Getting around

Trains

The State Railway of Thailand publishes its own site at railway.co.th and sells public tickets through D-Ticket. The D-Ticket home page shows purchase history, ticket changes, and cancellations, and it prints the hotline 1690. Use that system for rail. A weekend sightseeing train to Kanchanaburi, which TAT mentions, still has to appear in the current timetable. Do not treat a blog’s Saturday departure as a promise.

Official tickets SRT D-Ticket. Thailand Explorer does not add a fee or an affiliate code.

Information State Railway of Thailand.

Flights and airports

Bangkok’s two main airports are not interchangeable. Your ticket names Suvarnabhumi or Don Mueang. Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket, Krabi, and Samui are the regional airports this edition’s routes actually use. Book the flight with the airline or a seller you choose, and read the airport code. This site does not embed a flight search and does not claim a fare.

Boats

Phi Phi, Lanta, Samui, Phangan, Tao, Koh Larn, and Railay all depend on boats. TAT’s Krabi page suggests buying a one-way island ferry when you want the freedom to change the return. That is the habit to copy. Confirm the pier name, the date, and the operator the afternoon before. This edition did not find a single official monopoly that sells every Andaman seat, so there is no “official ferry button” here. If a company cannot show you the pier and the refund rule, do not pay it.

Parks and historical zones

National parks are a different gate from historical parks. A 2023 note on thailand.go.th describes advance booking for national parks in the QueQ app, with walk-up still possible and priority for people who booked. Fees in that 2023 note are not repeated here. Historical parks at Ayutthaya and Sukhothai are Fine Arts Department sites. Their pages are linked from those guides as information. Pay at the gate they name, and ask which zone the ticket covers.

Park queue information thailand.go.th on QueQ. Not a Thailand Explorer checkout.

In cities and on islands

Bangkok distances are the reason a temple list fails. Use boats, urban rail, or a ride you understand. On Samui and the other islands, TAT warns that motorbikes cause serious accidents. Wear a helmet or hire a car. Agree unmetered fares before the wheels move.

If the connection changes

Move the activity, not the safety. A late train deletes the sunset ticket, not the night’s sleep. A cancelled boat deletes the island day and keeps you where the room already is. The itineraries in this edition are built around that order.