Hola! Bangkok doesn’t slowly introduce itself. It just throws itself at you. Noise, colour, heat, traffic, and food smells you can’t quite identify — and somehow, you instantly want more of it.
Three days in Thailand’s capital with two kids, a golf buggy, a sleeping taxi driver, and BBQ crocodile on a stick. Here’s how it went.
🛺 Day 1 — Ancient City (Muang Boran) & a Taxi to Remember
We decided to get a taxi out to the Ancient City (Muang Boran / Siam Ancient City Resort) on our first morning — about a 47-minute drive for just under £8. A reasonable deal. Less reasonable: our driver appeared to be falling asleep at the wheel. We nudged him a couple of times. We arrived.
What greeted us was genuinely spectacular. The Ancient City is an enormous open-air museum containing full-scale replicas of Thailand’s most famous temples, palaces, and historic structures — spread across a site so vast that you really do need transport to get around it. Enter: the golf buggy.
We hired one for the day. Amaya got in free due to her age, and the total cost for the family — including buggy hire — came to around £54. The first hour of golf buggy hire is included, then it’s 200 Thai Baht per additional hour. Jem took the wheel. We didn’t discuss this. She was simply placed in the driving seat.
The result was an absolutely brilliant day. Standing in front of a full-scale palace replica you’d normally need to travel days to reach, watching the kids treat it all like a storybook come to life — it’s genuinely one of the most fun things we’ve done as a family. Every corner revealed something new, and all before lunch.
We stopped at the Pavilion One Restaurant inside the complex for a Thai Chinese buffet — a good, easy option right there on site.
Highly recommended. Honestly might be our favourite day of the whole Bangkok trip.
👑 Day 2 — Grand Palace, River Taxi & Chinatown (+ an Honest Opinion)
Day two began with the Grand Palace — Bangkok’s most famous landmark, and arguably its most crowded.
The entry and queuing experience was chaotic: tiny lines, people shouting, everyone jostling at once. Once you’re through and inside, it does open up — and when it does, it’s stunning. The murals, the gold, the intricate detail everywhere. The gold especially. Shiny gold. Polished gold. So much gold that the sunlight starts to feel gold. It’s extraordinary architecture.
Here comes the honest opinion, though — and Callum fully acknowledges this might be controversial:
If you’ve already been to the Ancient City, you’ve seen replicas of most of this. And somehow, that does take the edge off. The Grand Palace costs around $35 per person. The Ancient City costs significantly less and gives you Thailand in miniature, temples and palaces included. So if you’re choosing between the two — and you can only do one — Callum votes Ancient City. You can make your own call.
After the palace, we were swept down to the Chao Phraya and onto the river taxi — and that changed the energy completely. The river sorts everything out. Temples, skyscrapers, old boats, new boats, neighbourhoods drifting past — all of it moving together at a pace that somehow feels completely natural. We love river transport, and the Chao Phraya is one of the best.
We got off at Ratchawong Pier for Chinatown. It started quietly — soft colours, calm streets — and then we turned a corner and it was all happening at once. Colours, noise, market stalls, the full Chinatown chaos you’d hoped for.
Tucked down a tiny alley, we found a restaurant we would never have spotted without that one curious turn. Small, local, excellent. Those are the moments that make wandering worthwhile.
Then, as the evening settled in: Khao San Road.
BBQ crocodile. Spiders on sticks. Scorpions on sticks. Street performers. Market stalls. Bars competing to play the loudest music simultaneously. It’s chaotic, colourful, overwhelming, and completely unforgettable — all at once. After a long day exploring the city, this was both the perfect ending and exactly enough. We soaked it in, and then we went home to bed.
🌳 Day 3 — A Slow Day (We All Needed It)
Day three arrived and every single one of us was exhausted. Bangkok is a lot.
We opted for a gentle final day — a wander to the Children’s Discovery Museum, which turned out to be brilliant: basically a giant playground disguised as education, packed with things for the kids to do. And crucially on a roasting Bangkok day: free entry, with air conditioning. A genuine result.
Next door, the Botanical Gardens — also free, unless you’re parking a car. Beautiful, peaceful, and the perfect slow-paced contrast to everything else the city had thrown at us. Just what we needed before packing up for the flight.
One honest note on Bangkok: it’s noticeably more expensive than the rest of Southeast Asia we’ve visited. Vietnam felt remarkably affordable at every turn; Bangkok requires a bit more budget management. Worth knowing before you go.
💰 Bangkok Cost Highlights
| Experience | Cost |
|---|---|
| Taxi to Ancient City (family) | ~£8 |
| Ancient City + golf buggy (family, Amaya free) | ~£54 |
| Grand Palace (per adult) | ~$35 |
| Chao Phraya river taxi | Minimal |
| Children’s Discovery Museum | Free |
| Botanical Gardens | Free |
Next up: Phuket — a slightly more relaxed chapter of life between borders. Probably. We’ll see.
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Have you been to Bangkok? Would you choose the Grand Palace or the Ancient City? We’d genuinely love to know — drop it in the comments. ¡Hasta la próxima! 🌻