketed stop. The museum is the house and garden of Jim Thompson, reached from Exit 1 of BTS National Stadium. You may enter the main house only with one of the museum's guides, who lead visits in Thai, English, French, Chinese and Japanese. Shoes come off at the door, bags over 20 cm go in a locker, and the house has stairs and no elevator.

The museum's visitor information carries a caution of its own: ignore any stranger outside who says the museum is closed for half a day and offers to take you somewhere else. It is open every day.

From National Stadium it is one stop on the BTS, or a short walk along Rama I Road, to Siam, where the two BTS lines cross among big shopping malls. Eat lunch here in the air conditioning. A walk east along the same road brings you to the Erawan Shrine, on the corner of the Ratchaprasong junction.

In the late afternoon take the BTS Silom line from Siam to Sala Daeng. Lumphini Park is across the road, and the paths fill with runners once the heat drops. Stay in Silom for dinner, or ride the MRT from Si Lom station to Sukhumvit for a wider choice of restaurants.

Chatuchak Weekend Market spreads beside Chatuchak Park on Kamphaeng Phet Road. The Tourism Authority of Thailand counts more than 8,000 stalls in 27 sections, selling clothing, bags, earthenware, handicrafts, antiques, old books, plants and food. Two MRT Blue Line stations serve it, Kamphaeng Phet and Chatuchak Park. Go in the morning, before the lanes heat up, decide on two or three kinds of goods to look for, and carry small notes.

The afternoon needs no change of train. The Blue Line runs from Chatuchak Park straight to Sanam Chai, the station for Wat Pho. Walk past the temple to Tha Tien pier and take the small cross-river ferry to the Wat Arun pier. Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn, is the tall spire you saw across the water on day one, and the temple sets its own entrance fee at the gate.

Leave by water. Express boats stop at the Wat Arun pier, and a boat downstream ends the day at Sathorn Pier, beside BTS Saphan Taksin. If day one ran long and you skipped the palace's textile museum or the massage at Wat Pho, both are a ferry ride back from here, and Wat Pho stays open until 19:30.

None of the ticketed sights has a weekly closing day: the Grand Palace sells tickets daily, Wat Pho opens every day, and Jim Thompson House says it is open every day too. The one fixed point is the market. Put day three on Saturday or Sunday and arrange the other two around it.

For a Friday-to-Sunday trip, run the days as written. For Saturday to Monday, start with day three, then the palace on Sunday and Jim Thompson House on Monday. If all three days are weekdays, drop the market: move Wat Arun to day one, straight after Wat Pho by the same ferry, and give the third day to the Bangkok to Ayutthaya day trip.

Nothing in this plan has to be booked before you land. The palace sells tickets at the gate, and its online tickets cannot be refunded or moved, which is a poor trade when rain or jet lag may reorder your days. Jim Thompson House sells at the door and through the booking partners named on its site. Official site or reseller explains how to tell an authorized seller from a look-alike.

One adult pays 1,050 baht for the three ticketed sights with published prices: 500 at the Grand Palace, 300 at Wat Pho and 250 at Jim Thompson House. Add the fee Wat Arun charges at its gate, 200 baht if you rent the palace audio guide, and a massage if you want one. Children under 120 cm enter the palace and Wat Pho free, and under-10s are free at Jim Thompson House.

Transport is the small part of the budget. The orange-flag boat is 19 baht a ride, and a BTS single journey costs 17 to 47 baht by distance. The BTS One-Day Pass, 150 baht, does not pay off on a plan with two or three BTS rides a day. On the MRT, the operator says a contactless Visa or Mastercard credit card can be tapped at the gate in place of a ticket.

Heat shapes the hours. The Bangkok guide marks March to May as the hottest months, and the palace is mostly an outdoor visit, so the 8:30 start matters most then. Wat Pho's late closing lets you split day one: palace in the morning, a long indoor lunch, the temple after 16:00. On day three, do the market first and Wat Arun late.

The UK government's travel advice puts the rainy season at May to October in general. Day two is the wet-weather day: the house tour, the malls at Siam and a covered BTS platform between them. If the forecast is poor for your palace morning, swap days one and two, which costs nothing as long as you have not bought an online palace ticket. The best time to visit Thailand compares the months.

With young children, halve each day. Keep the palace and stop there on day one, saving Wat Pho for the ferry afternoon on day three; replace Jim Thompson House, where bags and shoes come off and guides set the pace, with a longer stop at Lumphini Park. The height rule helps: under 120 cm, the palace and Wat Pho cost nothing.

Anyone who avoids stairs should know that the main house at Jim Thompson House has several stairways and no elevator, as the museum itself warns. With only two days, keep days one and two and add Wat Arun to the first afternoon.

Ayutthaya, the ruined royal capital, is the day trip that fits a Bangkok stay best, and Ayutthaya in one day orders its temples. The ruins are spread over a wide area, so the choice is between going by train or minivan and hiring wheels there, or paying for a tour that handles both. Kanchanaburi is better with a night, and Bangkok to Pattaya covers the beach city to the east.

Before you fly, file the arrival card described in Thailand entry rules, and choose travel insurance that covers a stolen phone: the UK advice warns of bag-snatchers on motorbikes and tells visitors to take care in open transport such as tuk-tuks.