Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya was one of my favorite places in Thailand. Would you imagine that it used to be a largest city in the world by 1700 and had 1 million inhabitants, as a second capital of Siam? you can still see some of the old glory of the city, but since 1767 Burmese invasion, it hardly recovered.

The city is inscribed, as UNESCO World Heritage Site. Despite this, it is far less popular and crowded than many of the spots around Thailand and often skipped by the tourists. Still, some of the temples are quite well-known and there are still tour groups visiting, especially during the afternoon. So you will find a lot of people in Wat Sanphet and Wat Mahathat, but many of the other temples around have quite few people. You can easily have a balance of crowded and peaceful sites and even have some of the temples all to yourself.

The best way to avoid the crowds is definitely staying overnight and going to the most popular temples first thing in the morning. Given that the city is normally a day trip destination, you really will easily beat the crowds. But it you, like us, don’t have much time, it’s still nice to go on a day trip from Bangkok.