It’s an island paradise with cheap food, beautiful beaches and friendly people – and those are just a few of the reasons to love Thailand.
I recently visited Thailand for the first time, and it was completely different than what I expected. Despite massive numbers of tourists, Thailand is completely what you make it. If you are looking for raging all-night parties and cheap drinks, you’ll find it in Thailand. Alternatively, if you’re looking for some peace and quiet on a pristine beach, you’ll also find it in Thailand.
I know many people who have spent a month or more exploring this gorgeous country, but if you’re looking for a shorter vacation, 10 days is the perfect amount of time. At the end of this article, I’ve also added a bonus for 4 extra days, if you choose to go for 2 weeks instead.
Before I get into what all we did, here’s a look at some of the most important things you need to know about traveling to Thailand.
Travel Vaccinations & Avoiding Getting Sick in Thailand
If you’re visiting Thailand or any other Asian countries, you will likely need to brush up on your vaccinations. Check with your doctor or local travel clinic, but for Thailand specifically I needed to get a Typhoid vaccination and a Hepatitis A booster.
To avoid food poisoning or any other food-related illnesses, it’s a good idea to only buy food in Thailand from clean places, which may mean forgoing some of the street food.
Malaria and dengue are also concerns in Thailand, depending on which areas you will be traveling to. For the areas listed in this travel guide, we did not need to take any precautions against malaria, but we did make sure to wear bug repellent at all times to lower the odds of getting dengue (both of these are caused by mosquito bites). I would bring two bottles of bug spray with you from home for 10 days in Thailand, as it is often cheaper (and surprisingly, a stronger formula) when you buy bug spray at home and bring it with you.
Flights to Thailand
We found super cheap flights to Thailand and only paid about $500 USD per person (from the West Coast) for round trip tickets. If you would like to know more about how we almost always find cheap flights, check out my post on how we afford to travel the world.
Without further ado, let’s get into where to go and stay during 10 days in Thailand.
10 Days in Thailand Itinerary: Days 1 & 2 in Bangkok
We started off our trip to Thailand in Bangkok, which is a major city with incredible food and architecture. Bangkok has a little bit of everything, ranging from shopping to Buddhist temples.
Where to Stay in Bangkok Thailand
We stayed in the Hotel Indigo Bangkok Wireless Road, which was absolutely stunning. We loved its central location, affordability, pool view and funky decor. The above photo is from the hotel pool, which offered an incredible view of the Bangkok skyline and was a really nice place to relax at the end of a long day.
Bangkok Shopping
There is literally endless shopping in Bangkok, but if you want everything in once place head to Siam Paragon. This is a mall that is MASSIVE and is packed with everything you could ever want and more, and most of it at ridiculously low prices.
Do keep in mind that Thai salespeople are used to bartering, and if you pay the price they originally ask, you’re probably getting ripped off. We generally bartered for about a minute before agreeing on a price for everything we bought, including in established stores.
Bangkok Temples & The Grand Palace
There are numerous cultural sites in Bangkok, but we headed to Wat Phra Chetuphon, the Grand Palace and Wat Traimit Withayaram Worawihan.
There are more Buddhist temples nearby in Bangkok, so if you want to see more you can also look up Wat Hua Lamphong and Wat Arun, among others.
The Grand Palace is very close to Wat Phra Chetuphon, and we walked from one to the other by foot. You do need to pay admission to the temples and the palace, as well as removing your shoes while going inside buildings. There are some fairly strict rules about behavior while there, but basically just make sure to dress respectfully (covering shoulders and knees) and follow any posted rules while at these locations.
Bangkok Transportation
If you’re wanting to see several sites in Bangkok like the ones listed above, I would recommend taking either a tuk tuk or a taxi. Taxis are pretty self explanatory, but tuk tuks are small open-air carts with a driver. They’re generally cheaper and a good way to see the city while driving, if you don’t mind that they’re kind of crazy and slightly unsafe.
10 Days in Thailand Itinerary: Days 3-5 in Krabi
After spending the first 2 days in Bangkok, we took a short flight to Krabi. This area is much farther south, and it’s a mix of shopping and beach relaxation. While in Krabi, we stayed at the Ava Sea Resort, which was a very cute hotel that was super affordable. We liked that the hotel had a nice breakfast that was included, a good pool and larger rooms.
There are two major tourist activities in the Krabi area, and I have listed both of them below.
Krabi Four Island Tour
One of the main things to do in Krabi is to take a boat tour of the nearby islands, which you can do for a half day or full day. There are also options to just head to one island if you prefer to pick one spot and relax all day. We personally didn’t do this tour because our son wasn’t feeling well, but we wish we had and everyone who did it said it was amazing.
Railay Beach
Railay Beach is connected to the Krabi mainland, but you can’t drive there and it accessible only by longboat. We spent one day at Railay beach and had a great time – it has very pristine water and a large enough beach area that you have room to spread out, despite a lot of tourists. There are also restaurants at Railay beach, so you don’t need to worry about bringing food or drinks.
10 Days in Thailand Itinerary: Days 6-8 Koh Phi Phi
After staying in Krabi, we took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi island, which was without a doubt our favorite place in Thailand. Koh Phi Phi is a smaller island that has white, sandy beaches, great places to eat, amazing snorkeling/diving and very cool boat tours to the surrounding islands.
We stayed in Koh Phi Phi for 2.5 days, and we wish we had stayed for longer. If you’re looking to lengthen any part of your trip, this is definitely a good one to consider.
Koh Phi Phi Hotels
We stayed at the Phi Phi Andaman Resort, and we had a great time there. There is a nice pool, it’s cheap, breakfast is included and the beach is literally steps from the hotel.
What to Do in Koh Phi Phi
Koh Phi Phi has amazing beaches on both sides of the island, so honestly wherever you go, you will probably end up at a gorgeous beach that’s close to tons of restaurants.
Driving isn’t an option on Koh Phi Phi, so plan to walk everywhere by following several paths that wind through the island. There are countless stores and restaurants on the path, and we really liked walking around and getting to see the island.
Koh Phi Phi Island Tour
Similar to Krabi, Koh Phi Phi is known for its day-long boat tours of the surrounding islands. We did a full-day tour on a boat shared with about 10 other people, and we had an absolute blast.
Tours may vary, but the one we went on included stops at Monkey Beach, Pileh Lagoon, Maya Bay and Bamboo Island, among others. There were stops where we could snorkel or swim, and every single place looked like something out of a postcard. Below, I’ve added some of our favorite photos from the boat trip.
10 Days in Thailand Itinerary: Days 9-10 Phuket
If you only have 10 days in Thailand, I would recommend spending the last 2 days in Phuket. The Phuket region has a ton of beautiful views and can be either a party area or a really relaxing spot, depending on where you stay.
We chose to do the major sightseeing during the first 8 days of our trip, and then to relax for the last few days before heading home. We chose to do this because we knew we had an 18-hour flight and would be very tired after traveling, and we wanted to end our trip feeling refreshed instead of exhausted. For those reasons, we chose a resort in Phuket and chilled on the beach and at the pool for our last few days, and they were INCREDIBLE. If you’ve never tried planning a trip this way, I would definitely recommend considering it!
We also chose to save money on the first part of our trip with more affordable hotels, and then to splurge a little at the end. I do want to add that none of these hotels were sponsored; they were just where we chose to stay based on what looked best.
Phuket Hotels
While in Phuket, we stayed at the Phuket Marriot Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beach.
The resort had a massive pool with an ocean view, plus a private beach area where you could lounge all day. It was by far the most modern and extravagant hotel we stayed in during our trip to Thailand, and it was still only around $200 per night. If you’re looking to relax in luxury without majorly breaking the bank, it was a great way to do so.
We stayed at the resort almost the entire time in Phuket, and if you’re looking to relax at the end of the trip, we would recommend doing the same. The resort was also only 10 minutes from the Phuket airport, which is where we flew out of at the end, which was really, really convenient.
If you’re considering staying in Thailand a few additional days, keep reading to hear what we did for days 11-14 of our two weeks in Thailand!
BONUS Thailand 2 Week Itinerary: Days 11-14
While 10 days in Thailand can be long enough, we chose to stay for 2 weeks, and we spent the last few days at a resort off the coast of Phuket on the island of Koh Yao Yai. I will be very honest: there is not a ton to do on the island besides stay at one of the numerous resorts there, but the resorts are REALLY impressive.
Santhiya Koh Yao Yai Resort & Spa
We stayed our last few days at the Santhiya Koh Yao Yai Resort & Spa, which is basically a small village broken up into resort hotel rooms. The style is way more traditional Thai than most larger chains, including wooden details in the rooms, an outdoor bathtub (in addition to a regular indoor shower) and an INSANE ocean view from the room. We honestly didn’t take pictures of the room, but this is the same view, which is shown in the photo below from the restaurant where we ate breakfast every morning. There was also an infinity pool with an ocean view there – basically it’s what instagram dreams are made of.
While I was honestly a little skeptical about what we would do for so many days at a resort, it turned out that there were lots of options. We did a half-day tour of Koh Yao Yai, and there are also half- and full-day boat tours of the nearby islands (similar to what we did in Kho Phi Phi). The pictures below are from another beach on the island (where they filmed the Jason Statham movie “The Mechanic”) that we visited on our half-day tour.
At the resort, there was a massive beach area with activities like paddle boarding and kayaking. There was also a huge pool with a waterfall – honestly it was just insane.
Overall, we had a great time relaxing in Koh Yao Yai for our last few days, and like I mentioned earlier, spending a few days just enjoying the beach in Phuket and Koh Yao Yai helped us feel so much more rested at the end of our trip, rather than the exhaustion that we normally have at the end of vacations.
Have you been to Thailand or are you going soon? If so I would love to hear about your experience or any questions you may have!