Early in my career as a travel journalist, I avoided Thailand, thinking naively, “It’s already been done.” Instead, I went to Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore. I built a home in Indonesia. Eventually, I wised up.
Now I seek opportunities to visit Thailand regularly from my home in Bali, because even with the surge of White Lotus fans to Koh Samui and Phuket, and with Bangkok claiming three of the planet’s top seven hotels on the 2025 World’s 50 Best Hotels list, many of Thailand’s 77 provinces remain off international travelers’ radar.
Some incorrectly assume that Thailand is synonymous with full moon–partying backpackers, over-the-top resorts, crowded beaches, and tourist-thronged temples. In reality, there’s a collective desire among Thais I’ve spoken to across the country for travelers to discover what their homeland is truly about: diverse cultures, a symphony of food, remarkable landscapes, mountainscapes and seascapes, and mind-boggling artisanship and architecture.
Smiling Albino travel company founder Dan Fraser, a Bangkok resident for 26 years, emphasizes the thrill of going off the grid in the country. “You get that high adrenaline rush feeling that you’re one of the first [travelers] to ever walk this trail or bike that route or hang out in this little curry shop in a riverside fishing village,” he says. “Thailand has that kind of opportunity in spades—it’s around every corner, even in Bangkok.”
This seems especially true during shoulder seasons (May to July and October to November), as crowds peak in December and January. Here are some tips to get off the beaten path in Thailand and make your trip—whether it’s your first or fifth—more dynamic, intimate, and indelible.
Beat the crowds in Bangkok by visiting must-see sites at unusual hours.
Photo by Daniel Pelaez Duque/Unsplash (L); photo by Polina Kuzovkova/Unsplash (R)
Visit Thailand’s “greatest hits,” then veer off course
Thailand’s famous temples and beaches have earned their reputations. You should visit them, but do so strategically and without letting them dominate your plans.
Take a tuk-tuk, a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, which Cape & Kantary Hotels’ co-owner and project development manager Tirawan “Waew” Taechaubol calls an “essential experience,” though she advises against traveling exclusively by it. Taechaubol also recommends visiting the Emerald Buddha and Grand Palace in Bangkok early in the morning or just before the complex closes. After, wend your way through tiny canals such as the Bangkok Noi khlong (canal) on a private longtail boat, pausing at smaller temples and local art studios.
In Chiang Mai, skip elephant riding. Instead, hire operator Collette to arrange a visit to ChangChill in the Mae Win district. The ethical sanctuary’s elephant interactions are at a respectful distance and go deeper than photo ops, with the chance to discuss the elephant trade with the resident mahout (keeper).
Visit somewhere you’ve never heard of
If a destination’s name is unfamiliar, you’ll find far fewer visitors from overseas. Koh Yao Noi, an 18-square-mile island between Phuket and Krabi, with one petrol station and one doctor, is “like Phuket 20 years ago,” Taechaubol says.
“You can scooter around the island, leave your key in [the ignition], and still find it in the morning,” she says. “The restaurants are really small, really local, and no fuss.” Expect to eat island-grown rice and seafood purchased directly from fishermen each morning.
Koh Yao Noi attracts “more adventurous and more open-minded” travelers, Taechaubol adds. Her family’s boutique Cape Kudu Hotel has 56 rooms and privileged yet affordable access to island hopping in Ao Phang Nga National Park: About $75 will get you three to four hours on a private longtail boat that explores far from the tourist throngs that descend on more famous beaches. “It’s like Capri: The majority of the people [visiting] from Phuket have left at 4 p.m., so you have the island to yourself, and it’s completely different,” she says.
Hotels catering to Thai travelers, like Boklua View Resort, can help travelers escape well-worn tourist trails.
Courtesy of BoKlua View Resort
Trade five-star hotels for family-run guesthouses
Thailand’s abundance of luxury hotels can keep you tethered to well-worn paths. Instead, venture farther afield to find guesthouses and small hotels catering to Thai travelers. These two- and three-star spots can put you in quieter, less-crowded locations.
I fell in love with Thanyamundra Organic Resort, a three-star, six-suite boutique hotel bordering Khao Sok National Park. The hotel has a 50-meter pool, an organic farm, and some of the best Thai food I’ve eaten, including crunchy tamarind shrimp. It’s surrounded by dense rainforest and pinned in by jagged limestone mountains. Since there’s no resort spa, the hotel arranged for a local masseuse to come to my room for an hour-long Thai massage in bed for $18.
Fraser recommends taking a rural country bus to a simple guesthouse. “Immerse yourself and connect with the place,” he says. “Walk the trails, watch the farmers, hire a bicycle or motorcycle, and explore.”
A good tip is to balance several days of independently owned accommodations with a night or two in a more opulent setting. On previous trips, I’ve soaked up the ultraregional atmosphere of Nan Seasons Boutique Resort—where my teak bungalow had a built-in paddy-view hammock—and Boklua View Resort, perched on a bucolic hillside beside a burbling brook, before slipping into Egyptian cotton bedding at Capella Bangkok.
Engage an experienced travel operator, but also ask a local
When I wanted to get off the tourist trail, I looked to the bespoke UK travel company Red Savannah to create an itinerary through Nan province, a place I wouldn’t have known about or known how to tackle, especially with my 20-month-old daughter in tow. Upon arrival, we met Sanee Jaurueng, our ultra-knowledgeable tour guide (and toddler whisperer) who fulfilled the mission with flexibility and positivity. Experts like Jaurueng know exactly when to visit destinations to avoid crowds.
It’s worth noting that some of the smallest, most intriguing Thai villages, such as Doi Mae Salong in Chiang Rai province near the Myanmar border, are difficult to navigate independently. Operators such as Red Savannah or Smiling Albino act as coordinator, sherpa, and safety net, leading guests into remote 10,000-foot highlands to see semi-nomadic hill tribes or up to a 200-year-old Muslim fishing community on the northern tip of Phuket to plant seagrass and learn about mangrove preservation. Much of this is nearly impossible to discover and implement from internet research alone.
But Taechaubol also advises a grassroots approach. “You have to talk to the residents,” she stresses, and not just the hotel concierge who may “sometimes think of guests as something they have to protect.”
Instead, talk to a chef or a server. Use a translation app and ask them to write down (and pin in Google Maps) some other restaurant recommendations along with particular dishes to order. You can show the note at the eatery.
Nan’s temples, mountains, and local communities help preserve northern Thailand’s rich cultural heritage.
Photo by amnat30/Shutterstock
Go north—but not only to Chiang Mai
People associate northern Thailand with Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, but many provinces around them encompass the country’s most diverse indigenous cultures as well as beautiful rice paddies, wooden homes, and windy mountain roads.
The northeast region of Isan is a great example. “It’s the heartland of food and culture,” says Fraser. “It’s so off the grid.” Within it, Loei province has mountains and caves, temples, historic communities, the Mekong River, and a nearby airport.
Phayao province is sublime for cycling or motorcycling with “double the wow factor” of the French Alps or Dolomites, Fraser says, while nearby Phrae has well-run, three-star boutique properties plus coffee plantations, temples, and rice terraces. In the Mae Sariang district of Mae Hong Son province, travelers can visit four main monasteries and sail by riverboat on the Salawin River that divides Myanmar and Thailand.
When I traveled through Nan province, we visited vivid Buddhist temples, gave alms to monks, and devoured northern curries, nam prick ong chili-pork dip, and sticky purple rice. We perused a riverside art gallery, watched traditional loom weaving, and wandered through rice fields. A dedicated driver and our guide, Jaurueng, were with us throughout, but Fraser says intrepid travelers can safely rent a car and go it alone.
Get lost in Bangkok’s Old Town to discover smaller temples off the beaten track.
Photo by Polina Kuzovkova/Unsplash
Get intentionally lost in Bangkok
In Bangkok, arm yourself with a translation app, an open mind, and the aim of getting lost. The city is seriously large, but pre–Google Maps and iPhones, Fraser used to explore it using city buses bound for anywhere. “Finding your way back is always fun,” he says.
He recommends starting in the city’s Old Town or riverside villages and “getting intentionally lost in the alleyways, communities, little schools, Chinese shrines, and old churches. You will get a real appreciation for the cultural and historical diversity of the city, but you’ll also very quickly realize you’re only 100 yards off the main drag.”
After 40 years in the city, Taechaubol says she still finds new discoveries, whether on up-and-coming Song Wat Road with its Thai food, coffee shops and galleries, or in the River City part of Charoenkrung, near ATT 19 and community arts space Warehouse 30. Her favorite city attraction is the National Museum of Royal Barges, where few tourists venture.
Night markets across northern Thailand keep the tradition of khantoke communal dining alive, serving regional dishes you won’t find anywhere else.
Photo by 2p2play/Shutterstock (L); photo by Em7/Shutterstock
Skip hotel restaurants for night markets
Thai food is incredibly diverse, so focus on trying local specialties rather than what you already know. Authenticity is possible at a hotel—I’ve eaten hyper-regionally specific dishes at chef Kanikka Jitsangworn’s Phra Nakhon at Capella Bangkok— but as Taechaubol says, “Go out. Don’t always eat at the hotel.”
There’s no better way to feel temporarily part of the community than by sitting on the ground around a circular khantoke bamboo pedestal tray and tucking into a fragrant array of sweet soya pork ribs, steaming coconut pancakes filled with sweet corn, and sai oua northern-style sausage whose medley of bright spices lit up my palate at a night market in the city of Nan. These outdoor food events happen every night in towns and cities across northern Thailand.
It was a heartwarming evening amid hundreds of families, happily crowded around their own feasts between two gleaming temples under a crescent moon. A local father and daughter sang regional folk songs as my daughter twirled, made sticky rice balls she popped into her mouth with delight, and sampled a fried whole frog.
