30 Thai Province Guides

Phitsanulok is a significant historical city in lower northern Thailand, birthplace of King Naresuan the Great (one of Thailand's most celebrated monarchs who expelled Burmese rule…

Uttaradit is a quiet, unhurried northern province that few foreign visitors reach, which is much of its appeal. The province is famous as the birthplace of King Taksin — the genera…

Nan is one of northern Thailand's most rewarding and least-visited provinces — a river valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, with an old city that has barely changed in de…

Lampang is northern Thailand's second-largest city and one of its most charming — a prosperous market town with Burmese-Shan architectural heritage, handsome teak houses, and the o…

Lamphun is Thailand's smallest province by area and one of its oldest cities — the capital of the ancient Haripunchai kingdom, which predated the founding of Chiang Mai by several …

Mae Hong Son is Thailand's most mountainous province and most isolated — a narrow strip of highland valleys along the Myanmar border where 90% of the population belongs to ethnic m…

Phrae is one of Thailand's least-visited northern provinces and one of its most rewarding for travellers who seek authentic Thai provincial life off the tourist circuit. The city h…

Tak is a large, forested province in western Thailand along the Myanmar border, bisected by the Ping River and containing some of the country's most significant historical and natu…

Phayao is a quiet, often-overlooked northern province built around Kwan Phayao, the largest freshwater lake in northern Thailand. The town itself wraps along the lakeshore beneath …

Uthai Thani is a small, riverside province on the western edge of the central plains, where the lowlands rise into the forested ranges along the Myanmar border. Its main draw is Hu…

Kamphaeng Phet, whose name means 'Diamond Wall', is a historic province on the upper central plains that once formed a fortified outpost of the Sukhothai Kingdom. Its old city, wit…

Phichit is a small, agricultural province on the upper central plains, sandwiched between Phitsanulok and Nakhon Sawan along the Nan River. It's best known in Thai folklore for the…

Phetchabun straddles the upper central plains and the lower northern highlands, giving it a cool-season climate that draws Thai weekenders to its mountain resorts. Khao Kho's ridge…

Chiang Mai, the old capital of the Lanna kingdom founded in 1296, is northern Thailand's cultural and economic heart and the country's second city by influence if not population. T…

Chiang Rai is Thailand's northernmost province, sharing borders with Myanmar and Laos and meeting them at the famous Golden Triangle on the Mekong. The provincial capital is a rela…

Sukhothai, meaning 'dawn of happiness', was the seat of the first major Thai kingdom in the 13th and 14th centuries and is widely seen as the cultural cradle of the country. Sukhot…

Prachuap Khiri Khan is a long, narrow coastal province that forms the southern extension of the Gulf of Thailand's western shore. Hua Hin sits in the northern part of the province …

Phetchaburi (often written Phetburi) is one of Thailand's oldest and most culturally rich provinces, an hour south of Bangkok and rarely given the attention it deserves. The provin…

Nakhon Pathom claims the title of Thailand's oldest city, and its central landmark — the Phra Pathom Chedi — is the world's tallest Buddhist stupa at 127 metres, visible for kilome…

Samut Prakan lies at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River where it meets the Gulf of Thailand, and is effectively Bangkok's southeastern urban extension. The province is best known f…

Nonthaburi is Bangkok's immediate northern neighbour, connected by the Chao Phraya River and the MRT Purple Line which links Nonthaburi to Bang Sue Grand Station. The province is p…

Pathum Thani ('Lotus City') is a riverine province immediately north of Nonthaburi and Bangkok, and is primarily known as home to Thailand's science and technology corridor, major …

Lopburi is one of Thailand's most historically layered cities — it has been continuously inhabited since the Dvaravati period (6th century), was a major Khmer provincial capital, a…

Nakhon Sawan — 'City of Heaven' — sits at the confluence of the Ping, Wang, and Yom rivers, which merge here to form the Chao Phraya River that flows all the way to Bangkok. This c…

Saraburi is a central province best known for two things: it is Thailand's most important centre for Buddhist pilgrimage at Phra Phutthabat (the Footprint of the Buddha shrine) — w…

Sing Buri is one of Thailand's smallest provinces and one of the most overlooked — a quiet agricultural region along the Chao Phraya River between Ang Thong and Lopburi. The provin…

Ang Thong is one of Thailand's smallest and flattest provinces — a fertile agricultural delta between the Chao Phraya and Noi rivers, known for rice farming, fruit orchards, and tr…

Chai Nat is a quiet central province at the point where the Chao Phraya River branches into its main delta distributaries, making it a critical node in Thailand's central irrigatio…

Samut Songkhram is Thailand's smallest province by area, a tidal landscape of coconut groves, shrimp farms, and canals where the Mae Klong River meets the Gulf of Thailand. Less th…

Samut Sakhon, locally known as Mahachai, is a busy coastal province just southwest of Bangkok at the mouth of the Tha Chin River. It's one of Thailand's largest seafood processing …

Suphan Buri is a historic central-plains province roughly 100 km northwest of Bangkok, long associated with Thai rice farming, folk music, and the 16th-century Battle of Nong Sarai…

Ratchaburi (meaning 'royal city') lies about 100 km west of Bangkok at the edge of the central plains, where rice paddies give way to limestone hills along the Myanmar border. The …

Nakhon Nayok is a small, green province about 100 km northeast of Bangkok at the southwestern foot of the Sankamphaeng Range, on the doorstep of Khao Yai National Park. It's a favo…

Prachin Buri sits on the eastern edge of the central plains, about 130 km from Bangkok, where the land begins to rise toward Khao Yai and the Sankamphaeng Range. The province is fa…

Sa Kaeo is Thailand's easternmost central-region province, sharing a long border with Cambodia and home to the busy Aranyaprathet–Poipet land crossing. Created in 1993 from the eas…

Chachoengsao, often shortened to Paet Riu, lies along the Bang Pakong River about 80 km east of Bangkok and is best known to Thais as a province of major temple pilgrimages. Wat So…

Kanchanaburi spreads west from the central plains into mountainous forest along the Myanmar border, combining wartime history with some of Thailand's most accessible national-park …

Chanthaburi lies on Thailand's eastern seaboard between Rayong and Trat, with a fertile interior of orchards backing onto the Cardamom foothills and a short coastline of quiet beac…

Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, usually shortened to Ayutthaya, surrounds the former Siamese capital that ruled much of mainland Southeast Asia from 1351 until its sack by Burmese forces…

Chonburi province encompasses Pattaya and the broader Eastern Seaboard region — Thailand's industrial powerhouse and one of its most visited coastal areas. Beyond Pattaya (covered …

Rayong is the fruit province of eastern Thailand — home to the famous Rayong durian, mangosteen, and rambutan orchards that ripen each May and June. But the province also contains …

Trat is Thailand's easternmost coastal province, bordering Cambodia and containing the Koh Chang archipelago — one of the country's largest island groups and the gateway to the les…

Surat Thani is the gateway province to the Gulf of Thailand islands — Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao all lie within its waters, and most travellers pass through without stoppi…

Nakhon Si Thammarat is one of southern Thailand's oldest and most historically significant cities, home to Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan — a revered temple with a 77-metre chedi …

Songkhla province is home to Hat Yai — the commercial capital of southern Thailand and a major hub for travellers heading to or from Malaysia. The province also contains the twin-s…

Trang is a relaxed and authentic province on Thailand's Andaman coast that remains significantly less visited than its neighbours Krabi and Phuket. The province has some of the mos…

Phang Nga province contains some of the most dramatic landscapes in Southeast Asia. Phang Nga Bay — a UNESCO-tentative site — is filled with over 40 limestone karst islands rising …

Ranong is Thailand's wettest province — receiving over 4,500 mm of rainfall annually — and one of its least visited. This rainfall sustains extraordinary biodiversity: Kaeng Kracha…

Chumphon sits at the narrow neck of the Thai peninsula where the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman coasts nearly converge, making it a genuine crossroads province. For travellers, it is…

Satun is Thailand's southernmost Andaman province, tucked against the Malaysian border and best known internationally as the gateway to Koh Lipe and Tarutao National Marine Park. T…

Phatthalung sits on the western shore of Songkhla Lake — Thailand's largest natural lake — between forested ranges and the sea-like inland waters. The province is rural and predomi…

Krabi is one of Thailand's signature Andaman provinces, a peninsula of limestone karsts, mangrove estuaries, and turquoise bays facing Phuket across Phang Nga Bay. It's the launchi…

Phuket is Thailand's largest island and a province in its own right, connected to the southern mainland by the Sarasin Bridge across a narrow strait. Its west coast strings togethe…

Yala is one of Thailand's three Malay-Muslim majority deep-south provinces and has been affected by an ongoing separatist insurgency since 2004 that has caused thousands of deaths …

Pattani is the historic heart of the old Malay sultanate of Patani and one of Thailand's three Malay-Muslim majority deep-south provinces. Like neighbouring Yala and Narathiwat, it…

Narathiwat is the southernmost of Thailand's deep-south provinces, sharing a long border with the Malaysian states of Kelantan and Perak. Like Yala and Pattani, it has been affecte…