Bangkok
Bangkok, known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and largest city of Thailand.
The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population of 9.1 million people as of 2024, 15.9% of the country's population. Over 17.4 million people live within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region as of the 2021 estimate, making Bangkok a megacity and an extreme primate city, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in both size and importance to the national economy.
Getting to Bangkok
Bangkok is served by two airports: Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK IATA) (pronounced Soo-wahn-nah-poom) and Don Mueang Airport (DMK IATA). Suvarnabhumi Airport is the main airport and used by all full-service airlines, but Nok Air, Air Asia, and some other low cost carriers use Don Mueang Airport.
Worth seeing
Most of Bangkok's sights are concentrated on the island of Rattanakosin, often referred to as the "Old City". Out of Bangkok's hundreds of temples, the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun usually make up the top 3. The Grand Palace has an immense size, so expect to spend at least a full morning or afternoon there. Within the palace grounds is Wat Phra Kaew, the most sacred Buddhist temple of Thailand.
Things to do
All of Thailand's major festivals are celebrated in Bangkok. New Year is celebrated three times. There's the new year following the Gregorian calendar at January 1, celebrated with a huge fireworks display at Ratchaprasong intersection. Then there's Chinese New Year in January or February, with grandiose and colourful Chinese lion and dragon processions in Yaowarat.
- 01Go Bangkok Tours
51 Charoen Krung, Soi 44, Bang Rak (BTS Saphan Taksin exit 1, 3 min walk), fax: +66 2-630 7563, info@gobangkoktours.com.
Where to eat
Bangkok boasts a stunning 50,000 places to eat; not only thousands of Thai restaurants, but a wide selection of world-class international cuisine too. With the rise of the expat community and high expenditure for local Thais, Bangkok has fast become a gastronomical paradise. Prices are generally high by Thai standards, but cheap by international standards.
Getting around Bangkok the local way
- Get inA taxi service desk is available on the wharf, but charges extortionate prices for a trip to Bangkok, to charter a taxi (4 passengers), or to charter a minibus (usually 11 passenger seats).
- Get inSlightly lower prices can be found by walking out to the main road and taking a minibus, but even these rates are still almost double the typical rate in the opposite direction.
- Get inThese buses are cheaper, safer, faster, more comfortable and won't scam you onto a clapped-out minibus halfway along the way or to a bedbug-infested hotel at the end.
- Get inThere are also white minibuses from various points around Bangkok, e.g., from Ramkhamhaeng (near Rajamangala National Stadium).
- Get inThere are inexpensive shuttle buses and slightly more expensive (but quicker loading and a bit faster) minibuses to and from the Northeastern Bus Terminal as well.
- Get inFor travelling to Bangkok suburbs or locations within 200 km of the city, the fastest and often the cheapest way is to use public van (minibus) services.
- Get inFacing the monument itself are the city bus stops, behind it there is a small market, and behind the market you will find many white-coloured minibuses just parking at the roadside and waiting for passengers.
- Get inSince October 2016 the minibuses to other provinces have been relocated to the three public bus terminals which makes them far less convenient.
From Wikivoyage: Bangkok, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.
Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Preecha.MJ (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons.
