I traveled here with a friend in 2019, and it was the first trip I took without someone to guide us through transportation or take us to sightsee. Needless to say, it was a learning process, but it helped that my friend and I had each other and divided the responsibilities.

Some general tips: I would recommend exchanging money. A lot of places take card, but if you go to outdoor markets, you will need cash. We also used cash for entrance fees and while taking a city bus. We both got SIM cards at the airport, but if your phone uses eSIMs, you should be able to purchase one before you even leave your house. (And this might be different now, so do your research before you go!)

As far when you should go, I traveled here in September, and it was still inconceivably hot. As in most Eastern Asian countries, summers are very hot and humid, so each day was well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit if you factor in that humidity.

We mostly stayed in hostels, which generally offers traveler tips and different tours, sometimes even for free! For the most part, you should be able to find private rooms within hostels if you aren’t keen on staying in a multi-bed dorm room. I use hostelworld.com to find places, and they have always worked out great!

Bangkok

This is the capitol of Thailand, which means it’s busy and crowded, and has a lot of skyscrapers. It also means that there is a lot to do! Here are some things I reccomend:

Khaosan Road is a famous market area, which includes clothing and food vendors as well as bars. I would advise going at night since everything has lights and is more lively. We got mango sticky rice here, which was super delicious.

Definitely visit all of the Buddhist Temples you can. They are all so beautiful, and as you climb, you get to see great city views as well. As a note, there is a small entrance fee for the temples (between 20 and 100 baht or so). There is a dress code for temples though. Your shoulders have to be covered, and if you wear shorts, a skirt, or a dress, it has to be knee length.

Here are some that I visited:

Wat Arun is located across a river, so you will have to take a ferry, but it was fairly easy to figure out. You can easily spend a few hours here, as it is massive. There are also kiosks where you can get drinks inside.

We also went to M.R. Kukrit’s House, which is a heritage museum. (Although as I write this, it is temporarily closed.) Similar to the temples, this also had a small entrance fee. It was a little out of the way (we took a bus to get here and then walked for what seemed like forever), but a really cool piece of history, and great if you like architecture. I, of course, was most excited about the gardens and ponds throughout.

Khao Sok National Park

To get to here, my friend and I took an overnight train to the Surat Thani station from Bangkok, which took about 15 hours or so. We booked tickets through thairailwayticket.com, but after a brief search, it looks like you can also use this site to get tickets to and from different cities using all forms of transportation.

A note of warning, our train was at least 2 hours late arriving, and it was delayed while we were on the train (which I believe is a common occurrence). You have to be accepting of adventures as well, because the particular train we took had only a hole in the floor for the toilet, so you could see directly onto the track as you sped over it. So don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The park was probably my favorite part of this trip. The accommodation we booked was a boat house on the lake, and the package we selected included transportation to and from the train station and bus stop (which was totally worth the extra money), as well as a hiking and boat tour and all of our meals. Just the views alone made this worth it for me, but I usually tend to seek out nature wherever I am traveling. The tour site we booked through also has other options, including varying activities, group tours, and length of stays.

Phucket

We rode a bus from Khao Sok to get to Phuket, which took about 5 or 6 hours. I would recommend getting tickets in advance for transportation in between cities, just to ensure you don’t have to rearrange your other plans.

If you like beach towns, this is the place for you. There are multiple beaches to choose from, and the city buses will take you there (the one I visited was called Nai Harn Beach). They also have an old town to explore, which has beautiful buildings and a bunch of shops. If you have fair skin, definitely bring sunscreen that has SPF higher than 100. I slathered on SPF 50 and still got sunburned after only a few hours on the beach. You can also easily get fresh fruit from vendors as you are walking to it – I recommend trying mangosteen if you’ve never had it.

I would not recommend going to Monkey Hill unless you are on the more adventurous side. The monkeys are pretty aggressive and will try to steal food if you bring it, or anything else you are carrying. As my friend and I were starting our climb, one of the groundskeepers motioned for us to carry rocks to throw at the monkeys in case they got too handsy. We never made it to the top, as I lost my cool when a monkey climbed me and tried to take my water bottle out of my hand.

At the end of our stay in Phuket, to get back to Bangkok, since our flights departed from there, we took a bus back to Khao Sok (Surat Thani station) before transferring to a train that brought us back to where we began this journey.

I posted about this soon after I took the trip, which contains more details about what we did and ate every day and less about logistics. You can read those posts here and here.

As always, thanks for reading! If you plan on traveling to Thailand, I hope this helps you. If you’ve been and have other suggestions or tips, feel free to comment! Stay safe and stay happy!

If you want to see more pictures from this trip, they are all posted on my Instagram page, @sam_rosia! Here are links to the posts themselves: