Bangkok is flat, and many neighborhoods are straightforward to navigate on foot. The most iconic and fun way to see Thailand is by tuk-tuk. These colorful, open-air, three-wheeled vehicles can hold up to three passengers and give you a unique view of passing traffic. They also do not have air-conditioning and are open to the elements, like rain or heat. For climate-controlled, safer rides, you can take one Thailand’s iconic, bright-pink taxis. Both tuks and taxis are easily hailed on most street corners. Grab is the nation’s rideshare APP, and it’s also widely available.
For tuk-tuks, be prepared to haggle gently over the price. If you are clearly not Thai, some drivers will wildly inflate the first offered price. Be careful you don’t get scammed.
Taxis have meters, but some drivers still prefer to agree upon a price first and forgo the meter. The choice is yours on agreeing to this. The airport taxis taking you into town are on a set-price system and you queue for these right outside the airport baggage claim.
The river in Bangkok is certainly your friend when avoiding heavy traffic. You can hop on a public water taxi at most of the marked ferry piers. It’s about 3 baht to simply cross the river to the other bank, but for longer rides up or down the river, it will be more, more depending on where you want to stop. You pay in advance at the pier desks.
Finally, you can take the Skytrain, known affectionately as The BTS. It’s on raised track over the busy streets––some stations have elevators to get up top, others have escalators, and some only stairs. The sky trains are air-conditioned and very clean and arrive at the stations about every 5 to 10 minutes. You can purchase single or one-day tickets at the machines or the staffed booths in the stations. Expect to pay around $1 to go four or five stops. The maps and the routes are easy to understand and the ticket machines use touchscreen technology and offer a range of languages.
Outside of the capital, you can take trains from city to city, fly to many airports on a number of flight carriers, and use the country’s large ferries to change islands.
