Small Group Journeys
Highlights
Tour Details
Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival in Bangkok
You are met at Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang and taken to the hotel — anything from forty minutes to an hour and a half, depending entirely on the hour. The rest of the day is free. Your leader meets the group before dinner to go through the week and to explain the boat and rail passes, which are the two things that make a week here easy rather than exhausting.
Day 2: The river side of Bangkok
We start early at the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo, which is worth the queue if you are there when it opens, and cross the compound wall to Wat Pho and its reclining Buddha. Lunch near the river. In the afternoon we take the cross-river ferry to Wat Arun and come back by express boat. The evening is free; Yaowarat, the Chinatown road, is at its best after eight.
Day 3: North to Ayutthaya
By train from Krung Thep Aphiwat, the terminal north of the centre that took over most of these services in 2023. Trains run roughly hourly and the run takes between one and two hours depending on the class. We check in, then start at Wat Mahathat and Wat Ratchaburana, where a 1957 robbery led to the recovery of the royal gold now in the museum. Dinner beside the water.
Day 4: Ayutthaya, then back
Bicycles or a hired tuk-tuk, according to the group and the heat. Wat Phra Si Sanphet and its three bell-shaped chedis stood inside the palace grounds; Wat Chaiwatthanaram, out on the west bank, was finished in 1630 and is the most intact of the lot. A long-tail boat around the island in the early afternoon, then the train back to Bangkok, arriving in time for a last evening.
Day 5: Departure
What´s included
- 4 nights in 3–4 star hotels or similar, 3 in Bangkok and 1 in Ayutthaya
- Daily breakfast, 1 lunch and 2 dinners
- Second-class rail tickets Bangkok–Ayutthaya and back
- The Ayutthaya six-temple combination ticket, currently 220 baht
- Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun entries
- Chao Phraya express boat and cross-river ferry fares
- Private long-tail boat around the Ayutthaya island
- English-speaking tour leader throughout, plus a local guide in Ayutthaya
- Arrival and departure airport transfers
- Bottled water throughout, and all tipping for drivers, boatmen and guides
Excluded
- International flights into and out of Bangkok
- Travel insurance, which is a condition of joining the group
- Meals not listed above, and all drinks
- The Thailand Digital Arrival Card, which is free but compulsory and must be filed online within 72 hours of arrival — we send the link with your final documents
- Any visa beyond the exemption stamp. From 15 September 2026 the exemption is 30 days rather than 60, with a single 30-day extension available at an immigration office for a fee
- Bicycle or tuk-tuk hire at Ayutthaya if you prefer to move around on your own
- Personal expenses and laundry
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