Asia
Thailand is a country in Southeast Asia. Its capital is Bangkok and its official language is Thai.
Destinations covered
11
Published guides
20
Region
Asia
Explore Thailand
Discover cities, regions and experiences worth building a trip around, then go deeper with practical guides and local context.
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10 destinations
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand and also one of its first-level administrative divisions, a special administrative area. The Grand Palace's official website says the capital was moved in 1782 to the left bank of the Chao Phraya River, where the palace was built; XTOUR maps the Grand Palace, the Bangkok National Museum, the National Museum of Royal Barges and the Giant Swing in the city.
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Chiang Mai is a city municipality in northern Thailand that the Fine Arts Department describes as the former royal capital and centre of the Lanna kingdom; the municipality's City Heritage Centre traces more than 700 years of the city's history. Wat Phra That Doi Suthep and Doi Inthanon lie outside the municipality.
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Chiang Rai is a city municipality in northern Thailand which TAT says was founded in 1262 and served as the second capital of the Lanna Kingdom. The municipality gives its area as 60.85 square kilometres, covering Wiang subdistrict and parts of Rop Wiang, Rim Kok and San Sai; Wat Rong Khun and Baan Dam lie outside it.
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Kanchanaburi is a town municipality in Mueang Kanchanaburi District, created on 25 March 1936 over Ban Nuea and Ban Tai subdistricts and enlarged in 1974 to 9.16 square kilometres, according to the municipality. The municipality lists the bridge over the Khwae River and an Allied war cemetery among its important places, and says it named 22 roads leading to the bridge after 22 nations in remembrance of the foreign labourers the Japanese army conscripted to build it.
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Ko Pha-ngan is an island in the Gulf of Thailand in Surat Thani Province, which Wikidata places in the Samui archipelago with Ko Samui. The Surat Thani Provincial Office describes Ko Pha-ngan District as one of the province's districts that is an island and names Chaloklum Beach, Yao Beach and Than Sadet Waterfall among its places to photograph; XTOUR maps Hat Khuat (Bottle Beach) on the island.
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Ko Samui is an island in the Gulf of Thailand in Surat Thani Province; the Tourism Authority of Thailand's newsroom places it 35 km off the coast of Surat Thani and names beaches around its coastline including Chaweng, Lamai, Bophut, Mae Nam and Choeng Mon. XTOUR maps Chaweng Beach on the island and, as a separate place that TAT says day trips reach from Ko Samui, Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park.
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Krabi Town is the town municipality (thesaban mueang) that is the seat of Krabi Province in southern Thailand, according to Wikidata. The Tourism Authority of Thailand's newsroom names the white temple Wat Kaeo Korawaram and the Giant Crab statue among the town's sights, and the row of evening food stalls at Chao Fah Pier among its night markets.
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Phuket is an island in the Andaman Sea in Phuket province, Thailand; Phuket Town, the city municipality that is the provincial seat, is on the island. XTOUR maps Patong, Kata and Karon beaches, Promthep Cape and the Phuket Thai Hua Museum on the island.
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Phuket Town (Phuket City Municipality, เทศบาลนครภูเก็ต) is the city municipality on Phuket island that is the seat of Phuket province; the municipality says it became a town municipality in 1935 and a city municipality on 13 February 2004, covering two subdistricts. XTOUR maps the Phuket Thai Hua Museum on Krabi Road in the city; the island's beaches and Promthep Cape lie outside the municipality and belong to the Phuket island destination.
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Sukhothai Thani is a town municipality in Thani subdistrict of Mueang Sukhothai District, Sukhothai Province, with an area of 3.5 square kilometres, according to the municipality. It is not the ancient city: the Fine Arts Department places Sukhothai Historical Park in Mueang Kao subdistrict, west of the provincial town.
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Plan better
UNESCO's World Heritage properties at Ayutthaya and Sukhothai are designations drawn over historic cities, not the same things as the historical parks visitors enter. This explainer sets out what UNESCO's own documents say each property covers, how the parks differ from it, and why XTOUR never treats a designation and a park as one record.
Ayutthaya Historical Park, the modern town of Ayutthaya and UNESCO's Historic City of Ayutthaya are three different things that share one name. This guide separates them, names who manages the ruins, and explains why XTOUR treats a ruined temple and a working temple in the same city differently.
The Fine Arts Department runs three national museums in Bangkok that are easy to confuse and hold entirely different things: an archaeology and art museum in the former Front Palace, a boat shed for royal ceremonial barges, and a gallery of Thai painting in a former mint. This guide sets out what each holds according to the department's own pages, where those pages disagree, and what XTOUR does not know.
The Burma–Thailand Railway was built for the Japanese army during the Second World War by Allied prisoners of war and Asian forced labourers, and tens of thousands died building it. This article sets out what commemorative bodies and official sources say about the railway, where their figures differ, and how the dead are remembered in Thailand today.
The Chiang Mai National Museum holds the Fine Arts Department's collections for the upper north, while Wiang Kum Kam is the excavated town that Phaya Mangrai built before Chiang Mai, now in Saraphi district. This guide explains what each is according to the department's own pages, what its archaeologists now say about how Wiang Kum Kam was abandoned, and where the municipality's city heritage centre fits.
The Grand Palace in Bangkok and Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, stand inside the same walls and are entered on one ticket through one gate. This guide explains what that ticket covers according to the palace's own site, why XTOUR keeps the palace and the temple as two places, and which details the official pages disagree on.
The places in and around Kanchanaburi that remember the Burma–Thailand Railway are looked after by different bodies: the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Australian Government, a private company, and bodies the sources XTOUR read do not name. This guide names each site, says who is responsible for it, and points to the page a visitor should read before going.
Three of Lopburi's monuments answer three different questions: a Khmer three-towered shrine, a prang believed to be a model for early Ayutthaya prangs, and a seventeenth-century royal palace that is now a national museum. This guide sets out what each one is, which body's pages describe it, and what XTOUR could and could not confirm.
Mueang Sing Historical Park is a walled Khmer-period town with a laterite sanctuary at its centre, on the Khwae Noi river in Sai Yok district of Kanchanaburi Province. This guide explains what the Fine Arts Department's pages say it is, how it differs from Kanchanaburi's Second World War sites, and where the department's own Thai and English pages disagree about its age and its ancient name.
Phimai and Phanom Rung are Khmer stone sanctuaries in north-eastern Thailand, each run as a historical park by the Fine Arts Department. This guide sets out what each one is, which religion each was built for, how the department restored them, what its own pages say about entry and conduct, and where those pages disagree.
The Phuket Vegetarian Festival, known locally as Jia Chai, is a nine-day festival of Phuket's Thai-Chinese Hokkien community, dated by the Chinese lunar calendar, so its Western dates move: the Tourism Authority of Thailand listed 21 to 29 October in 2025 and 10 to 18 October in 2026. This explainer sets out what TAT's releases say about its processions and rituals, where TAT's own accounts disagree, and what XTOUR could not confirm.
Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet are the other two towns in the World Heritage property inscribed with Sukhothai in 1991, each run as a historical park by the Fine Arts Department. This guide explains what each park covers, how each is laid out for a visitor, what the department's pages say about entry, and where the department and ICOMOS give different figures.
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Our country and destination guides are designed to bring together practical information, accessibility, timing, culture and the details that make a trip easier to understand.