Bangkok itinerary for 3 days: one line a day, with 2, 4 and 5-day versions

Three days is the right amount of Bangkok for a first visit: one for the Grand Palace and the river temples, one for Chinatown and Talat Noi, one for the modern city and a market. Two days means cutting something. With four or five, add a day trip to Ayutthaya or a floating market.

The 3-day plan in three lines:

• Day 1, the river and the old town: Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, sunset from the Golden Mount.
• Day 2, the MRT Blue line: the Golden Buddha, Talat Noi, braised goose on Song Wat Road, Chinatown after dark.
• Day 3, the BTS: Chatuchak if it's a weekend (Jim Thompson House if it isn't), Benjakitti Forest Park, a night market.

Each day stays on one boat route or train line, so you spend the hottest hours indoors and never cross town by road at rush hour. We checked every opening time, price and closed day below in October 2026. Hours change, so tap the map link before you go.

How many days in Bangkok do you need?

Three. Bangkok's big sights sit in three clusters with slow roads between them: the old town on the river, Chinatown and Talat Noi a little downstream, and the malls and parks along the BTS. Give each a day.

The heat takes the middle of the day too. From about 1pm to 3:30pm you'll want a massage, a museum or the pool, so a good Bangkok day holds five or six hours of walking.

• 1 day: do Day 1, then take a Grab to Yaowarat for dinner instead of climbing the Golden Mount.
• 2 days: Day 1, then a mix of Days 2 and 3 (below).
• 4 days: add Ayutthaya or a floating market.
• 5 days: add both, or one day trip and a slow day on a bike in Bang Krachao.

Your 3 days at a glance

Day 1: the river, the Grand Palace and Wat Arun

The Grand Palace, Wat Pho and the pier for Wat Arun are all within about 15 minutes' walk of each other, so this day is on foot with one ferry ride. Dress for the palace before you leave the hotel (see What to wear, below). They do turn people away.

• 8:00 Get there. Take the MRT Blue line to Sanam Chai, then walk about 20 minutes north to the palace gate on Na Phra Lan Road, or take a short Grab. From a river hotel, a boat to Tha Chang pier (N9) drops you five minutes from the gate.
• 8:30 The Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. Be there for opening, while it's cool. A ticket is 500 baht and includes the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles. Tickets are sold until 3:30pm and the grounds close at 4:30pm (Grand Palace). Give it two hours. Wat Phra Kaew, the temple of the Emerald Buddha, is inside the same walls, and it's the part people remember. Map
• 10:45 Wat Pho. Walk 15 minutes south along Maharat Road. Open 8am to 7:30pm, 300 baht (Wat Pho). Everyone heads for the reclining Buddha; the courtyards of chedis behind it are much quieter. Map
• 12:15 Lunch at Supanniga Eating Room, Tha Tien. A few minutes from Wat Pho, facing Wat Arun across the river. Order the moo cha muang (pork braised with cha muang leaves) and the fried cabbage with fish sauce. You pay for the view: about 500 to 1,000 baht a head, and Thai reviewers call the food good rather than great. Map
• 13:30 Hide from the heat. Wat Pho's massage school, inside the temple, charges 520 baht for an hour of Thai massage and 340 for half an hour. Or try Museum Siam next to MRT Sanam Chai (10am to 6pm, closed Monday, 200 baht). Map
• 15:30 Wat Arun. The ferry from Tha Tien pier takes five minutes and costs about 5 baht. Wat Arun is open 8am to 6pm (last entry about 5:30pm) and costs 200 baht. Late afternoon light turns the porcelain on the central tower gold. Map
• 17:00 Sunset from the Golden Mount. Ferry back, then a Grab to Wat Saket: 10 to 20 minutes, since traffic is building. Open until 7pm, 100 baht. Sunset is around 5:50pm in late October and November, and the whole old town is below you. Map
• 18:30 Dinner on Maha Chai or Dinso Road, each within 15 minutes' walk. Thipsamai is the pad thai name everyone knows (9am to midnight, closed Tuesday). Pad Thai Fai Ta Lu holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for pad thai topped with char-grilled pork (213 baht) and stays open late. Krua Apsorn is the one Thai diners rate highest of the three: get the crab omelette (139 baht) and the crab stir-fried with yellow chilli. It closes at 8:30pm, so go there first.

Home: MRT Sam Yot is about 20 minutes' walk, or take a Grab.

If it rains: the palace and Wat Pho are fine in a shower with an umbrella. In a downpour, swap Wat Arun for Museum Siam and the massage, and eat early on Dinso Road.

If Day 1 is Tuesday 24 November, it's Loy Krathong. Stay by the river after Wat Arun instead of climbing the Golden Mount: in 2025 the city's river festival ran at nine piers between Wat Pho and ICONSIAM. Thipsamai is closed that day anyway. More in our Loy Krathong 2026 post.

Day 2: the MRT Blue line through Talat Noi and Chinatown

Two MRT stops, Hua Lamphong and Wat Mangkon, bracket the part of Bangkok that's best on foot: Talat Noi's lanes by the river, the old shophouses of Song Wat Road, and Yaowarat, Chinatown's main road, which fills with food after dark. Don't do this day on a Monday. Half the places below are closed or shut early that day.

• 9:00 The Golden Buddha at Wat Traimit. Five minutes' walk from MRT Hua Lamphong, open 8am to 5pm. The Buddha is solid gold, about three metres tall and around five and a half tonnes. Seeing it costs 40 baht; the Chinatown heritage exhibition downstairs is 100 more (closed Mondays). Map
• 9:45 Talat Noi. A 12 to 15-minute walk. Time Out ranked it 14th on its 2026 list of the world's coolest neighbourhoods, Bangkok's best result yet (Bangkok Biznews). Old Chinese shophouses, workshops full of second-hand engine parts, murals in the alleys, the river at the end of every lane. Pass the Holy Rosary Church (rebuilt in the 1890s; cover up to go in) and step into So Heng Tai, a Hokkien family house of more than 200 years built around a pond: 9am to 6pm, closed Monday, and the 50-baht entry goes toward a drink. Map
• 10:30 Coffee. Mother Roaster is up on the top floor of an old garage on Soi Charoen Krung 22, open from about 10am. Hong Sieng Kong is a riverside cafe and gallery with a long view of the water (10am to 8pm, closed Monday). Order at the counter before you find a seat, and expect a queue at weekends.

• 12:15 Braised goose at Urai. Ten minutes up Song Wat Road. Urai has been braising goose for six decades and holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. A medium plate is 180 baht. Lunch ends at 1pm, so don't be late; it reopens 4pm to 7pm (not on Mondays) and closes on two Chinese vegetarian days a month. Map
• 13:00 The hot hours. Back to the hotel (MRT Wat Mangkon is about 10 minutes from Song Wat Road), or into River City Bangkok, the art and antiques centre at the south end of Talat Noi, open 10am to 8pm. Map
• 16:30 Lumphini Park, if you have the legs. Four stops on the Blue line from Wat Mangkon. Joggers, a lake, and the monitor lizards that live around it. Open until 10pm. Map
• 18:00 Curry at Jek Pui. Back at MRT Wat Mangkon, Khao Gaeng Jek Pui on Mangkon Road is a curry stall that opens at 2pm and closes at 7:30pm. Point at the pots. Curry on rice starts at about 45 baht, and Thai regulars order the pork curry with winter melon or the green curry with fish balls. Map
• 19:00 Yaowarat Road. A few minutes' walk, once the neon is on. Get kuay jab: rolled rice noodles in a peppery broth with crispy pork. Guay Jub Ouan Pochana charges 70 baht, 110 for the special, and closes Mondays. Nai Ek Roll Noodle on Soi 9 has an indoor room, opens daily until midnight and takes cash only. Then walk the road and snack: Yaowarat street food has the stalls in walking order, with their closing days. The MRT runs until about midnight.

This is the day a second person earns their place. Goose, a plate of curry and a bowl of kuay jab each fill one stomach; two of you can get through all three and still find room on Yaowarat. If you'd like that person to be someone who can ask the cook what's in each pot, a Bangkok friend can come along to your plan.

If it rains: the Golden Buddha hall and its exhibition, River City and Nai Ek's dining room are all indoors. Skip Lumphini and eat earlier.

Day 3: the BTS, Chatuchak and modern Bangkok

Chatuchak is a weekend market. The whole market opens Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 6pm; on Friday night only the wholesale traders open, and on Wednesday and Thursday only the plant section (Chatuchak Market). So the morning depends on the day, and the rest of Day 3 is the same.

On a Saturday or Sunday

• 9:00 Chatuchak. Get off the MRT at Kamphaeng Phet (Chatuchak Park, or BTS Mo Chit, also work). Go early, before the heat, with small notes. Map
• 11:30 Lunch at Or Tor Kor Market, by the same MRT station, open 6am to 6pm daily. It's the fresh market Thai cooks rate: Wongnai, the Thai review site, puts it fourth of more than 2,200 in Bangkok. Fruit, curries and ready food, sold by the bag. Map
• 13:30 Jim Thompson House, if Chatuchak hasn't finished you. BTS from Mo Chit to Siam, then one stop on the Silom line to National Stadium. Details below.

On a weekday

• 10:00 Jim Thompson House, by BTS National Stadium: the teak house of the American silk trader who vanished in 1967. Open daily 10am to 5pm, 250 baht (150 for ages 10 to 21). You see the house in a small group with museum staff, the last at 5pm, and you don't need to book (Jim Thompson House). Map
• 11:30 Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. A short walk away, free, 10am to 8pm, closed Monday. Map
• 12:30 Duck noodles at Tang Sui Heng, on Banthat Thong Road about 600 metres from BTS National Stadium. Open 10:30am to 7:30pm, under 100 baht, listed by the Michelin Guide. Get the duck noodles or the claypot duck wings. Map
• 14:00 Siam's malls for the hot hours: Siam Paragon, Siam Center and their food halls, one BTS stop away.

Both versions, from late afternoon

• 16:30 Benjakitti Forest Park. MRT Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, or a walk from BTS Asok. A wetland park with a raised walkway over the ponds and towers all around, free and open until 10pm. Be on the walkway for sunset. Map
• 18:30 Night market at Thailand Cultural Centre, four stops up the MRT Blue line. Jodd Fairs (exit 4) is the food one: share the leng saap, a mountain of pork bones in a sour, spicy soup, 180 to 350 baht by size; the medium feeds two. It runs 5pm to 1am, but the last MRT is around midnight. Skip the Train Night Market Ratchada behind the Esplanade mall: it reopened in March 2026, but by October it was shut or down to a few stalls. Our night markets post has the others, night by night. Map

If it rains: stay around Siam with the art centre and the malls, and skip Benjakitti. Jodd Fairs is mostly open to the sky between its zones, so on a wet night a mall food hall is the better dinner.

2 days in Bangkok

Keep Day 1 as it is. For the second day:

• Saturday or Sunday: Chatuchak at 9am and Or Tor Kor for lunch, then the MRT Blue line from Kamphaeng Phet straight down to Hua Lamphong, no changes. Talat Noi in the late afternoon (Hong Sieng Kong stays open until 8pm), Yaowarat for dinner.
• Monday to Friday: do Day 2 as written.

You lose Benjakitti, the night market and Jim Thompson House. If one of those is why you came, swap it in for Lumphini or the massage.

4 days in Bangkok

Add a day out of town. Put it on a Monday if you can: Chinatown and Talat Noi are half shut, and the temples outside the city aren't.

Our pick is Ayutthaya by train, the old royal capital, its brick temple ruins spread across an island in the river.

• Going: the new air-conditioned Bangkok Connex leaves Krung Thep Aphiwat (Bang Sue) station at 9:05am daily and takes 75 minutes, at a 50-baht launch fare until 31 October 2026. Ordinary third-class trains cost about 20 baht.
• Coming back: the Connex at 2:40pm or 7:45pm (one timetable lists the 7:45pm as weekdays only), or train No. 8 at 4:48pm.
• On arrival: walk to the river and cross by ferry (10 baht; last boat around 5:30pm). Rent a bike for 60 to 100 baht a day, or take a tuk-tuk to the ruins for about 150.
• The temples: mostly 8am to 6pm, 80 baht each or 300 for a combined ticket to seven. Wat Mahathat, Wat Ratchaburana and Wat Phra Si Sanphet are close together mid-island. Save Wat Chaiwatthanaram, across the river, for the late light (Visit Thailand Today, October 2026).

Or a floating market and the Maeklong railway market. Damnoen Saduak is a morning market, so it's a dawn start, far easier with a car and driver or a booked day trip. Pair it with Maeklong, where the stalls fold back for the train. Trains arrive at 8:30am, 11:10am, 2:30pm and 5:40pm and leave at 6:20am, 9:00am, 11:30am and 3:30pm (checked 1 October 2026). By public train it's about three hours each way, for about 20 baht.

Or a floating market in the city. Khlong Lat Mayom in Taling Chan opens Saturdays and Sundays only, 8am to 5pm, free, about 40 minutes by Grab. Get there by 10 or 11am.

Or stay in town: Bang Krachao and Ari. Bang Krachao is the green loop of land across the river from Khlong Toei. Take the MRT to Khlong Toei, a Grab to Wat Khlong Toei Nok pier, and the ferry (10 to 20 baht, 6am to 8pm). Rent a bike for 30 to 80 baht and ride to Sri Nakhon Khuean Khan Park (5am to 7pm, free); at weekends Bang Nam Phueng's market is on too. That's half a day. Finish in Ari, two BTS stops from Mo Chit, a quiet area of cafes and noodle shops.

5 days in Bangkok

Do both: Ayutthaya on Day 4, then a floating market or a slow Day 5 (Bang Krachao by bike, Ari in the afternoon, an early night). Five days also leaves room for what the 3-day plan rushes: Lumphini at dawn (it opens at 4:30am), a second night on Yaowarat, a two-hour massage at Wat Pho.

Getting around Bangkok

• MRT (Blue, Purple, Yellow and Pink lines): tap a contactless Visa, Mastercard or UnionPay card at the gate. 17 to 44 baht a ride, about 6am to midnight. The old MRT stored-value cards stopped working on 1 June 2026.
• BTS Skytrain: no bank cards yet. Buy single tickets at the machines (coins, notes, QR at some), or a Rabbit card at a ticket office: about 100 baht plus a 100-baht top-up, passport needed. 17 to 65 baht a ride.
• The 20-baht flat fare you may have read about was only for Thai ID cards, and it ended in June 2026.
• River boats: the Chao Phraya Tourist Boat stops at this plan's piers: Sathorn (BTS Saphan Taksin), Ratchawong, Wat Arun, Tha Chang and Phra Arthit. 40 baht a ride or 150 for a day pass, about every 30 minutes from 8:30am to around 7:45pm. Public express boats cost under 25 baht, but their timetable changed in 2026: the orange flag now runs only at weekday rush hours, and other flags cover the rest, so check the flag before you board.
• Grab and Bolt show the fare before you book. Use them for short hops, and keep off the roads from 7 to 9:30am and 4:30 to 7:30pm.

How much does 3 days in Bangkok cost?

Prices on this plan, per person, checked October 2026:

Entry tickets for all three days come to 1,440 baht before the massage. Street food is cheap; the riverside lunch is the one big bill.

What to wear for the temples

• The Grand Palace's list rules out sleeveless tops, vests, short or see-through tops, shorts, short skirts, torn or tight trousers and cycling shorts. Loose long trousers or a skirt below the knee, with a T-shirt that has sleeves, will do.
• Wat Pho asks for no shorts. Wat Arun wants shoulders and knees covered and rents sarongs at the gate for a small fee and a deposit.
• Shoes come off in halls with a Buddha image, so wear something that slips on.
• Bring a light layer for the BTS and the malls, where the air conditioning runs cold.

Our Thai etiquette post covers the rest.

Do this plan with a Thai friend

Take this plan, pick a friend in Bangkok, and send them the day and where to meet: the palace gate at 8:30 for Day 1, or MRT Hua Lamphong at 9 for Day 2. They come along to your plan, order in Thai, ask the curry stall what's in which pot, and help you finish the goose. Friends are booked by the hour, and it's always platonic. The booking pays for their time; tickets, food and drinks are paid on the day. Here's how booking works.

Questions people ask

How many days in Bangkok is enough?

Three for a first visit: one for the old town and the river temples, one for Chinatown and Talat Noi, one for modern Bangkok and a market. Add a fourth for Ayutthaya or a floating market.

What can you do with 1 day in Bangkok?

Day 1 of this plan: the Grand Palace at 8:30am, Wat Pho, lunch at Tha Tien, Wat Arun in the afternoon. Skip the Golden Mount and take a Grab to Yaowarat for dinner.

Is Chatuchak open on weekdays?

Only in part. The whole market opens Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 6pm. Friday from 6pm to midnight is wholesale only, and on Wednesday and Thursday only the plant section opens, 7am to 6pm.

Can I wear shorts to the Grand Palace?

No. The Grand Palace refuses shorts, short skirts, sleeveless tops and tight or torn trousers, and Wat Pho asks for no shorts either. Loose long trousers and a T-shirt with sleeves get you into both.

Do I need a Rabbit card in Bangkok?

Only if you'll ride the BTS a lot. The MRT takes a contactless bank card at the gate; the BTS doesn't yet, so it's a single ticket from the machine each time, or a Rabbit card from a ticket office (passport needed, about 100 baht plus a 100-baht top-up).