Route · About 2 weeks
First Trip
Bangkok, the north and a limestone beach
Three very different places and enough time in each to unpack. You get the capital, the mountains of the north and the limestone coast of the Andaman. Most of the travel is one night train and one flight.
Good for: First visits, or anyone who wants variety without changing hotels every other day.
Stop by stop
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Bangkok Get over the flight, eat well and see the river neighborhoods. Train Sleeper train or flight. Sleeper No. 9 leaves Krung Thep Aphiwat at 18:40 and reaches Chiang Mai at 07:15. Flights save the time if you'd rather skip the night on board.
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Chiang Mai Northern city life, temples and Doi Suthep just outside town. Flight Flight to Krabi. This is too far to do overland. Check for direct flights on your dates, and if there aren't any, connect through Bangkok. Krabi airport is about 15 km from town.
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Railay Cliffs and beaches you can only reach by boat. Stay here for the rest of the trip.
Getting home: Fly home from Krabi, or fly back to Bangkok and spend your last night there if your flight home is a separate ticket.
Our advice: Don't add Pai, Phi Phi and Samui to this. Each one sounds good, but together they turn three proper stays into a string of airport days.
Nights are our suggestion. Transport comes from Wikivoyage and our Thailand by Train guide, checked November 2026. Schedules change, so check before you book.
When to go
The North: best Nov to Jan.
Andaman coast (Phuket, Krabi, Trang, Satun): best Dec to Mar.