Hello Friends,
Thailand is where my travelling life really started. My first-ever solo trip put me on the ground in Bangkok back in 2014, and I’ve been circling back to the country ever since. So this Thailand travel guide isn’t a rewrite of a booking site’s landing page — it’s the honest version: where I’ve actually been across more than a decade, what it was like, and a straight admission of the pieces I still haven’t reached. Where I’m guessing, I’ll say so.
Where My Thailand Started: The 2014 Solo Trip
I want to start with the trip that started everything, because it’s the reason Thailand means what it does to me. In 2014 I flew into Bangkok on my first solo trip anywhere — no group, barely a plan, just me and a backpack and a lot of nerves. From Bangkok I went south to Koh Samui, then crossed over to George Town in Penang and down to Kuala Lumpur, before flying on to Indonesia — Yogyakarta, the volcanoes at Mount Bromo and Ijen, then Ubud in Bali and the little island of Gili Trawangan — before circling back through Bali to Bangkok and the flight home. One month, start to finish, and it’s the trip that turned me into a traveller. Bangkok was the door I walked through to get there.
Then, for a long stretch, I didn’t come back — until I was living in Vietnam years later and Thailand became the place I’d hop over to on a visa run or a quick trip. So my Thailand comes in two eras: a wide-eyed first lap in 2014, and a more grounded set of returns through Bangkok and the south once I actually lived in the region. Between them, the parts I can guide you through best are the capital and the Andaman coast — Phuket and Krabi — and that’s where most of this guide lives.
Bangkok: Louder and Better Than Its Reputation
Bangkok overwhelms people, and I think that’s mostly because they only see the tourist-trap version of it. The city rewarded me most when I got off the obvious track — I wrote about that in Bangkok beyond the temples, which is the parks, the hidden bars, and the grittier nights that don’t make the highlight reels. If you want the strange and the sacred, the Bangkok Amulet Market down by the river is one of the more genuinely unusual places I’ve wandered into. And for the pure visual side of the city, I went looking for beauty in the concrete on an urban exploration walk along the elevated walkways.
If you time your trip around mid-April, you’ll hit Songkran, and nothing prepares you for it. My Songkran water fight in Bangkok was one of the best days I’ve had anywhere. I later ended up comparing Songkran in Bangkok against Siem Reap — they’re two very different beasts, and if you’re deciding where to be for it, that one’s worth a read.
Phuket: More Than the Party It’s Sold As
Phuket gets written off as a package-holiday island, and that’s a shame, because there’s a lot more there if you look. The single wildest night I had in Thailand was the Phuket Vegetarian Festival — fireworks filling the entire street, smoke everywhere, an intensity of faith and noise I’ve never seen anywhere else. If your trip lines up with it (late September into October), do not miss it.
The quieter side surprised me more, though. Old Town Phuket with its Sino-Portuguese shophouses was an unexpected pocket of calm and culture, and my slow days on Phuket’s beaches — sunsets, coral, quiet walks — were the version of the island nobody sells you. Then there’s Patong, which is the loud, neon, mixed-bag Phuket everyone pictures. I’ll be honest about it: it’s a lot, and whether you love it or flee it depends entirely on what you came for.
Krabi and Ao Nang: My Favourite Corner
If I had to send someone to one part of the Thai south, it might be here. Ao Nang is a coastal base of beaches and limestone cliffs (and, memorably, tiny crab artists on the sand), and Krabi more broadly has a slower, softer charm than Phuket. The one that stayed with me was the climb up to Wat Tham Suea, the Tiger Cave Temple — over a thousand steps, brutal in the heat, and a view at the top that earns every one of them. That’s the Thailand day I’d put on a postcard.
The Parts I Haven’t Reached Yet
Here’s the honest gap. I haven’t spent real time in northern Thailand — Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Pai — which travellers I trust rave about for the mountains, the food, and a cooler, slower pace than the south. I passed through Koh Samui on that first 2014 trip, but it was years ago and only a stop, so I won’t pretend to be your guide to the Gulf islands — Phangan and Tao I haven’t touched at all — and I still haven’t made it to the old capitals at Ayutthaya and Sukhothai. For those, I’d point you to writers who’ve genuinely lived them rather than have me guess. When I get to them properly, I’ll write them up the same way as everything above — from the ground, not from a brochure.
Practical Planning
Two things worth sorting before you go. First, timing: Thailand’s seasons make or break a trip, and I broke down the shoulder-season reality in Thailand in October — the tail of the monsoon, when the crowds thin and the deals appear but the weather’s a gamble. Second, packing: the heat and humidity are no joke, and my Southeast Asia packing guide covers what actually earns its place in the bag. For official visa and entry specifics, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is the source to check close to your dates rather than trusting a page written months ahead.
How I’d Use This Guide
If this is your first Thailand trip and you want the version I can vouch for, string together Bangkok, a few days in Phuket, and the Krabi/Ao Nang coast — that’s a genuinely great two weeks and every link above feeds into it. Save the north and the Gulf islands for their own trip, and lean on writers who’ve spent real time there. If you’re heading onward through the region, my Cambodia travel guide picks up right across the border.
Cheers.
