The capital city of Thailand really has it all! Beautiful temples, great food, a park with a surprise and some wonderful markets. There’s so much to see and do and we’ve written some of our favourite budget things for you!

Cost: Between $2 and $21

Obviously one of the best things to do in Bangkok is to visit all the amazing temples, and there are so many! There are over 30,000 temples still in use in Bangkok, so it can be overwhelming picking which ones to visit.

At all temples in Thailand, your shoulders and knees must be covered. Loose pants or long skirts and dresses are your best bet, along with a shirt or shawl that covers part way down your arm.

We’ve mentioned a few of our favourites below to help you decide!

This is one of the most famous temples in Bangkok because it is home to the giant, golden, reclining Buddha. The statue is one of the biggest Buddha statues in Thailand at 15 meters high and 46 meters long. The grounds of the temple are quite large with lots of structures to walk around and look at.

We would reccommend at least an hour at this temple to see everything. Entry is 200 Thai Baht and it is open 8-6:30pm every day. Wat Pho is super easy to get to as it is on the blue metro line, only a 5 minute walk from Sanam Chai station. It’s also located across the water from Wat Arun, right near the Grand Palace and near some other temples, so you can really make a day of seeing the area.

Also known as the Marble Temple, this is one of the most beautiful temples in Bangkok. We originally decided to visit because we have a jigsaw puzzle of it, but it ended up being one of our favourites. It’s quite a small temple and only costs 50 Baht to enter. It is open 6:00am to 6:00pm every day. There’s are some grounds around the temple that are free to enter.

You have to leave your shoes at the entrance, so if you don’t want to be barefoot in the temple, make sure to wear socks. It’s located a little further away from the other temples and isn’t close to the metro so you’ll have to take a taxi there. However its definitely worth it as it really is such a gorgeous temple!

The Grand Palace is the former residence of King Rama I all the way to King Rama V of the Rattanakosin Kingdom. It is now a major symbol of the Thai Royal Family and is mostly used for ceremonial purposes. It is a series of buildings, including the temple Wat Phra Kaew (the Temple of the Emerald Buddha), and the Royal Residence. Entry is 500 Baht but includes entry to everything within the grounds and it is open 8:30-3:30pm every day.

Inside the Grand Palace you can wander the grounds and courtyards, and visit the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaew. This is regarded as the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand. The actual Buddha statue is made of jasper, not emerald.

Along with covering shoulders and knees, you must also cover your feet to visit this temple. Make sure you wear socks or pack an extra pair if you’re heading here! If your clothes are not suitable, you can rent clothes at the gate to cover up properly. It is located in an easy to reach area right near Wat Pho, which makes it great to combine the two temples into the same day. It is just a 17 minute walk from Sanam Chai metro stop.

Wat Arun is one of the most impressive temples, especially when seen from afar from the other side of the river. If you’d like to visit, it is open 8-6pm every day and costs 100 Baht to enter. Once inside, it is actually one of the only temples you can climb and while it’s a steep climb up, there are some railings to make it easier. Once up the top you’ll be rewarded with beautiful views of the Chao Phraya River and the amazing city below.

Inside the temple there are some sculptures and decorations so we’d reccomend at least an hour to look around. Location wise, it is a 12 minute walk from Itsaraphap station on the blue metro line or is a short boat ride from Tah Tian pier, so is very easy to get to.

Cost: Free (Unless you buy something obviously)

We’ve been to a lot of markets around the world, but we still talk about this one. The Chatuchak Market in Bangkok is the biggest weekend market in the world. With 200,000 people visiting the 15,000 stalls every weekend, it covers 35 acres of space and has 26 different sections.

You can find everything including fashion, accessories, art, pottery, antiques and food. Small sections are open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, however the whole market is open 9-6 every Saturday and Sunday. We’d really recommend going then and giving yourself several hours. We’d also recommend going as early as possible as it really heats up and fills up later in the day!

The market is absolutely huge and has rows and rows of stalls that go on forever. Courier services are available at some stalls, so if you find something too big to carry they’ve got you covered! They also expect you barter while shopping, so dont be afraid to haggle. Prices are very low though so you’ll never find yourself spending very much. The market has some incredible food and we had the BEST mango smoothie from a stall there.

If you’re worried about buying food from a street stall, there’s also indoor restaurants around the market. These also give you a good excuse to sit in some air conditioning for an hour! Honestly just wander around, take it all in and buy some great souvenirs. It’s a wonderful way to spend a weekend day!

Cost: Free

You know we had to throw a park recommendation in here! And Lumphini is a good one because it has a surprise that no park we’ve been to before has had. It’s located slightly east of the main city but is along two train lines so is easy to get to. The park is actually regarded as Thailand’s first public park and is a great place for a break from the city. It’s 142 acres, so you can easily spend a couple of hours walking around.

What makes this park different is the 400 water monitors that live in it. When we first entered the park and saw one we were so shocked, then we walked for 5 minutes and realised how common they are. Around the lake they are everywhere and you’ll probably see them sunbathing or swimming around.

Although they’re quite large and look a bit intimidating, they won’t hurt humans unless provoked. If you’ve got food they may come a bit close but they’re really just fun to watch. Interestingly, because they find food in the park and live near the water, they never leave the park. This means you’re almost guaranteed to see at least one when you visit.

There are also turtles in the lake and stray cats walking around the park, so lots of wildlife to watch! Apart from walking around the park and watching the animals, you can also rent paddle and row boats for the lake. Personally this would scare us a bit as the monitors are swimming around the lake, but it could be fun! Whatever you decide to do in the park it’s a great place to visit while in Bangkok.

Cost: Free

Now while you may not want to go all the way to Thailand and then end up in a shopping centre, we promise you will need a break from the heat every now and then. The weather in Bangkok is also unpredictable and they’re a good place to take shelter from the unexpected storms. We were once walking the streets when a hurricane level rainstorm hit us out of no where for about 15 minutes. They’re a good place to hang out if that happens to you too.

Siam Paragon is one of the biggest shopping centres in Thailand. It has a large cinema, an aquarium, an art gallery, a bowling alley and a karaoke centre. It is very clean and modern but when we visited we noticed it had a lot of high end shops, so we didn’t do any shopping. However it is worth a walk around, even just to look at the level of wealth we can only dream of!

There is one shopping centre you absolutely cannot miss though, which is Terminal 21. We stayed near here and wandered in one day and suddenly found our literal favourite place in Bangkok. What makes it so cool is that every floor is themed like a different international place. The floors are a mix of The Caribbean, Rome, Paris, Tokyo, London, Istanbul, San Francisco, and Hollywood. 

It’s just so cool and we had so much fun going from floor to floor looking around and guessing what the theme was. Apart from that there’s also lots of great shops and great food so it’s a definite must visit! Its located slightly east of the main city but is on two train lines so is easy to get to.

Just outside the centre is a fantastic Italian restaurant, Pala Pizza Romana & Bistrot. It has sit down service which usually has a queue in the evenings, but it also has takeaway pizza slices which are delicious for a quick meal!

Cost: Around $42

By far one of our favourite things we did in Bangkok was a cooking class. We love Thai food and we love cooking, so we knew this was something we wanted to do. Everything is so affordable in Thailand that it’s probably one of the cheapest places to do one. There’s so many companies to choose from, and Get Your Guide would be a good place to have a look through them!

We decided to go with the Silom Thai Cooking School and paid around 1000 Thai Baht each for the class. There are 3 classes a day, 7 days a week. Each day has a different menu and you can check them out online before booking your class to make sure the menu is perfect for your tastes. The classes run from 9am-12:20pm, 1:40pm-5pm and 6pm-9pm and must be paid in cash at the venue.

The most important choice when picking a time is deciding what extra you’d like along with the class. The morning time slot has a market tour included. The afternoon class has a tour of the schools mini herb garden. The evening class “brings the market to you” by teaching you all about the ingredients while you’re in the school.

We chose the morning class and we’d recommend it as the market was super interesting! It’s near the school and you walk around with the teacher getting everything you need for your class. The school is so clean, air conditioned, and really well set out. Our class was small, only 6 people and I believe they don’t ever have more than 10. The actual class was very fun, learning the traditional ways of making some of our favourite Thai dishes. We cooked all the dishes over hot woks and got to eat everything as soon as it was ready.

The school provides everything you need including aprons and clean drinking water. You even get a little cookbook with the recipes from the day, and some cute chopsticks to take home. The food we made was absolutely delicious and it was such a fun way to spend a couple of hours. We highly recommend not only this class but any Thai cooking class, they’d all be amazing!

If you have a bit of extra time in Bangkok and want to see more of the country, there are so many day trip options! We read a long list of options and decided on the following two. We chose these two because they were so different from each other and sounded really interesting.

The first one was a trip to the Damnoen Saduak floating market and the Maeklong Railway. Both markets were really interesting and completely unlike anything we’d experienced before. The Maeklong railway is a small street market which has a train go through it a couple of times a day. It’s very entertaining to watch all the market vendors quickly shut their stalls up as it passes. This market sells more fresh produce so unless you want some fruit or nuts you probably won’t need to buy anything here. 

The floating market had more lunch options and had some seats where you could sit and eat. There’s also lots of souvenir, art and fresh produce stalls too so there’s something for everyone. On our tour we got to go around the market in a boat and see the market from that view which was cool. However market owners do pull your best towards them and hold you at their stall to try and get you to buy something. As long as you’re prepared to either buy something with cash or say no, that shouldn’t be a problem. 

We booked this day trip on Get Your Guide for $42AUD each (around 1000 Baht). It was a pretty good day and a good way to see both markets so we’d recommend it. As long as you’re happy with not having a super long time at either market, especially the train one.

The second day trip we did was too Pattaya, Coral Island and the Sanctuary of Truth temple. This was a much more expensive day trip at $103AUD each (around 2500 Baht) also booked on Get Your Guide.

Pattaya is a beach town but all we did here was go to a viewpoint to see the town and ocean below. We then took a very bumpy speed boat to Coral Island where we had a couple of hours to swim and relax. The island is beautiful with the lovely sand beaches you want, however sadly it was very polluted. The amount of rubbish floating in the water was insane! All we wanted to do was relax and cool down and the water was just disgusting. It really ruined the experience and honestly because of that we don’t think this day trip is worth it.

It’s such a shame because after visiting the island we stopped at the Sanctuary of Truth temple. You can either go in this temple or stay up top and admire it from outside like we did. Out of all the landmarks we have seen, this temple is one of the most impressive things we have ever seen. It is made entirely out of wood and has idols and sculptures carved out of wood on it. It’s not old or particularly special to Thailand’s history, it is just a beautiful building to look at. If you have no intention of swimming on Coral Island and instead just want to relax on the beach chairs, this day trip would be great.

As we said though, there’s so many great day trip options from Bangkok. If these two don’t interest you, there’s also the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, the Khao Yai National Park or the seaside city of Hua Hin. Do keep in mind that Bangkok’s traffic is the worst of any city we’ve ever been to, and will probably cause your day trip to go long. We were almost 2 hours late back from one of our day trips purely because the traffic is so atrocious, and we heard that it’s normal. No matter what day trip you choose, if there’s driving involved just keep this is mind.

We hope you have an amazing time in Bangkok no matter if you stay in the city and see what it has to offer, or do some day trips to see what’s around. There really is something for everyone and is a great place to include while visiting South East Asia.

You can see everything we got up to during our time in Bangkok in our vlog:

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• 10+ Best Affordable Things to do in Singapore
• The Best Six Phnom Penh Activities For Budget Travellers
• Explore Hanoi: The Most Wonderful Budget Destination