What to do in Bangkok
When people ask me what to do in Bangkok, I rarely send them to a temple or a sky bar. I'd rather send them to the old neighbourhoods along the Chao Phraya, where the food hasn't changed much in years and the streets still feel like neighbourhoods rather than attractions. These are my tips, the places I keep coming back to whenever I'm in Bangkok.
By Tim van Dellen, who lives in Thailand and regularly travels to Bangkok
Neighbourhoods worth exploring
Talat Noi, Song Wat and Chinatown are right next to each other. You can easily walk from one to the next, and all three feel more local and less touristy than central Bangkok.
Talat Noi
A temple next to a garage, incense next to graffiti: that's Talat Noi, literally "small market", and one of Bangkok's first Chinese trading neighbourhoods. My first stop is always Duck Noodle House. Two generations, the same recipe, and a mention in the Michelin Guide on a street lined with plastic stools. Then 965BKK, a two-hundred-year-old Chinese merchant's house that's now a café, art space and concept store, and Mother Roasters, where Pa Pim, now in her seventies, has been making coffee for thirty years.
Song Wat
Maybe my favourite street in Bangkok. Song Wat literally means "drawn by the king": Rama V drew the route himself in pencil after a major fire in 1892. For years, everything here revolved around rice and spices. Now coffee shops, vintage stores and restaurants sit among the old warehouses, including Soul Songwat, a former warehouse with a riverside terrace.
For a short break, I usually walk to NAAM 1608, tucked away in a small alley just off Song Wat and right on the water. Holy Rosary Church is here too, built by Portuguese Catholics who settled in the area after the fall of Ayutthaya.
Chinatown / Yaowarat
Walk from Song Wat into the market and you feel the difference straight away. More noise, more smells, more people. From the dumplings at JOK One Table to the last cocktail at Ba Hao in Soi Nana, my full route through Chinatown and Yaowarat is on the Chinatown Bangkok page.
These three neighbourhoods also make up the route I walk most often in Bangkok. The full story, with practical tips on when to start, is on From Thailand.
Food & street food
I almost always start with street food. A bowl of noodle soup on a plastic stool by the road is simply part of Bangkok, and that's not changing anytime soon. But Bangkok has grown up fast as a food city: there are now dozens of top restaurants, with chefs building on Thai cuisine itself rather than copying European techniques. Sorn is all about southern Thai ingredients, sourced directly from local fishermen and farmers.
Jay Fai still cooks herself, over two charcoal burners, making the same crab omelette she has been making for more than sixty years. I wrote a longer story about her on From Thailand.
Specific food stops, such as the duck noodle shop in Talat Noi or the Michelin-listed place in an alley with a single table, are all mapped out in Bangkok Unlocked, my map with 400+ places worth knowing across the city.
You find places like that further from the centre too. On Ekkamai Road you'll find Wattana Panich, where a one-and-a-half-metre pot has been kept simmering for fifty years: mostly emptied every evening, never completely, then topped up again each day with fresh meat and herbs. Think of it as a sourdough starter, but with broth. Nattapong, the third-generation owner, tastes it himself every morning and knows what is still missing.
Exactly the kind of place you won't find on the first page of Google, but will come across if you take the time to walk around.
400+ PLACES WORTH KNOWING
Bangkok Unlocked
400+ places, organised across exactly these neighbourhoods and categories, in Bangkok Unlocked.
View Bangkok Unlocked →Beyond the centre: Bang Krachao
After a few days in Bangkok, there was one thing I wanted most: some peace and quiet. A small boat took me to Bang Krachao in ten minutes, a green oasis in the middle of the river. I rented a bicycle and rode along narrow paths, past palm trees, plantations and wooden houses, as if Bangkok had suddenly moved hundreds of kilometres away. Along the way I stopped at Coconut Lane for something to drink. In the middle of all that greenery, I found bitterballen on the menu, of all things.
Ten minutes by boat and the skyline turns into jungle. Nothing about Bang Krachao feels like a neighbourhood anymore. Bang Krachao is also on Bangkok Unlocked, in the Outdoors category.
Routes: how much time do you have?
Only have a few hours? Talat Noi, Song Wat and Chinatown make up a three- to four-hour walk. You can read above why. Bangkok: 3 Hours, 3 Neighbourhoods turns it into a ready-made route: the places are already on the map, in the right order, so all you have to do is walk.
Got three days? Then you can divide the city in much the same way: old Bangkok, the river and Chinatown, and a third day that you fill in yourself. Chatuchak at the weekend, Thonburi or quieter Ari during the week, and Thonglor if you'd rather go out. That full route is in Bangkok: 72 Hours, especially useful if it's your first time in Bangkok and you don't want to work out where to go the next day every evening.
The full day-by-day itinerary is on Bangkok in 3 days.
Work it out yourself, or have everything together
You can work out everything above yourself, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, restaurant by restaurant. Or you can use the map where I've already done the work for you: 400+ places, organised across exactly these neighbourhoods and categories, in Bangkok Unlocked.
Want both Bangkok guides plus all three maps together for less than buying them separately? You can get them in the Complete Bangkok Bundle.
View Bangkok Unlocked →