While living on Koh Phangan, we visited Bangkok more times than we can count, usually with children and too much luggage. The dread is the traffic and the heat. The excitement is everything else. Bangkok is the most alive city we know, a place where a two-hundred-year-old temple, a Michelin-starred street food stall and a mega mall sit within a few hundred metres of each other, and where the food alone justifies the flight.
Why we love Bangkok
Bangkok does not try to be easy, and that is part of its charm. Nothing is polished. The pavements are uneven, the skytrain is packed, the street food smoke gets in your clothes, and somehow it all works. There is a generosity in the chaos we have found nowhere else, a willingness to help a lost family or make space on a boat.
We also love the layering. Old Bangkok along the river gives you the Grand Palace and the wats. Sukhumvit gives you rooftop bars and shopping. Chinatown gives you the best night eating in Asia. Thonburi across the river gives you canals and wooden houses that feel a century old. With kids it takes a little more planning, covered in our guide to Bangkok with kids, but the city is genuinely welcoming to families.
What to see and do
Start on the river. The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew are overwhelming in the best way, though you must dress modestly and go early. Right beside them, Wat Pho holds the enormous reclining Buddha and is calmer. Cross the river by ferry to Wat Arun, best viewed from the opposite bank at sunset.
Beyond the old temples, the city's other great sights are its markets and its waterways. Chatuchak Weekend Market is a maze of thousands of stalls, best visited on a weekend morning with a plan and water. A longtail boat tour of the Thonburi khlongs shows the canal-side Bangkok that postcards forget. The malls deserve a mention not as sights but as survival strategy, with aquariums, cinemas and air conditioning that make them legitimate family destinations.
Where to eat and drink
Bangkok eats on the street. Plastic stools, one dish per stall and lunchtime queues of office workers are the signs to look for. Chinatown's Yaowarat Road transforms after dark into one of the great eating streets of the world, all neon, smoke and seafood. Jay Fai, the famous Michelin-starred crab omelette stall, put Bangkok street food on the global map, and the queues are now part of the experience.
The dishes to learn are pad thai, som tam green papaya salad, boat noodles, khao man gai chicken rice, grilled moo ping skewers, and mango sticky rice for dessert. Plain fried rice with egg is a useful fallback for our kids; ask for it without chilli where it is on the menu. Above the street tier there is a fine dining scene, from royal Thai cuisine to some of Asia's most celebrated restaurants, but our happiest Bangkok meals have almost always cost less than a coffee in Copenhagen.
When to go and how to get around
November to February is the classic window, cooler and dry, though "cooler" still means hot. March to May is brutally hot, and the rainy season from roughly June to October brings daily downpours that are intense but short. It works year-round if you plan around the weather, out early, indoors at midday, back out in the evening.
The BTS skytrain and MRT subway are fast, cool, cheap and cover a lot. Taxis are metered and affordable, though traffic can trap you, and Grab makes hailing painless. On the water, the Chao Phraya Express boats are both transport and sightseeing. For short hops, tuk-tuks can be fun, but agree on the fare before you set off. Where you sleep shapes the whole trip, so read our Bangkok neighbourhoods guide before you book.
Our Bangkok guides
- Bangkok with kids, the family version of the city, parks, boats, malls and heat strategy.
- Bangkok neighbourhoods, where to stay and what each area is actually like.
Bangkok pairs naturally with Singapore and opens onto the islands and the north, including Koh Samui and Chiang Mai.