Thailand · Itinerary · Updated September 2026
22 days in Thailand: north to south, overland then islands
A route for travelling Thailand independently on public transport, sequenced so the long overland legs earn their place. Every fare, journey time and nightly rate below carries the date it was last checked.
Length
22 days
Budget
฿66,800 / $2,006
per person, mid-range
Best season
Nov–Mar
Dry in both north and south
Stops
11
1 domestic flight
The route
Bangkok up through the north by train and bus, one flight down to Surat Thani, then the Andaman coast.
Day by day
Days 1–3 · Bangkok
Land, sleep it off, then the old city
Airport Rail Link from Suvarnabhumi to Phaya Thai, then BTS. Day one is a write-off, eat and sleep. Day two: Wat Pho, Wat Arun by cross-river ferry, then Chinatown after dark for Yaowarat street food. Day three: Chatuchak if it's a weekend, otherwise Jim Thompson House and the canal boat along Khlong Saen Saep.
Sleep: Phra Nakhon for temples, Ari for cafés and quiet.
Day 4 · Ayutthaya
Ruins by bicycle
Third class from Krung Thep Aphiwat, 1h30–2h for ฿15–20. Rent a bicycle at the station and do Wat Mahathat, Wat Chaiwatthanaram and Wat Phra Si Sanphet in a loop. Doable as a day trip, but staying the night means you get the ruins at sunrise without the tour buses.
Sleep: Guesthouse near Naresuan Road, ฿500–900.
Days 5–6 · Sukhothai
The quieter historical park
Bus from Ayutthaya, 4h30–6h20. The park splits into central, north and west zones with a separate ticket each. ฿200, ฿120 and ฿120, plus ฿10 per zone if you arrive by bicycle. The old combined all-zones ticket has been discontinued, so three zones in a day is ฿440 before the bicycle surcharge. The central zone alone is enough for most people. Go at opening or an hour before closing. Si Satchanalai, 55km north, is emptier still if you have the second day.
Sleep: New Sukhothai for food, Old Sukhothai to be next to the park.
Days 7–10 · Chiang Mai
Base for the north
Bus from Sukhothai, 5h30–6h for ฿300–530. Four nights is right: one for the old city temples and the Sunday Walking Street, one for Doi Suthep and a Doi Pui village walk, one for a cooking class, and one held back for an ethical elephant sanctuary. Book a place that does observation only, no riding, no bathing.
Sleep: Old City inside the moat, or Nimman for coffee and coworking.
Days 11–12 · Pai
762 curves, then nothing to do
Prempracha minivans run hourly from Chiang Mai's Arcade terminal, 130km and 3–4 hours of switchbacks for ฿150–250 at the counter or ฿260–360 booked online. Take something for motion sickness and sit at the front. Rent a scooter for Pam Bok waterfall, the hot springs and Pai Canyon at sunset. If you have never ridden before, this is not the place to learn.
Sleep: Riverside bungalows, ฿400–1,200.
Days 13–14 · Chiang Rai
White temple, blue temple, tea hills
Back through Chiang Mai, then Green Bus from Arcade terminal: 3h45, ฿260 express walk-up, ฿400–600 for VIP booked online. Wat Rong Khun and Wat Rong Suea Ten both take an hour and are 15 minutes apart. Day two goes to Choui Fong tea plantation and Doi Mae Salong for the Yunnanese food.
Sleep: Near the clock tower for the night bazaar.
Days 15–17 · Khao Sok
Rainforest and the floating rafthouses
Chiang Rai to Surat Thani by air, connecting through Bangkok, there is no direct service, then a 2-hour transfer. Spend one night in the village and one on Cheow Lan Lake in a rafthouse. The overnight trip includes the longtail out, a jungle walk and the dawn wildlife hour, which is the whole point of coming.
Sleep: Rafthouse ฿2,500–2,800 for a standard overnight including boat and meals, plus ฿340 park and pier fees. Premium camps run to ฿3,900.
Days 18–19 · Railay & Krabi
A peninsula you can only reach by boat
Bus to Krabi Town, longtail from Ao Nam Mao or Ao Nang. Railay West for the beach, Railay East for cheaper rooms, Tonsai next door for climbing. The viewpoint and lagoon trail is a short, steep, rope-assisted scramble, not in flip-flops, and not after rain.
Sleep: Railay East ฿800–1,800; Railay West from ฿3,500.
Day 20 · Koh Phi Phi
One night is enough
Ferry from Krabi, 1–2h. Maya Bay sits on Phi Phi Leh and is a separate boat trip with real rules: ฿400 entry, a cap of 380 people ashore at once, one hour on the beach, no anchoring, you land by the Loh Samah boardwalk, and no swimming. You may wade to knee depth and no further: the shallows are a blacktip reef shark nursery and the replanted coral is still recovering. It shuts completely from 1 August to 30 September each year, which sits outside this itinerary's Nov–Mar window. Take the first boat, then the Phi Phi Don viewpoint in the late afternoon. The village is loud until 2am. Stay at Long Beach or Tonsai Bay if you want to sleep.
Sleep: Long Beach, 15 minutes by longtail from the pier.
Day 21 · Koh Lanta
Slow down before the flight home
Ferry from Phi Phi, about an hour. Lanta is long and flat, so a scooter gets you the whole west coast in a day: Klong Nin for swimming, Old Town for the stilt houses, Mu Ko Lanta national park at the southern tip for the lighthouse and the sunset.
Sleep: Klong Khong or Klong Nin, ฿700–2,000.
Day 22 · Phuket
Transfer day
Ferry or minivan-and-ferry combo to Phuket, 3–4 hours depending on the route. Leave the whole day for it: the transfer is unreliable and the airport sits an hour north of the main beaches. If your flight is early the next morning, sleep in Nai Yang rather than Patong.
Sleep: Nai Yang, 10 minutes from the airport.
Best things to do on this route
If you cut the trip short, these are the ones to keep.
- 01
Dawn on Cheow Lan Lake
Gibbons and hornbills before the day boats arrive. Only accessible on an overnight rafthouse trip.
- 02
Yaowarat after dark
Bangkok's Chinatown from 7pm. Go hungry, eat standing up, budget ฿300 for the whole night.
- 03
Ayutthaya by bicycle at sunrise
The park opens at 8am but the outer ruins are unfenced and empty from first light.
- 04
A northern Thai cooking class
Half a day in Chiang Mai, ฿1,000–1,500, market visit included. Ask for khao soi.
- 05
The Railay lagoon scramble
Twenty minutes up a rope-and-clay trail. Hard, short, and the best view on the Andaman coast.
- 06
Wat Rong Suea Ten, Chiang Rai
The blue temple. Free, quieter than the white one, and better inside.
- 07
Scootering the Mae Hong Son loop edge
Even just the Pai end of it. Waterfalls, canyon, hot springs, all within 20km.
- 08
Sunset at Lanta's southern lighthouse
฿200 park entry. Stay past the sun going down; almost everyone leaves too early.
Where to stay
Neighbourhoods rather than specific hotels. Prices move, areas don't.
Bangkok: Phra Nakhon or Ari
Phra Nakhon puts you inside the temple district. Ari is 15 minutes on the BTS and much calmer.
Chiang Mai: Old City or Nimman
Inside the moat for temples and markets; Nimman for cafés, coworking and better food.
Khao Sok: village then rafthouse
One night in the village to arrange the lake trip, one night on the water. Book the rafthouse ahead in high season.
Railay: East side
Mangrove not beach, but a five-minute walk across the peninsula and less than half the price.
Koh Lanta: Klong Khong
Mid-island, beach bungalows, walkable to food. Klong Nin if you want a better swimming beach.
What it cost
Per person, 22 days. International flights not included.
| Category | Cost |
|---|---|
| Accommodation: 21 nights | ฿25,200 / $757 |
| Food and drink | ฿13,200 / $396 |
| Transport: trains, buses, one connecting flight | ฿12,900 / $387 |
| Activities and entry fees | ฿9,500 / $285 |
| Ferries and longtails | ฿3,200 / $96 |
| SIM, laundry, ATM fees, tourist entry fee | ฿2,800 / $84 |
| Total | ฿66,800 / $2,006 |
Converted at ฿33.3 to the dollar, checked 2 September 2026. Private rooms, mostly street and market food, public transport with one internal flight. That works out at about ฿3,000 a day, which sits inside the ฿2,150–3,600 band Thailand mid-range travel generally runs to. The fixed costs behind the rows are the verified ones: ฿400 Maya Bay, ฿440 for Sukhothai's three zones, ฿200 Mu Ko Lanta, ฿340 Khao Sok park and pier fees, ฿1,000–1,500 for a cooking class, and the ฿300 tourist entry fee introduced in 2026. Nightly rates and daily eating are averages across the route, not quotes.
Getting around
Trains
Cheap and slow. Book second-class sleepers on the State Railway site or at the station a few days ahead; lower berths cost more and are worth it. Third class is fine for anything under three hours.
Buses and minivans
Government buses are more comfortable than minivans and only slightly slower. Buy at the terminal, not through your guesthouse, and you will usually pay 20–30% less. As a sense of scale on this route: Sukhothai to Chiang Mai runs ฿300–530, Chiang Mai to Pai ฿150–250 at the counter, and Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai ฿260 for Green Bus express.
Domestic flights
Chiang Rai to Surat Thani is the one leg worth flying: it saves roughly 20 hours of overland travel. No airline flies it directly, so every routing connects, almost always through Bangkok, Nok Air and Thai AirAsia serve the legs. Connecting fares average around ฿4,700; book well ahead, and allow for the airport change if your connection routes Don Mueang to Suvarnabhumi.
Ferries
Andaman ferries run reduced schedules from May to October. Between November and March there are several a day between Krabi, Phi Phi and Lanta.
Scooters and apps
฿150–350 a day depending on where you are and how new the bike is; Pai is at the cheap end, Bangkok and Phuket the dear one. You need an international permit with a motorcycle endorsement for your insurance to be valid. Most rental shops will not ask, and your insurer will. Grab works in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket.
Photos
Packing notes
The things that are annoying to find locally, or that people forget.
- Long trousers and a shoulder covering for temples. Sarongs are sold at every entrance but cost triple.
- A fleece or light jacket. Chiang Rai and Pai drop to 10°C at night between December and February.
- Reef-safe sunscreen. Thailand bans four compounds in marine national parks (oxybenzone, octinoxate, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor and butylparaben) with fines up to ฿100,000. Rangers hold confiscated bottles until you leave. Hard to buy locally, so bring it.
- A dry bag. Every island transfer involves wading to or from a longtail boat.
- Trainers with grip for the Railay viewpoint and the Khao Sok jungle walk.
- Your motorcycle licence or international permit, if there is any chance you will rent a scooter.
- Cash in small notes. Islands run on cash, and Thai ATMs now charge foreign cards ฿250 a withdrawal on Visa and ฿350 on Mastercard. AEON is the exception at ฿150. Take out large amounts rarely.