Temples in Bangkok: Wat Pho, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace

1. Which temples in Bangkok matter most?

Bangkok has a great many wats, and a visitor with two or three days can see only a few. Start with the three that stand together on the river in the old royal quarter of Rattanakosin.

In 1782 the new king moved his capital to the east bank of the Chao Phraya and built a palace there. Inside its walls he raised the royal chapel, Wat Phra Kaew, and installed the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred image in the country. Wat Pho stands just south of the palace walls. Wat Arun faces both from the Thonburi bank across the water.

They are the most famous temples in the city, and they are busy. They are also working religious places, where Thai families come to make merit, light incense and pray. Go to them as a guest, dressed for a place of prayer and ready to sit quietly for a few minutes in each hall.

2. Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace: what to know before you go

Wat Phra Kaew has no separate ticket. You enter it through the Grand Palace, and in 2026 the palace charged foreign visitors 500 baht. The ticket also covers the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles. Thai visitors enter free, and so do children under 120 cm.

The palace opens at 8:30 and sells tickets until 15:30, so a late start can leave you rushed. Since January 2024 the visitor entrance has been the Mani Noppharat Gate. You can buy tickets at the gate or online up to a month ahead, but online tickets cannot be refunded or moved to another date. An audio guide costs 200 baht and needs a passport or credit card as a deposit.

The Emerald Buddha itself is small, about 66 cm high, and carved from a green stone, usually described as jade or jasper. It sits very high on a gilded throne in the ordination hall, so you look up at it from the floor. Three times a year, at the change of the hot, rainy and cool seasons, the King or a senior royal changes its robes. Shoes come off before the hall, and photographs are not allowed inside it.

One warning. Near the walls you may meet a friendly man, sometimes in a uniform, who tells you the palace is closed this morning for a ceremony and offers a tuk tuk to another temple. The ride usually ends at a gem shop. Check the official website for closures before you leave your hotel, and then walk to the gate yourself.

3. Wat Pho: the Reclining Buddha and a temple of learning

Wat Pho is older than Bangkok, and to our mind it is the more rewarding of the two big temples. The great Reclining Buddha fills its hall, 46 metres long and 15 metres high, showing the Buddha at the moment of passing into final nirvana. Walk to the far end to see the soles of the feet. Each is inlaid with mother of pearl and divided into 108 panels of auspicious symbols.

A corridor in the hall holds 108 bronze bowls, one for each of the auspicious characters of the Buddha. Visitors drop a coin into each bowl as they walk past, for merit. Take your time over it, and let the people praying beside the figure go first.

King Rama III began renovating and enlarging Wat Pho in 1832 and turned it into a place of public learning. He had medicine, history, literature and religious teaching carved onto stone tablets around the courtyards. UNESCO added 1,431 of these inscriptions to its Memory of the World register in 2011. The temple is also known as a home of traditional Thai massage, and it still runs a massage school.

In 2026 Wat Pho charged foreign visitors about 300 baht and opened at about 8:00, staying open until around 18:30. It opens half an hour before the palace. If you only have one morning, go to Wat Pho first, at opening. The Reclining Buddha hall is calmer early, and after it you can wander the back courtyards, where the rows of Buddha images and the tiled chedis are usually quieter.

4. Wat Arun: crossing the river to the Temple of Dawn

Wat Arun is a short walk and a shorter boat ride from Wat Pho. Leave Wat Pho towards the river and head for Tha Tien pier, marked N8 on the Chao Phraya Express Boat map. Small cross-river ferries leave every few minutes and cost a few baht, paid in cash at the pier.

Wat Arun takes its name from Aruna, the Hindu god of the dawn. Before 1785 it housed the Emerald Buddha, until the image moved across the river to the new royal chapel. Its great central prang was planned under Rama II, built under Rama III and finished in 1851. Published heights range from about 67 to 86 metres, depending on where the measurement starts.

Look closely at the tower. It is covered in fragments of coloured porcelain pressed into flowers and patterns. Much of that porcelain came from China on boats that carried it as ballast.

The Wat Arun entrance fee was about 200 baht in 2026, and the temple was open from about 8:00 or 8:30 until 18:00. For the classic view, see the prang from the Bangkok bank in the late afternoon, when it stands dark against the western sky.

Wat Arun is a short walk and a shorter boat ride from Wat Pho.

5. What is the dress code for temples in Bangkok?

The Grand Palace is the strictest, and it is worth dressing for it all day. Its rules ban sleeveless shirts, vests, short or see-through tops, shorts, mini skirts, torn trousers, and tight trousers, leggings and cycling shorts. Long loose trousers or a skirt below the knee, with a shirt that covers your shoulders and upper arms, will pass everywhere.

A clothing check before the ticket office may send you away to change. Shops and stalls outside the palace and Wat Pho sell sarongs and wraps, and Wat Pho sometimes lends shawls for a deposit, but neither is guaranteed. Bring your own light scarf.

You will take your shoes off before every main hall. Wear sandals that slip off easily, and carry a pair of socks, because the stone and tile floors grow hot by midday. Remove hats and sunglasses inside the halls as well.

6. How should you behave inside a Thai temple?

Thai Buddhists treat the feet as the lowest part of the body and the head as the highest, and most temple manners follow from that. When you sit in front of a Buddha image, tuck your feet behind you so the soles point away from the altar. Never point at a monk or an image with your foot. Keep your head lower than the Buddha and lower than any monk, which is why people kneel to pray.

Step over the raised threshold of a hall, not onto it. Do not climb on statues or touch them. The most common offence is the selfie taken with your back to a Buddha image, so if you want a photograph, step to the side and ask first where signs are unclear.

Women should not touch a monk, hand him anything directly or sit beside him. To give something, set it down where he can pick it up, or pass it through a man. For more on visiting sacred places across faiths, see our sacred site etiquette guide.

Early in the morning you may see monks walking the streets on their alms round, called tak bat. Monks on the alms round receive food, not cash, and the round usually ends by about 7:30. A man in robes asking tourists for money later in the day is not part of the custom.

If you want to give, buy simple food from a local stall, wait quietly at the roadside and place it in the bowl. Otherwise watch from a distance and keep your camera low.

7. A one-day plan, and the temples beyond Bangkok

Here is the order we would suggest. Be at Wat Pho at 8:00 and spend an hour and a half there. Walk north to the Grand Palace and queue by about 10:00, giving yourself at least two hours inside. Eat, rest through the hottest hour, and then take the ferry to Wat Arun around 15:30. Cross back before it closes at 18:00 and watch the prang at sunset from the Bangkok bank.

Bangkok is only the start of a temple journey in Thailand. In the north, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep looks down on Chiang Mai from its mountain, and it is worth the journey north on its own. If you would like to travel slowly between Thailand's sacred places, 31° North can arrange a temple-focused journey with guides who know them well.

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