Planning a Trip to Thailand

Getting ready, before going

Before travelling to Thailand you should check if you need a visa. Spanish and EU citizens can enter without a visa for 30 days, only for tourism. This changed from 60 days on 15 September 2026. For other nationalities, you should check your embassy’s website. Your passport must be valid for at least 6 months. Since May 2025, you also need the Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC). It is free and you should fill it in online up to 72 hours before your flight (https://tdac.immigration.go.th).

Other important thing to know about is the monsoon season and which areas are best to visit depending of the weather. Thailand is a large country and every coast has his own climate. In Thailand: Weather & when to go – SelectiveAsia it’s explained when and which areas are more appropriate to go depending on weather/month. Besides, you may keep the celebrations of Thailand in mind to plan the trip.

A big question is the transport, How do I arrive to that place and how much is it? You don’t worry, get moving in Thailand is easy. There are many options to get around Thailand: airplane, bus, vans, even train. You can get anywhere easily and prices are not exorbitant with some exceptions.

For this trip I recommend you install an offline maps application. MAPS.ME was sold in 2020 and now pushes a paid version. Organic Maps is its free continuation and works the same way. You can use offline maps and import your own GPX or KML file. OsmAnd is still free too.

Finally, the language. This country is very used to tourism. In hotels, restaurants and transport stations people have a basic level of english at least. However, if you go to a not touristic place better make a note with the address and name of that place in case you need to ask someone.

Things to do in Thailand

Thailand, a country with incredible temples, white sand beaches, lush forests, people always smiling and a gastronomy which won’t leave you indifferent. As you can see, there are many things to enjoy the country.

I suggest you to visit, not only essential spots like the most of tourist places, but also special and unique locations. To find locations like those I recommend you a good guide, for example: Thailand Travel Guide – Lonely Planet.

Besides the temples and cities, you can explore some national parks. You can find information about each park here. To book accommodation, use the first link below. You should buy entrance tickets in advance at the second link or with the QueQ app.
https://www.dnp.go.th/parkreserve/reservation
https://e-ticket.dnp.go.th/

Another very important thing is doing responsible tourism. In these web links The dark side of animal tourism in Thailand – Telegraph and Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand you can read about bad practices of the tourism with animals. You should know which activities or shows you must avoid. There are also some sanctuaries of elephants in Thailand where you can have fun and they won’t disappoint you.

Boon Lotts Elephant Sanctuary (BLES) (Sukhothai)
Elephant Refuge & Education Center (Phetchaburi)
Elephant’s World (Kanchanaburi)
Elephant Nature Park (Chiang Mai)

If you like cooking I have one more activity for you: thai cooking classes.

🔗 Other interesting links to plan your tailored trip to Thailand are:

Official Website of Tourism in Thailand
Unesco – World Heritage List in Thailand
Thai Food – Wikipedia

My Route – two weeks in Thailand

From March 18th to April 3rd 2016, if I remove the flights we had 14 useful days. The sunrise and the nightfall were at 6.30 AM/PM. We visited these places:

Bangkok
Mae Klong and Amphawa markets – Floating Markets – Bangkok
Ayutthaya – Historic City of Ayutthaya
Sukhothai – Sukhothai Historical Park | The Dawn of Happiness
Koh Samui – Snorkel in Koh Tao.
Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park – Spend a few days on a deserted island! – Ko Wua Talap
Khao Sok – Khao Sok National Park | Get deep into the jungle!
Railay – 2 days in Railay | Climbing and beautiful beaches

You can see the complete itinerary in the post: Itinerary 2 weeks in Thailand.

These were the places which I chose for my adventure of almost 14 days. You can see each part of my itinerary with more details in next posts I will publish soon. I missed a visit to the north area of Thailand, essential places like Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai are pending for us. If you can, visit them!

My itinerary on Google Maps

On this map, you can check the accommodations we chose, a few restaurants and the cities where we went, transports between cities, etc.

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