Thailand Round Trip Tour from Bangkok – 7 Days / 6 Nights

After breakfast you meet your guide and driver at your hotel in Bangkok and set off on a journey towards the roots of Thai culture.

The first stop of the day is the old capital of Ayutthaya, a UNESCO site. You visit Wat Phra Si Sanphet, once the most sacred temple of the royal palace, recognisable by the three chedi in a row that held the ashes of three kings, and the nearby Wiharn Phra Mongkhon Bophit, home to one of the largest bronze Buddhas in Thailand. The visit ends at the famous Wat Mahathat, where a Buddha head sits held in the roots of an old bodhi tree, one of the most photographed images in the country.

Lunch is included at a local restaurant. You then continue north with an optional stop that is hard to forget, at Wat Chantaram, better known as Wat Tha Sung or the Crystal Temple. Its main hall, a hundred metres long, is entirely lined with mirrors and fragments of glass that throw light around in a way you will not see anywhere else. It also holds the body, miraculously intact, of the monk Luang Phor Ruesi Ling Dam, a place of pilgrimage for the devout from all over Thailand.

At the end of the visit you carry on by private vehicle to Sukhothai. Arrival in the evening, check-in and overnight.

After breakfast you meet your guide and driver to explore Sukhothai, the first capital of Siam, founded in 1238 and the cradle of Thai civilisation: tradition holds that King Ramkhamhaeng devised the Thai alphabet here.

You enter the Historical Park, a UNESCO site, where time seems to have stopped among tall temples and great seated Buddhas. At its heart is Wat Mahathat, with its distinctive lotus-bud chedi and the slender walking Buddhas held to be the summit of Thai sculpture. You can visit by bicycle, on the local tram or, for a supplement, by golf cart.

From there you carry on to Phayao. You stop for lunch at a local restaurant before spending some time at Kwan Phayao, the largest freshwater lake in the north: in 1941 an irrigation dam flooded its shores and swallowed Wat Tilok Aram, a fifteenth-century temple dedicated to King Tilokaraj. A short boat ride takes you to the islet that marks the spot today, to pay respects to the Buddha image Luang Pho Sila.

Before the day ends in Chiang Rai you visit the fairy-tale Wat Rong Suea Ten, the Blue Temple, whose name recalls the tigers that once crossed this area. Built by the artist Phuttha Kabkaew, a pupil of the man behind the White Temple, it plays entirely on sapphire blue and gold detailing, with a great white Buddha standing out against walls painted in almost psychedelic murals.

Final transfer to your hotel in Chiang Rai and overnight.

After breakfast you meet your guide and private driver at the hotel and head for the Golden Triangle, the point where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet.

The first stop is Mae Sai, the northernmost town in Thailand. The border with Myanmar is literally a street, and the frontier market is the heart of the town: jade stalls, Burmese handicrafts and a constant traffic between the two countries. You carry on to the Golden Triangle proper, where the Ruak river runs into the Mekong, and from the viewpoint you have all three countries in front of you at once. There is an optional boat trip on the Mekong, about 40 minutes (700 THB per person, payable locally), along the Lao and Burmese banks. You then visit the Opium Museum, which explains without varnish how the region came by its name: pipes, scales, period instruments and original documents lay out decades of history and trafficking.

Next comes the Union of Hill Tribe Village at Mae Chan, a cultural centre that brings together the mountain communities. Here you meet the Akha with their silver headdresses, the Yao, the H’mong and the Kayan, known for the brass coils they wear at the neck. Each group has its own language, dress and traditions. Lunch at a local restaurant with traditional Thai dishes.

In the afternoon you visit Wat Rong Khun, the famous White Temple. It is not an ancient building but a contemporary work of art, all white and covered in mirror glass. You cross a bridge over a sea of hands reaching upward, and inside the murals mix Buddhist iconography with pop culture. One of the most photographed places in Thailand.

You then drive on to Chiang Mai, arriving in the evening. Transfer to your hotel and overnight.

The day starts in the heart of the old city at Wat Chedi Luang, a fifteenth-century complex known for its huge partly restored pyramidal pagoda and its stone elephants. You carry on to Wat Suan Dok, the temple of the flower garden, where rows of white mausoleums hold the ashes of the Lanna royal family. Then you move outside the centre for Wat Umong, set in thick woodland: its distinctive feature is the network of underground tunnels where monks meditate in complete quiet, among old statues and untouched nature. You stop for a Thai lunch at a local restaurant. Finally you climb the mountain road to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, the most sacred shrine in the north. You can take on the 306 steps of the Naga staircase or ride the funicular to the top, where the great golden chedi and the iconic five-tier golden umbrella are waiting. From the terrace the whole valley of Chiang Mai opens out below, before you head back to the hotel.

After breakfast your guide and private driver meet you at reception. You leave the mountains of Chiang Mai for Lampang province, where time seems to have stopped.

You visit the superb Wat Phra That Lampang Luang, a masterpiece of Lanna architecture and one of the best preserved wooden temples in Thailand. Ringed by walls that give it the look of a fortress, the compound really was a military outpost: in 1732 the occupying Burmese troops barricaded themselves inside, until a local commander surprised them in a night raid and freed the town. At its centre stands the great golden chedi, 24 metres high, said to hold a hair given by the Buddha himself, while the neighbouring Wihan Luang, from 1476, is considered the oldest teak structure in the country. Lunch at a typical restaurant, among the strong, spiced flavours of the local kitchen.

In the early afternoon there is a short detour to Wat Phra That Doi Phra Chan, a temple on a mountain top just outside Lampang. The place is best known for its sunrises, when a sea of cloud fills the valley, an effect that has gone by the afternoon. It is worth the climb anyway for the contrast it offers: a traditional white Lanna pagoda beside a giant Buddha in Japanese style, reached by a long staircase flanked by naga. The road then carries on into the great central plains, reaching Phitsanulok, one of the oldest and most significant cities in the country.

At the end of the day, transfer to your hotel in Phitsanulok, check-in and overnight.

After breakfast your guide and private driver meet you at reception. The day opens with Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, one of the most sacred shrines in the country: it holds the legendary Phra Buddha Chinnarat, cast in bronze in the Sukhothai period and held by many Thais to be the most beautiful Buddha in the country, recognisable by the flame-shaped halo around it. Thousands of pilgrims come here every day to pay their respects.

Heading south you reach Lopburi, an old Khmer enclave where thousand-year-old temples sit inside a busy modern town. Lunch at a small local restaurant, then a visit to Phra Prang Sam Yod, the three towers built in the thirteenth century by the Khmer king Jayavarman VII and originally dedicated to the Hindu trinity of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. A few steps away is San Phra Kan, a shrine to Vishnu on even older Khmer foundations. Local legend has it that this is where Hanuman, the warrior monkey of the Indian epics, saved a bride from a demon and founded the city: the hundreds of macaques that live here now are held to be his direct descendants, and every November a festival is put on in their honour, with a banquet laid out for them. A word of advice: hold on to your glasses, hats and bags.

Finally you head back into the noise and pull of Bangkok.

At the end of the day, transfer to your hotel in Bangkok, check-in and overnight.

After breakfast you check out of your hotel. The morning is entirely yours, for last-minute shopping, a slow walk or a final Thai massage. Depending on your flight time, our staff will meet you for the transfer to the airport (driver only).