3 Days in Bangkok with a Little Luxe: Your Perfect Itinerary

Bangkok is truly one of the greatest cities in the world, and the capital of Thailand has no shortage of options when it comes to fun things to do. World-class cuisine. Beautiful waterways. Amazing temples and historical sites. And an abundance of shopping, dining, and entertainment choices to suit any budget. We recently spent three nights exploring as much as we possibly could. We’ll give you tips on where to stay and what to do based on all the things we loved most about our latest adventure.

Day 1: Enjoy Some Luxury and Check Out Chinatown

Arrive in Bangkok and kick off your adventure with a stay at the luxurious Hotel Riva Arun. One of the things we love about this part of the world is the affordability. In my backpacking days, I was splitting the cost of $25-$50 accommodations with travel partners (and I knew many travelers who spent just $5-$10 on hostel beds). But we’re looking for a bit more comfort and style these days – and we still got great value for our money at this absolutely stunning boutique hotel. If you’re short on time in Bangkok, this hotel will surround you with all the magic you need to truly experience the city.

We arrived in Bangkok in the early afternoon, and the hotel’s staff arranged traditional Thai massages next door for us while we waited for our room. After checking in and taking some jaw-dropping photos of our room, we decided to take a nap to build back a bit of energy to check out the famous Bangkok night markets.

On our first evening we headed straight to Chinatown to try the street food. There are tons of night markets in Bangkok, but we chose this area because it was close to our hotel (but not walking distance) and easy to get to.

Transportation Tip: Grab (which is like Uber) is pretty easy to take around town, and you’ll want to download the app to use all over Southeast Asia. But we had better luck just hiring a tuk-tuk at 7 PM on a Friday – you can flag them down on the street and negotiate a price or ask your hotel to call one for you.

Public transport is also super efficient in Bangkok. To get to Chinatown, you can head to Hua Lamphong MRT station and walk from there to Yaowarat and Charoen Krung Road. If you arrive early enough, you can check out the Golden Buddha at Wat Traimit, too.

Full Disclosure: We hired a local guide for Chinatown. This is a totally unnecessary expense, but we thought it would be great to connect with a local, get some tips, and try some food we wouldn’t otherwise order. This is usually a fantastic experience!

Unfortunately, it was a total fail when the guide sent a last minute replacement who had no idea what they were doing. So, we won’t recommend them here, but booking the guide in advance it did force us up from our nap to combat the intense jetlag – and we did get to try some unique food. I’m only sharing so you know we do have disappoints sometimes, we just generally post about the things we want you to try! And you definitely have to try the street food in Chinatown.

Day 2: Explore the Sights at Leisure

Today is all about exploration. After such a long journey and a full night in Chinatown, it was nice to take a casual stroll through town at leisure. We visited iconic landmarks like the Wat Pho Reclining Buddha – which was right across the street from our hotel – and the Grand Palace. We wandered down the lively Khaosan Road and reminisced along Soi Ram Buttri where I spent most of my time on prior trips.

Next, we hopped on the water taxi near our hotel’s sister property, Riva Surya, where you can also use the pool and gym with a nice view of the Chao Phraya River, which is the massive main waterway that runs through Bangkok.

You can hop off of the water taxi at Wat Arun to explore the complex.

We took the water taxi down to grab lunch at ICONSIAM Mall. We’re not big shoppers but this place is extraordinary and has a huge indoor food market on the bottom floor. We grabbed some delicious cheap eats and then went up to the main floor to have a drink and people watch.

Transportation Tip: The water taxi system was a little confusing, even after it was explained to us. We just wound up taking the hop-on, hop-off Chao Phraya Tourist Boat. It was super convenient, spacious, easy, and fast. But there are cheaper local options.

At night we had some appetizers at our lovely hotel rooftop restaurant and enjoyed the view from our balcony with a bottle of wine.

Day 3: Discover Markets, Waterways, and Thai Cooking

For an unforgettable experience, you must plan a day with Chef Aoy: a strong woman, kind soul, amazing guide through local markets, and lovely host at her beautiful restaurant on a tranquil waterway. She even won Iron Chef Thailand!

Chef Aoy showed us to some beautiful local restaurants and markets, shared the ingredients of the region that make Thai food so unique, took us on a boat ride to her restaurant, and guided us through cooking and experiencing the true flavors of Thailand.

This was a full-day experience of about seven hours round trip – and we enjoyed every minute of it. Even with limited time in Bangkok, we would absolutely choose this off-the-tourist-path, authentic, beautiful experience any day over some of the other options we were considering for our last day in the area.

We really felt like we had a new friend and kindred spirit in Chef Aoy, her lovely staff at her family-run restaurant, and her adorable dogs, too! So special.

If You Have More Time …

There’s so much to do in Bangkok, and three days go by too quickly. You may want to spend a day checking out the floating markets and the famous Maeklong Railway Market, where the train comes through – but we wouldn’t trade our day of casually wandering the city or our more-local experience with Chef Aoy. Next time, we will check out some more night markets, as well as Sukhumvit, an area of the city know for food, nightlife, and shopping (and the party street, Soi 11). For now, we were so happy to spend more time on our balcony admiring Wat Arun and watching the bustling activity on the Chao Phraya River.

Have you been to Bangkok? What are your favorite things to do in the city? Let us know in the comments.

Planning a trip to Southeast Asia? Read our full itinerary here for tips on where to stay and what to do.