Stop 01 · about 4 nights
Bangkok
Where nearly every trip begins. River, street food, temples, and rooftops that go all night.
Good for · first landing, food, energy
Golden route · Thailand
North by overnight train
BangkokAyutthayaChiang Mai
10 nights, 11 days, 3 stops. Bangkok, the ruins at Ayutthaya, and the night train up the northern line to Chiang Mai. No form to fill in. Pick a start date and send it over.
¶ 01 · The stops, in order
Where this route actually goes.
Each stop earns its nights. The nights below are the ones this route actually runs, not an average.
Stop 02 · about 3 nights
Ayutthaya
The old capital's ruins and the river valley beyond, both an easy loop out of the city and back.
Good for · history, a couple of nights
Stop 03 · about 3 nights
Chiang Mai
Old-city temples, khao soi at the source, cooler air, and the trailheads into the northern hills.
Good for · temples, slow days, trekking
¶ 02 · Day by day
The whole route, already written.
Every day below is authored, not generated. If something does not suit you, say so when you book and we change it before anything is confirmed.
Day 01
Land, eat one plate, sleep
Bangkok
Someone meets you at the airport and gets you to the room. Nothing is scheduled after that. The flight in is long and the first evening is better spent badly than efficiently, and the north is not going anywhere.
- Morning
- Arrival and airport transfer, whatever time your flight gets in.
- Afternoon
- Free. Sleep it off, or walk one block and come back.
- Evening
- Pad kra pao from a street stall, minced pork with holy basil over rice and a fried egg on top. Ask for it phet maak if you want the real heat. If the menu has photos and the chairs are plastic, you are in the right place.
Day 02
Wat Pho, the Grand Palace, and Chinatown after dark
Bangkok
The Rattanakosin temple circuit in one day, with a guide who knows the history rather than the plaques. It is a lot of walking on hot marble, so it starts early and is done before the worst of the afternoon. The evening costs almost nothing and is the meal people remember.
- Morning
- Wat Pho first, before the coach groups: the 46 metre reclining Buddha, the feet inlaid with mother of pearl, and the traditional massage school in the same compound.
- Afternoon
- The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew for the Emerald Buddha, then the cross river ferry to Wat Arun. Knees and shoulders covered at all three, and they enforce it at the gate.
- Evening
- Yaowarat Road at five, as Chinatown wakes up. Roast duck over rice at a standing counter, skin crackling, broth on the side. Professional Muay Thai at Rajadamnern afterwards is optional, from about THB 2,000, and the pre fight ritual alone is worth the ticket.
Day 03
Canals in the morning, twelve tastings at night
Bangkok
Water first, food last, and a gap in the middle you fill yourself. The night walk is the one thing in Bangkok that changes how people talk about the city afterwards, so it gets the evening to itself and you should turn up hungry.
- Morning
- Private longtail into the Thonburi klongs: houses on stilts, small temples off the main channel, and a Bangkok that has not changed much in sixty years.
- Afternoon
- Yours. Ari for coffee and air conditioning, Rocket Coffeebar on Soi Ari 4 being the pick, or Or Tor Kor market for mango sticky rice from the cart vendor outside, which is at its best between March and June when the Nam Dok Mai are right.
- Evening
- Nong's street food night walk: twelve tastings across four neighbourhoods, on foot, with someone who eats there.
Day 04
An hour up the line to the old capital
Ayutthaya
The first train of the trip is the short one. Ayutthaya is about an hour north of Bangkok on the same line the sleeper uses, which is why the route goes this way round rather than doubling back later. The city was the capital for four hundred years until the Burmese sacked it in 1767, and what is left is spread across an island in the rivers.
- Morning
- Transfer to Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, which took over the long distance departures from Hua Lamphong in 2023, and the train north to Ayutthaya.
- Afternoon
- Check in, then Wat Mahathat on foot: brick prangs the roots have half eaten, and the sandstone Buddha head held in the fig tree that everyone comes for. Crouch below it for photographs, the guards will ask you to.
- Evening
- The Bang Ian night market by the historical park: boat noodles, grilled river prawn, and roti sai mai for after, the thread sugar rolled into a thin pancake that Ayutthaya is known for across the country.
Day 05
The ruins by bicycle, and the river at sunset
Ayutthaya
Flat, compact and best done on two wheels, which is how everyone local moves around it. The park is spread out enough that walking it in the heat is a mistake and a car puts you the wrong distance from everything. Start early, break in the middle of the day, come back out for the light.
- Morning
- Wat Phra Si Sanphet and its three restored chedis inside the old palace grounds, then Wat Ratchaburana, where you can go down the steep stair into the crypt if you are alright in small spaces.
- Afternoon
- Off the bikes through the worst of the heat. The Ayutthaya Historical Study Centre fills in what the ruins do not explain, and it is air conditioned.
- Evening
- Wat Chaiwatthanaram on the west bank for the last hour of light. It is the most complete thing left standing here and it faces the river, so the sun goes down behind it rather than in your eyes.
Day 06
A slow day, then the 19:45 north
The overnight train to Chiang Mai
The morning is yours and the afternoon is deliberately slow, because the day ends standing on a platform. Train number 9 leaves Krung Thep Aphiwat at 18:40, reaches Ayutthaya at 19:43 and pulls out at 19:45, which is enough time and not a minute more. It runs into Chiang Mai at 07:15 the next morning, twelve and a half hours up the line.
- Morning
- Free. Coffee by the river, a last loop of the park on the bike, or nothing at all.
- Afternoon
- Bags stored, an early dinner in town, then the short ride out to Ayutthaya station with time in hand.
- Evening
- Boarding at Ayutthaya. The stock on this train is the Chinese built CNR sleeper that came in around 2016, and it is the good one: second class air conditioned berths in facing pairs, an attendant who comes through after dark and folds the seats down into beds with fresh linen, a curtain across each berth, a reading light and a socket, vacuum toilets at the end of the carriage, and a dining car if you want something hot at ten at night for a couple of hundred baht. Lower berths are wider and keep the window, uppers are narrower and cheaper. One carriage on the train is set aside for women and young children, and it is an enforced allocation rather than a preference: you are ticketed into it or you are not. There are staff on board through the night and CCTV along the cars. The air conditioning is fierce, so keep a layer out of your bag rather than in the rack.
Day 07
Off the train and into the Old City
Chiang Mai
The train gets in at quarter past seven and the day stays light on purpose after that. A night on a train is a real night's sleep for some people and a rough one for others, so nothing here assumes which you got. The north is cooler than Bangkok and you notice it on the platform.
- Morning
- Arrival at Chiang Mai, transfer, a shower and a proper breakfast.
- Afternoon
- The Old City on foot inside the moat: Wat Phra Singh, Wat Chedi Luang and the lanes between them, all Lanna work and none of it far apart. Lunch at SP Chicken on Soi 1 Samlarn, whole birds turning over charcoal beside the temple, with sticky rice and som tam. Order the whole chicken, not the half.
- Evening
- Free, and early. It cools down here after dark, which is the first time on this trip that it does.
Day 08
Market, then five northern dishes you cooked
Chiang Mai
A full day at an organic farm outside the city, starting with the market shop so you find out what the curry paste is actually made of before you pound one. It is the easiest day on the route to end up with people to eat with later, which matters more on a trip like this than the recipes do.
- Morning
- Market shop with the class, then out of the city to the farm.
- Afternoon
- Five northern dishes cooked and then eaten, which is lunch handled. Back in town by late afternoon.
- Evening
- Free. If your dates land on a Sunday, Ratchadamnoen becomes the walking street and the food sits in the temple courtyards along it: sai ua sausage, quail eggs, khanom jeen, and craft from the hill towns for the rest of it.
Day 09
Up Thailand's highest mountain
Chiang Mai
Doi Inthanon is a long day out and an early start, and it is the one day on this route that properly moves. The summit is 2,565 metres and it is cold up there in a way nobody packs for. Bring a layer, and bring it in the bag rather than leaving it at the guesthouse.
- Morning
- Out early towards the park. The Wachirathan waterfall on the way up, loud enough that you feel it before you see it.
- Afternoon
- The twin royal chedis near the summit, usually in cloud, then the short boardwalk loop through the moss forest at the top.
- Evening
- Back in the city by dark. Huen Phen on Rachamankha Road for dinner: hang lay pork curry, nam prik noom with pork crackling, laab. The lunch canteen and the antique filled dinner room are almost different restaurants and this is the one worth sitting in.
Day 10
One day with nothing in it
Chiang Mai
Nothing is booked today. Ten nights in, that is the point. Two things are worth knowing about if you want them, and both are yours to take or leave.
- Morning
- Free. Doi Suthep at sunrise is the one worth breaking a lie in for: up the mountain ahead of the buses, 306 steps past the naga balustrade, and the gold chedi taking first light with the city waking underneath. Around THB 100 plus the songthaew.
- Afternoon
- Free. Khao Soi Khun Yai near the north moat is the benchmark bowl in the city, coconut curry broth with crisp noodles piled on soft, and it runs roughly ten in the morning to two in the afternoon and sells out. That makes it a before noon decision.
- Evening
- Free. Last night in the north, spend it how you want to.
Day 11
Out of Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai, departure day
Transfer to Chiang Mai airport whenever your flight goes. It sits about fifteen minutes from the Old City, which makes it the one genuinely painless airport run in the country, so the morning is only a rush if your flight makes it one.
- Morning
- Breakfast, and a last walk round the moat if the timings allow it.
- Afternoon
- Transfer to Chiang Mai airport and departure.
¶ · What is included
- Nine nights of accommodation plus the sleeper berth, so every night of the trip is covered
- A second class air conditioned sleeper berth on train number 9, booked as early as the release allows, in the women and children carriage on request
- Airport pickup on arrival in Bangkok and the transfer out to Chiang Mai airport at the end
- The Bangkok to Ayutthaya train and every station and pier transfer on the route
- The activities named in the day plan: the guided temple circuit, the Thonburi longtail, the Bangkok street food walk, bicycle hire in Ayutthaya, the northern cooking class and the Doi Inthanon day
- A local contact on the ground, reachable for the whole trip
- The written itinerary, with the practical detail on it: which terminal, which platform, what time the train actually moves
¶ · What is not
- International flights, and the flight home or onward out of Chiang Mai
- Visa, and the Thailand Digital Arrival Card, which you file yourself online, free, within 72 hours of arrival
- Travel insurance
- Most meals. Breakfast is in, the cooking class feeds you, the rest is yours
- Anything marked optional in the days, including Muay Thai at Rajadamnern and the Doi Suthep sunrise run
- Dining car meals on the train, drinks, tips and personal spending
¶ 03 · Book it
No form. Just a date.
Ten nights along the northern railway. Three days in Bangkok, two on a bicycle among the ruins of the old capital, then the sleeper picks you up off the Ayutthaya platform at quarter to eight in the evening and puts you in Chiang Mai at breakfast. Four nights in the north after that, with a mountain day, a cooking day and one day left deliberately empty. The train is the spine of it, not a novelty bolted on the side.
We come back within 48 hours with availability and your exact price. Nothing is charged until you have seen that number and said yes.
RouteNorth by overnight train
Length10 nights
You would return2026-10-24
This one is not priced up front. Pick a start date and send the request, and you get availability and the full cost back within 48 hours. A deposit holds it after that.
The berth comes before everything else. The State Railway opens sleeper sales up to 90 days ahead and the lower berths on train number 9 go within hours of release, which is why this route asks for a longer run up than most. Send a date early and the berth gets booked first, the rest is built around it. One carriage on the train is reserved for women and young children; say if you want that allocation and it goes in at the point of booking, because it cannot be changed on the platform.
¶ 02 · Along the way
Picks that sit on this route.
From the Thailand file. Real places, filed by people who went, not scraped from a Top 10 list.
Do · Bangkok & Ayutthaya
The Temple Circuit, Done Properly
Wat Pho, Grand Palace, Wat Arun in one day, with a guide who knows the real history, not just what the plaques say. This changes what you see forever.
Do · Chiang Mai & the north
The northern hills
Doi Suthep above the city, ethical elephant sanctuaries in the valleys, and hill treks that end at a hot spring. The reason people stay in the north longer than they planned.
Do · Bangkok · Rajadamnern
Muay Thai at Rajadamnern
Not a tourist show, actual professional Muay Thai with Thai audiences betting ringside. The pre-fight ritual alone is extraordinary.
Do · Bangkok
Nong's Street Food Night Walk
12 tastings, 4 neighbourhoods, Nong as your guide. The tour that converts you into someone who talks about Bangkok food for the rest of their life.
Eat · The north · Chiang Mai
Khao Soi
Egg noodles in a coconut curry, crisp fried noodles piled on top, pickled greens and lime on the side. It belongs to the north, and Chiang Mai does it best.
Eat · Bangkok · Chinatown
Yaowarat Roast Duck
The skin crackles, the duck is fatty and rich, served over rice with broth. No ambience. You eat standing up at a street-side table. It costs ฿80. It is the best meal you'll eat in Bangkok.
Eat · Bangkok · Riverside
Tropic City & Teens of Thailand
Bangkok's cocktail scene has quietly become one of Asia's best. Tropic City does Thai spirit-forward cocktails. Teens of Thailand specialises in gin. Both are solo-friendly, sit at the bar and you'll be in conversation within 20 minutes.
Eat · Bangkok · Ari
Café Culture: Ari
Rocket Coffeebar, Champion Coffee, Roots Coffee. Excellent espresso, great air conditioning, fast Wi-Fi. This is where Bangkok's young creative class actually works. Perfect for a slow morning.